Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Minato stood at the doorway to the room. Dawn lit it up a soft blue, creeping in through the green curtains Kushina had picked out for their baby. The crib he and Kushina had put together stood empty and unused. 

Minato pressed his forearm against the frame of the door and buried his face in the crook of his arm. He took a long, shuddering breath. 

It had been six and a half years since he’d lost the both of them. Kushina would make fun of him, if he couldn’t even come in here to clean. Some Hokage he was, she’d say. 

He’d stopped hiring genin teams to clean years ago, promising himself he’d either move back into the house he’d planned to start a family in, or else pack it up and sell it. The Hokage residence, where he’d been staying for the past six years, was fine for just him. It wasn’t healthy that he was keeping a whole house as a shrine to his own grief and not even living in it. 

He had packed up most of the other rooms. Some of the furniture– the couch he’d cuddled with Kushina on after long days, the side table she’d painted traditional Uzushio good luck fuinjutsu and some truly ugly frogs on for him– had migrated to his residence. He’d carefully boxed up his favorite possessions of Kushina’s: her decorative hair combs, the cardigan that had been his and she’d stolen, some of her old school supplies that she’d written notes about him on, her favorite bowl for ramen. He’d given away or tossed other things, as much as it had hurt to part with any piece of his once happy life. 

He would never not miss Kushina. But he could process her loss. They’d known this was a risk. They’d grown up during war; they’d known either of them dying young was always a risk. She’d been an adult making her own choices. 

He had no idea how he was meant to ever be okay after holding his infant son’s body. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to remove anything from Naruto’s room. 

Naruto’s room that he'd never even gotten to sleep in and never would.

Minato could barely bring himself to enter it, duster in hand. 

It took him a few hours to clean the house, and he arrived to his office late. No one said anything. You didn’t complain to the Hokage’s face. 

He preferred dealing with the house in the mornings, when he could. Work was a good distraction afterwards, to keep him moving forward. Even if he’d utterly failed his own tiny family, he hadn’t failed Konoha yet. He went through his meetings as normal, read through new budget plans, approved suggested teams for missions. He listened to a borderline hysterical potential client describe problems with bandits in her village, and when his quote for a ninja team made her burst into tears, gently nudged applications to petition the daimyo for financial assistance at her. He smiled his best smile. She calmed down. 

(Minato wasn’t going to not help her. But he also wasn’t going to give out free labor if he could make someone pay.)

His last meeting of the day was briefing a team of genin on their first ever out-of-village mission. He couldn’t personally do the briefing on every mission, but he tried to for the important milestones. 

The genin were so tiny, and all fidgety with nerves. He thought about his own genin team and… no, that was a bad train of thought when he was meant to be presenting happy news with a smile. 

Naruto will never get this, he thought instead, and his breath hitched awkwardly in the middle of describing the trade road they were meant to be clearing of rubble after a bad storm. 

“You can request specialized equipment for the quartermaster,” he rushed to continue. If they noticed anything was off, they didn’t show it. “Your chances of meeting other ninja or bandits in that area is very low, but remember that mother nature is often more dangerous than either.” 

The genin seemed excited about their mission when they left. Minato still felt like he’d botched his speech a little. He was proud that he’d gotten Konoha to the point that new genin could be eased into missions with simple, nonviolent ones like this. But he could still do better. He h ad to do better, to make the Konoha he’d wanted Naruto to grow up in. 

I need to clear my mind, he decided, and then did what he always did when he needed to clear his mind. He went to his favorite training ground, hidden right around the back of the Forest of Death, and threw around some kunai. 

He’d come up with some ideas to modify his Hiraishin marker a while ago and marked up some prototypes, but not had the spare time to really practice them. 

He took a kunai with his new modification, tossed it into the branches of a tree, concentrated…

…and then made the roughest landing he’d done in years in the boughs of the tree. 

So that had the opposite effect of making it smoother, he thought, dislodging the kunai for the tree’s bark. Unless the problem was him, and not the marker…?

He tried another prototype a couple times, and then the third. He thought these were both improvements. He retried the first one just to be sure the results were replicable… 

…and then found himself in entirely the wrong place.

xXx

The problem with Hiraishin accidents was that they tended to be… strange. Most jutsu accidents ended with an explosion or a blade slipping or something like that. Hiraishin accidents ended with you standing in random places, sometimes with random pieces of clothing missing. 

Minato was a little surprised to end up in a park, but not immediately worried. He was still in Konoha, and all of his clothes were in place. The interesting part was that when he tried his experiment, it had been 6 PM at the height of summer. The sun had still been out and blazing. Now it was dark and markedly cold. 

He was in a park near the outskirts of the village. Hokage monument loomed in the distance. 

Minato blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to the dark. This end of the park had a playground for children. It had several street lamps, but half of them were out. He was currently standing next to a slide, which was covered in graffiti. These details seemed odd to him, as he’d been an advocate for Konoha’s park maintenance. Konoha sinking all their funding and manpower into the Third Shinobi War meant Minato had grown up playing on rusty and half-broken equipment, and he’d promised his unborn son that he’d have nicer places to play. 

Minato was never going to get to be a father, and he saw this as all the more reason to support infrastructure changes to improve the village for families that did have children. He owed it to baby Naruto. 

Ah, well. This park was pretty far out. Maybe it was somehow getting missed. Minato mentally filed the problem away to address after he’d figured out if he’d… blacked out for a while, or whatever had just happened. 

There was one other presence in the whole park, a little kid was playing in a sandbox. Minato wondered where the kid’s parents were, this late at night. 

Minato approached the kid, making sure to make enough noise to be noticed. The kid froze in the middle of making some sort of… sand pile… and looked up at Minato with suspicious eyes. 

“What?” the kid demanded. He had light colored hair sticking out from under a knit hat. He scowled at Minato very seriously, which was adorably hilarious on such a young face. “What do you want?”

He must not recognize me, Minato decided, amused. It was dark, and the kid was pretty young. It was normal for him not to recognize the Hokage. 

Minato squatted at the edge of the sandbox, resting his hands on his knees so the kid could see them. There were random patches of grass in the sand. The kid puffed himself up, his scowl still in place. 

“Hey, kid,” Minato said. “I need some help. Can you answer some questions for me?”

“What questions?” the kid asked. “I’m allowed to be here, you know!”

Minato felt his stomach tighten slightly at the wording. It was so close to how Kushina used to talk, and this kid was about the age Naruto would be… 

Get a grip, Namikaze, Minato thought. This type of distraction was why he’d screwed up the Hiraishin to begin with. He needed to focus. Lots of people probably happened to speak like Kushina. 

“Actually, the park is closed after dark,” Minato said gently, and the kid looked scandalized. It was very cute, and Minato nearly laughed. Minato winked. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. After all, I’m here after closing too, aren’t I?”

The kid relaxed into a pout. He eyed Minato up and down, and Minato tried to look as friendly and unthreatening as possible. 

“You’re a ninja!” the kid finally said, visibly brightening. “You have a hitai-ate!”

He pointed. Minato grinned. 

“Sure am,” he agreed. 

“Then why do you need help from me?” the kid asked, eyes wide. 

At this point, it would have indeed been faster and more efficient to just teleport back to his office and ask an adult what happened. But this kid was very cute, and Minato liked talking to the youth of Konoha. 

“I had a jutsu accident,” Minato said, very seriously. The kid’s eyes basically bulged out of his head. Adorable. “I’m afraid to tell any other ninja, in case they make fun of me. But you won’t make fun of me, will you?”

The kid got so excited he actually ended up on his feet, waving his arms intensely. Sand flew everywhere. 

“No way!” the kid yelled. “Everyone makes mistakes, you know! That’s what the old man says whenever I mess up, and I mess up a lot! I don’t like when people make fun of me! So I won’t make fun of you, and if the other ninja make fun of you, I’ll beat them up for you!”

“Whoa, whoa!” Minato said, putting his hands up. This kid was enthusiastic. “That’s very nice of you, but you don’t need to beat anyone up for me, promise. Why don’t you hear my questions first?”

The kid took a deep breath. 

“Okay,” he said, very serious. 

“Do you know what time it is?” Minato asked. The kid shook his head. “Well, do you know what time you left your house to come here?”

“I dunno,” the kid said. “But I didn’t come here from my house. I came from the Academy, you know! I’m training real hard to be a ninja too!”

The kid rambled for a bit, spitting out random disjointed statements about his life and his day, and Minato frowned as he listened to the story, trying to fit all the random details together. The kid had had detention after class, after some prank he’d pulled on his teacher, and then he’d come immediately over to the park. He said he liked coming at night when the park was empty, because other children often wouldn’t let him play with the “good” equipment. 

“Usually I have to wait until after dinner,” the kid was saying. “But in winter it gets dark real early, you know!”

This was true. It seemed it wasn’t nearly as late in the day as Minato had thought. So, that was good, except somehow the season had changed…?

The kid did know the date. It was not the one Minato had started his day on. 

“Can you tell me… the year?” Minato said slowly. 

The kid told him.

If the kid was right, Minato had gone back in time five months. So that was… a new way for the Hiraishin to be messed up. What a terrifying discovery. 

When Minato, lost in thought, didn’t ask follow up questions, the kid was unperturbed. He continued to ramble about his ninja training. 

(The kid had a long list of rivals to defeat, as apparently he wasn’t very popular among his classmates.) 

At least, if Minato really was back in time, it was only five months. If he couldn’t figure out how to undo it, he could just lay low those five months until his past self also winked out of time, and just step right back into his life. Unless that wasn’t how time travel worked…? Tobirama had written some theories on time travel and seemed to think it didn’t work that cleanly… 

“...and then I’m going to be Hokage!” the kid cried, pumping a fist in the air. 

Minato grinned, despite the situation. This kid was a riot. How had he not noticed him before? 

“I’m sure you will be,” Minato told him, reaching forward to place a hand on the kid’s hat, like he would to ruffle hair. “Thank you for helping me.”

Minato stood. He wanted to go to his office as soon as possible to get to work verifying he had time traveled, and maybe consult Tobirama’s old writings, but he also couldn’t just leave this kid alone. Minato needed to fix this problem as soon as possible for his responsibility to the village, but responsibility to the village also meant responsibility to this random kid. He’d drop him off at his home as quickly as possible, he decided. He’d love to see this kid’s reaction to realizing who he was. Or to getting to see his famous Hiraishin. 

“Hey, kid,” Minato said. “My name is Namikaze Minato. What’s yours?”

The kid didn't seem to recognize the name at all. But he beamed up at Minato, showing all his teeth. 

“This means we’re friends now, right?” the kid said. “I’m Uzumaki Naruto!”

The kid continued to ramble about how cool it was to have a ninja for a friend, but Minato couldn’t hear him. 

He couldn’t hear anything. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. 

Was this a joke? A sick prank by a villager? Or an attack, even? A cruel, evil genjutsu, maybe? 

Minato suddenly wanted to flee, or maybe he wanted to fight, or to disappear forever. He had no name for this emotion, but he did push out his senses, tapping into his Hiraishin network. It lit up in his mind, scattered across the village. 

It was wrong. There were fewer markers than there should be. And… one extra one. 

Minato's gaze turned back to the kid in front of him. The kid had one of his markers in him, burning brightly at his belly. 

“Hey, hey,” the kid said, taking Minato’s hand and tugging. “Are you alright, mister?”

Minato tried to dispel a genjutsu. Nothing happened. The kid was still staring up at him with blue eyes the exact shape of Kushina’s. 

“Na… naruto,” Minato said, the word feeling too intimate to be spoken out loud. The kid just blinked curiously up at him. “I… I need to take you home. Where are your parents?”

This didn’t make sense.

“Oh,” Naruto said. “Don’t worry about that! I don’t have any, so I can stay out as late as I want, you know.”

Minato stared at him. 

He sat on the edge of the sandbox. 

He stared at the kid some more. 

“Are you okay?” the kid asked, dubious. 

“Do you know who the Hokage is, Naruto?” Minato asked weakly. 

“Oh, yeah!” Naruto said. “Old Man Third!”

“It’s not the Fourth?” Minato asked, feeling like every cohesive thought he could possibly have was leaking out of his ears. 

Naruto shook his head vigorously. “Nope! ‘Cause he’s dead.”

Minato had read through Tobirama’s theories on time travel many times. One theory was that true time travel wasn’t possible. Time was just infinite probabilities, constantly diverging with every decision anyone ever made, and one couldn’t go back in time because time simply wasn’t linear like that. 

But one could hop into a different probability. A different timeline, where things played out just slightly differently. 

Minato was also confident that there was no way to fake a Hiraishin marker. His past self in this timeline made one and put one in this boy, the same way he’d wanted to do for baby Naruto when he realized the baby had to become the Kyuubi’s next container, before everything collapsed as Minato’s first and greatest failure as a father. 

Minato put his head between his knees and concentrated on breathing. 

“Whoa, mister!” Naruto cried and helpfully patted his back. “Are you sure you’re a ninja? You don’t seem very tough.”

Minato laughed weakly, staring at the dark grass from between his knees. “You said you wouldn’t make fun of me.”

“Yeah, well…” Naruto stuttered out. 

Naruto. 

Minato sat up and looked at his son. It was too dark to see every detail of Naruto’s face, but now that Minato knew to look, Naruto looked just like Kushina. He even had the unusually chubby cheeks Kushina had hated as a kid. 

He wanted to hug him, to kiss his cheeks and beg for forgiveness. 

He also knew that would probably freak the poor kid out. 

“Sorry, Naruto,” he said finally. “I have… I have more questions. Can we go inside somewhere?”

Minato himself had apparently died in this timeline, and if Naruto had a seal on him, Kushina was definitely also gone. There was no way she’d let Naruto run around parentless if she was still alive. But Minato still had a lot of questions. His questions about how Konoha was doing without his leadership faded to the back of his mind immediately as he stared down at his impossible son. Who was taking care of him, if he didn’t have parents? Was he in the orphanage? How was he doing in school? Was someone making him homemade lunches, or was he eating the awful stale breads the Academy sold? 

Naruto squinted at him. 

“Are you some kind of loser ninja?” he asked. “You’re crying.”

Minato laughed. He was crying. How embarrassing. This was a really bad first impression.

Chapter Text

Naruto took Minato’s hand and very seriously led him to a rundown apartment building, not the orphanage. The banister on the stairs up was rusty, and the steps were unswept and riddled with old leaves and cobwebs and grime. One of the apartments they passed on the second floor had boarded up windows. 

This was… this was not what Minato wanted for his son. But the neighborhood was quiet and safe, and Naruto had that park right down the street, and there was a tiny grocer on one corner and a convenience store on the other. The Academy was a bit of a walk, but it wasn’t the worst commute, and exercise was good for little legs. It wasn’t all bad. Maybe Naruto did have a caretaker or a foster parent, and he lived with them. 

There was one apartment on the top floor of the building, and Naruto paused in front of the door. 

“I know I’m not supposed to let strangers in,” he said, very seriously, “but you look like you need a lot of help right now, mister. You have snot in your nose.”

Minato simultaneously felt immense pride that Naruto wanted to help him simply because he had asked for help, along with some sort of deep-seated anxiety that Naruto would invite some strange man into his home. He wanted to hug Naruto and also lecture him, and all this made more tears prick at Minato’s eyes. Yes, he definitely looked like a mess. 

The apartment inside was on the older side, but was otherwise perfectly serviceable. The front room had a little kitchen and dining area, and someone had obviously cleaned it recently. It was a lot nicer than the studio with a leaky roof that Minato had been stuck in when he moved out of the orphanage. 

Naruto pulled off his hat to reveal a mess of gold spikes to match Minato’s own hair. In the warm light of the kitchen, Minato could see that while Kushina dominated the shape of Naruto’s face, the kid had inherited his own coloration, with golden hair and dark blue eyes. He wondered if in the summer Naruto would tan like him or burn like Kushina. 

Minato again fought the urge to hug him. This wasn’t about Minato. He needed to figure out what was going on and then meet Naruto where Naruto needed him. Right now Minato was still a stranger to him. It was unlikely Naruto would be comfortable with a sudden wave of physical affection. 

Naruto eyed him with a hint of self-consciousness, and then awkwardly hung his hat and jacket on the otherwise empty coat rack by the door. Minato got the distinct impression that Naruto didn’t usually hang up his things; he was trying to appear polite for Minato. 

That’s so cute, Minato thought. 

“Do you… um…” Naruto’s eyes darted between Minato and the coat rack. “I’m supposed to take your coat too, right?”

“Oh!” Minato said, and then shrugged off his cloak, eager to give Naruto whatever he wanted. 

Naruto was too short to hang the cloak high enough that it didn’t drag on the floor, and Minato stepped forward to help, then aborted the action and stepped right back. He didn’t want to accidentally box Naruto into a corner until Naruto was used to him. He did want to pick Naruto up to help him reach things, but that also seemed like a bad idea until after he’d explained some things. 

Minato felt like his brain was on fire. How best to navigate this…? What if Naruto did have adoptive parents, hidden in the back somewhere? He said he didn’t have parents, but surely there was some sort of caretaker lurking around. How could Minato explain the impossibility of what had happened? What would he do if Naruto recognized him before he could figure out how to explain? Surely, in the light, Naruto would eventually recognize him?

“This is kind of cool, you know,” Naruto said, feeling the embroidered flames at the bottom of the cloak between his little fingers. 

Naruto had sand under his nails and his hands were dirty from play. Minato was inexplicably enamored by this. Of course Kushina’s son would get sand under his nails and then touch strangers' things anyway. 

“What do the kanji say?” Naruto asked. “I know this one is fire! Like Fire Country! Or, um, Thursday!”

“Tuesday,” Minato corrected automatically. 

“Tuesday!” Naruto yelled. “Oh, mister-- I have adult slippers for you, you know!”

Naruto kicked off his shoes and then stepped into his own lime green house slippers. Then he very excitedly presented a pair of beat up slippers to Minato. He had two pairs of adult ones: dark maroon ones that he initially presented to Minato, which turned out to be too small, and a larger pair of pink ones. 

Minato stepped into the pink slippers, although his heels still hung off the back. Naruto seemed flummoxed to discover they fit better. 

“But these are Old Man Third’s,” Naruto said, frowning down at the maroon slippers. “So they’re for men…”

“Sandaime-sama is a very small man,” Minato said gently. 

Why did Naruto have Sarutobi’s slippers? And who were the pink ones for? The caretaker that had to be around somewhere? Surely Naruto wasn’t actually living alone. He was six.  

“Does Sandaime-sama visit you a lot?” Minato asked. 

“Yeah, all the time!” Naruto said. “That’s why he left his very own slippers here, you know. Oh, and he always makes tea.”

Naruto darted over to his kitchen, moving a stepping stool so he could reach into the top cabinet and produce a box of tea. Minato recognized the brand as being on the more expensive side.

“Adults like this stuff, right?” Naruto said. “Can you make it, mister? I’m not allowed to use the stove, and Old Man Third says it tastes best from his fancy kettle...”

There was indeed a tea kettle already out on the stove. Minato felt the urge to cry again as he stepped forward to make tea for his son. 

“Make sure to wash your hands, Naruto,” Minato said, voice cracking. “Get… get under your nails, too.”

Joy curled in his chest. How parental. He thought he’d never get to say those words. 

(Oh, he was a mess. Minato had always been an easy crier, but he hadn’t lost it in front of someone else since he’d lost Kushina.)  

Naruto continued to babble without needing further prompting, as he obediently washed his hands and then followed Minato around as he moved through the kitchen. Minato noted that he had not cleaned effectively under his nails.

According to Naruto’s unorganized ramblings, it sounded like Sarutobi visited at least once a week, and he would bring Naruto snacks and sometimes random gifts. He’d bought Naruto all his school supplies, for example, and some sort of card game that Naruto said they could play if Minato read the rules first and then explained them to Naruto. These were very different visits than Naruto got from the woman who used the pink slippers, who cleaned for Naruto and made meals. 

“And she yells at me if she finds vegetables in the trash,” Naruto said very seriously, “so I have to throw the ones I don’t like in the dumpster directly.”

Minato had to work not to laugh. 

“You need to eat all your vegetables to be a strong shinobi,” Minato said, opening cabinets to find tea cups. 

It was very strange that Naruto didn’t live with a caretaker, Minato thought. This wasn’t how Konoha did things, not with kids this young. They hadn’t done this under Sarutobi’s Konoha, even. Despite multiple attempts, Minato hadn’t successfully petitioned to get out of the orphanage until he was nine, and he’d been considered especially mature for his age. Kushina, who’d been in a much more privileged place than Minato, had been considered a ward of the Senju clan and had lived in a little studio in the attic of an elderly couple that watched over her until she graduated. Even then, Kushina had moved to Konoha right before her tenth birthday. 

It was good someone was coming in and checking on Naruto every few days, but it sounded like the person filling this role switched out every few months, and Naruto hadn’t liked any of them. They were mean, he said. As a parent, Minato wanted someone to be there for Naruto every single day, who gave him all the love and affection a small child needed. 

What if he has a nightmare and no one’s around? Minato thought, anxiety pulling at his chest. Who’s making sure he has a bath every day and brushes his teeth?

No one had made sure Minato was doing these things when he was nine and freshly on his own. But they should have. He’d had so many cavities.

Even from a Hokage’s perspective, this system didn’t make sense. It was more expensive and logistically burdensome than having Naruto live with a foster family or in the orphanage. It was more risky to Naruto’s physical and mental health. The only reason he could think of to give Naruto special treatment was either that his parents were special, or that Minato’s theory for why his self of this timeline had placed a Hiraishin marker in his son’s belly was true. 

Minato’s son was so brave and strong. He was a jinchuriki, just like Kushina. But then why wasn’t he being treated special in the opposite direction, with a full-time caretaker, like Kushina had had? The war meant there were more orphans than Konoha had been originally structured to handle, and Minato understood not having enough manpower or money to sink into better solutions– he dealt with this problem constantly in his own timeline– but this was Naruto. This was his son. 

“Naruto,” Minato said when they were seated at Naruto’s little table. He watched as Naruto very carefully dumped several spoonfuls of honey into his tea. “I was wondering. Why don’t you live in the orphanage?”

Naruto stilled, suspicion immediately back on his face. Then he concentrated on stirring his tea very loudly. 

“Why’s it matter?” Naruto mumbled. 

Minato bit his lip. He hadn’t wanted to upset him. 

“I was just wondering, because I grew up in the orphanage,” Minato tried. Naruto looked up from his over sweetened tea immediately. 

“You did?” Naruto asked, something like excitement lacing his tone. “Did your parents die too?”

“Yes,” Minato said, “when I was a little baby. So I grew up in the orphanage, and I hated it.”

“Me too,” Naruto breathed out. “Everyone was mean, you know.”

“I didn’t like how crowded it was,” Minato agreed. “There was no privacy, and the other kids didn’t get me. I couldn’t play the way I wanted to.” 

Minato very rarely shared this part of his past. It was deeply personal, and people tended to react strangely to how much it contrasted his public persona. But Naruto was his child, his family. He didn’t mind sharing at all. 

“They let you petition to live alone once you’re in the Academy, right?” Minato continued. “But they told me they don’t actually let kids do it until they’re a whole ten years old.” He leaned over his tea conspiratorially. “So how did you get out?”

“Oh, um…” Naruto’s gaze passed around the room, like he was making sure no one was listening. “I didn’t do a… a peti… a petty…”

“A petition,” Minato said.

“I didn’t do anything like that,” Naruto said, nodding. “I didn’t even ask to move out. But, um, the lady in charge did something bad, so Old Man Third made me come here.”

Minato frowned. “Something bad?” he asked. 

“I didn’t really get it,” Naruto replied. “She takes away lots of kids’ food, or she pinches all of us when we’re bad. But Old Man Third said she was doing it to me too much, you know, so he took me away.”

Minato felt the bottom of his stomach drop. Someone had been hurting Naruto? Starving him? Minato would kill her. 

Naruto leaned away from him, suddenly uncertain. 

“You look kind of scary now, mister,” Naruto said. 

Minato schooled himself immediately. He couldn’t lose control like that. He never, ever wanted Naruto to feel anything but safe with him. He put on his kindest smile for him. 

“Sorry,” he said. “I was mad at the matron. She shouldn’t have done those things to you. Or anyone, really.”

“Right,” Naruto said, still a little unsure. He took a loud slurp of tea. “It’s cool you got to be a ninja. There’s lots of orphans at the Academy, but almost everyone in my class has parents. Ninja parents, even.”

Naruto pouted, clearly jealous, and Minato couldn’t help but lean over and ruffle his hair again. Okay. He could do this. 

“Did anyone ever tell you anything about your parents?” Minato asked slowly. “For example, I know mine ran a fruit stand…”

He watched Naruto with bated breath. Naruto frowned thoughtfully to himself and took another loud sip of tea. Minato hadn’t gotten his hands on information about his parents until he’d been old enough to do his own research, but Sarutobi would have plenty of photos and stories for Naruto. Kakashi and Jiraiya would be around. Naruto’s living situation was less than ideal, but he had to know. 

“I don’t think anyone knows who my parents were,” Naruto said finally. “No offense, but if people knew they had a fruit stand or something like that, people would make fun of me even more.”

Minato stared at him, at a loss for words. 

“Maybe Old Man Third knows,” Naruto said, scrunching up his face. “But I ask him sometimes, you know, and all he says is that they died when the Fox attacked. Why would he lie to me?”

“I…” Minato started. He didn’t know what to say to this. 

“Is this one of your weird questions?” Naruto asked. “‘Cause I have my textbook, you know.”

Naruto hopped to his feet and disappeared into a backroom, returning with one of his Academy textbooks. He helpfully opened it to a page about the Kyuubi’s attack and set it in front of Minato. 

“This is the only cool part of history class, you know,” Naruto said. “Well, it sucks lots of people died. But this chapter and the one before are about the Yondaime, and he’s the coolest.”

Minato couldn’t help it. He started crying again. 

xXx

Minato’s plan had been for Naruto to recognize him as his father, maybe explaining to a caretaker that they needed to step out for a while for their reunion. Then he would hug Naruto for about six hours and kiss his chubby cheeks and tell him how much he loved him and that he thought about him every single day. Then he would go talk to Sarutobi about his accidental time travel and his urgent need to get back to his timeline, possibly taking Naruto with him, because he was never letting his son go ever again. 

He didn’t know what to do with the fact that Naruto lived alone, or that he had no idea who Minato or Kushina were. 

Was there a reason for this? There had to be. Kushina had told him that the absolute most important thing for a jinchuriki was that they were loved. Senju Mito had written about this, in her records. Mito had been very adamant that Kushina be treated like a member of her adopted clan until the day she died. Kushina had been very open about this, although publically it was an Uzumaki-Senju alliance thing rather than a jinchuriki thing. Sarutobi would know their shared philosophy, and that both jinchuriki felt it was necessary that they be treated with love and caring. Sarutobi would know Kushina would want her son filled with love. 

There had to be a very good reason Naruto was living in isolation, bullied by other children without any real intervention, without warm arms to come home to. 

Minato could not divine what this reason could be from Naruto’s picture-heavy history textbook written for children just learning to read, so he would keep quiet to Naruto for now. The book was enough for him to surmise that the change in history was about what he had guessed-- that he’d successfully sealed the Kyuubi into Naruto at the cost of his own life, succeeding in letting his son live-- and that left Sarutobi to take up his old role as Hokage. He had no idea what other changes this might have prompted. 

It hurt to not confess to Naruto, to not offer hugs and affection, but Minato didn’t want to accidentally hurt Naruto or put him in danger because there were variables he didn’t understand. He would have to keep quiet right now after all, and then figure out was going on. 

For now, he selfishly made Naruto dinner. 

“To thank you for your help,” Minato insisted when Naruto protested. 

It was really, really bad Naruto had just let a strange adult ninja into his home like this, and that he was letting him stay so long. But also, Minato was eating up every second of it. Once he had everything sorted out and claimed custody of Naruto, then he could explain to Naruto that usually strangers wanting entry into children’s homes weren’t their time traveled parent from another probability. 

Plus, once Minato was taking care of Naruto, he could just vet visitors himself. It wasn’t a problem, really. This was fine. It was good, even, that Naruto had seen a person in need and wanted to help. 

The woman who helped with Naruto’s care batch-made meals every three to four days for him to reheat himself, and she brought fresh vegetables and meat with her and cooked them all up immediately. This meant Naruto’s fridge was mainly boxes of prepared food. Minato opened a couple while Naruto was distracted by pulling random plates and cups out of his cabinets for them. The meals looked fine: a good balance of vegetables and protein, cooked properly, and they smelled like they tasted fine. Minato found himself relieved. 

This did mean that there was no fresh food in Naruto’s fridge but a few pears that were going kind of mushy. But Naruto had some basic supplies sitting around his kitchen, like a big bag of rice and some tinned foods and seasonings and packets of instant soups Naruto proudly said he could make himself with his electric kettle, and Minato was able to put together a decent if unexciting meal. 

Naruto very proudly demonstrated he knew how to use the rice cooker. It was adorable. 

“You look silly,” Naruto giggled at the apron Minato put on to cook. It was pink, to match the slippers. “You’re the least cool ninja ever, you know.”

“Plenty of cool ninja wear pink,” Minato replied with a wink. 

Of the meal itself, Naruto remarked, “Man, food tastes so much better fresh out of the pan, you know.”

Minato felt another flicker of sadness, with an undercurrent of something violent. He wasn’t even sure who it was directed at. It was not the fault of this random woman Sarutobi had hired that Naruto never got fresh meals. Minato wasn’t even sure it was Sarutobi’s fault, pending why he’d chosen to set Naruto up like this. 

But regardless of who’s fault it was, if anyone’s, it certainly wasn’t fair. Minato hoped the problem was something simple, that he could simply murder. Maybe an old enemy of his had emerged, or people were hunting Uzumaki again. Easy problems he could just wipe out of existence in one incredible and cathartic act of violence. 

Of course, complex problems often couldn’t be solved just by being a “cool ninja,” as Naruto put it. The reason Minato had grown up in an overcrowded orphanage, or that Kushina had lived for years trapped in a single sector of the village as a jinchuriki, were complex and couldn’t be solved by pointing blame at one person. He understood these things. He was Hokage; he dealt with complex institutional problems with no perfect solution all day every day. But having to sit across from his son and say nothing was driving Minato up the wall. He didn’t know what to do with himself. It would be so nice if he could just rasengan away any issue. 

He wanted to pinch Naruto's fat little cheeks so bad. 

“Do you have any homework?” Minato asked while he washed Naruto’s dishes. 

(“The old lady always yells at me if I leave them in the sink,” Naruto had said. “But I guess she was right, ‘cause one time I got ants, you know.”)

“No,” Naruto said, too quickly. 

“Are you lying to me?” Minato asked sternly. 

“No,” Naruto replied immediately. 

Minato stared at him. The kid was very blatantly lying to him. Minato had… not been prepared for this. Usually if you got called out for lying by the Hokage, you immediately apologized and corrected your behavior. Even the first year Academy students didn’t have this much gall. 

Oh well. Naruto was Kushina’s son, after all. And he thought Minato was a random crybaby. 

“Tell me what your homework is,” Minato tried. 

Naruto scowled, fidgeting uncomfortably in his seat. Minato felt bad almost instantaneously.

“I’ll help you with it,” Minato offered. 

“You didn’t even know what day it is,” Naruto whined. 

“But I know lots of ninja stuff,” Minato said, placing the last of the dishes on the drying rack. He untied the apron. “Try me. Ask me anything about the Yondaime.”

Naruto eyed him doubtfully for a few moments and then said, “What’s his favorite food?”

Minato raised his eyebrows. “Why would that be in your classes?”

Naruto crossed his arms. “Why wouldn’t it?” he countered. “Do you know stuff or not, mister?”

Minato let out a soft laugh. Okay, fair. 

“Sukiyaki,” he said. 

“Wrong!” Naruto immediately responded. “It’s ramen.”

“How do you know it’s ramen?” Minato asked, fighting back more laughter. 

“Because cool people like ramen! Duh!”

Okay, so his kid was a bit of a brat, but he was a funny brat. 

Eventually, Minato convinced Naruto to pull out his homework. Naruto was still small, and all he had for the night was a short hiragana worksheet. All he had to do was repeat a few letters over and over, to get the hang of writing them. 

Somehow, this task was incredibly difficult for Naruto. He’d write one letter, and then get bored and start asking Minato more questions, or doodling on the margins of the paper, or explaining that as Hokage he’d give everyone free ramen. 

“Why do I even need to do this to be a ninja?” Naruto whined when Minato prompted him to stay on task for what felt like the twentieth time. 

Minato did not mind having to sit next to Naruto and patiently prompt him every single step of doing a worksheet. If this is what Naruto needed to learn, then Minato would do it and feel grateful for the opportunity. But he was starting to see why Naruto had so many stories about teachers yelling at him. 

“Well, obviously ninja have to know how to read,” Minato said. “Here, you only have one line left, look.”

“But I can read it,” Naruto complained, picking up his pencil and then not writing a thing. “And I can already write it, you know. Iruka-sensei said this is just for handwriting practice.”

Minato mulled this over while Naruto filled in another square, moping as he went. They would have to work on that…

Minato had liked being a teacher to Team 7, but he had not had to do any proper teaching in a very long time. The nature of Hokage meant that he often discouraged “why” questions, even though he philosophically supported asking them. Questions were good for learning, but being in the highest position of command usually meant he simply didn’t have time to address them himself, and often he commanded things based on reasons he couldn’t disclose to others. 

He anticipated that parenting would involve a bit of the latter. Naruto would have to learn to trust his calls even when Minato couldn’t explain why he was making them. 

But for most things, Minato wanted Naruto to feel comfortable asking questions, and he wanted to take the time to answer them. This was how he’d build the trust he needed Naruto to have in him. 

“Did Iruka-sensei tell you why you need good handwriting?” Minato asked. 

“Um… I dunno,” Naruto said. He started to draw some sort of animal in the next box, and Minato poked his side. Naruto flipped his pencil around to erase it. 

“You don’t know?” Minato prompted, and Naruto glared at him. 

“Why do you care?” Naruto said testily. “No one else cares.”

“I care because… we’re friends, right?” Minato finished lamely. “Go on, there’s only four boxes left.”

“We’ve only been friends for a day,” Naruto mumbled, but he seemed pleased by the answer, a little smile stretching over his face. He opened up about his school life. 

Naruto was not good at telling stories in an organized or linear fashion, and his young age meant his perception of why things happened often didn’t make sense. Minato had to ask a lot of questions to piece together what was happening. But as the pieces fell into place, it painted a disturbing picture. 

Most teachers openly ignored Naruto. They never called on him in class if he raised his hand. He did not get complimented if he won a practice spar or made a trap correctly (Naruto promised Minato he was really good at traps), and he would not get explanations for why he was being punished if he messed up his assignments. If he went up to a teacher’s desk after class, as many students did, they would send him away or not speak. When Naruto didn’t understand a lecture or assignment, which he often didn’t, he wouldn't be offered help even if he asked. His understanding of this treatment was that he wasn’t allowed to do anything but show up to class, and it was often a complete mystery to him why he received the grades he got. 

Only one of the young assistant teachers, this Iruka-sensei, ever actively talked to Naruto. It was why Naruto still even tried asking questions. 

“That’s why I prank ‘im the most,” Naruto said of Iruka, nodding to himself. “He yells a lot, but he’ll come talk to me, you know.” 

Minato had no idea who Iruka was, and Naruto couldn’t remember a surname. He didn’t know how to judge the interactions Naruto described; Iruka could be genuinely trying, or he could be just be another bully and Naruto was misinterpreting their interactions. 

But surely Naruto was misinterpreting being ignored by the main teachers. Surely he was getting just as much attention as anyone else, and in his childish perspective, he only thought he was being ignored. Maybe– maybe he did need more attention than other students, because Naruto seemed to be struggling with some attention problems– but surely he wasn’t being outright ignored. 

Although, perhaps that would explain why no one did anything about other kids being “mean” to him… 

“Mister, you’re looking scary again,” Naruto said, although he was less freaked out this time. He’d filled in another square. Good.

His handwriting was almost illegible. 

“Sorry,” Minato said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “Umm… oh, handwriting. Naruto, can you think of any reasons you’d need to write nicely?”

“Hmm,” Naruto said. “Maybe if I went undercover as some sort of fancy nerd. Like those old advisor guys, in movies, that are always writing things down. I bet fancy guys like that have good handwriting, right?”

“Sure,” Minato said. “But more practically, when you’re big and a real ninja, you’re going to have to write up reports about all the cool missions you do. And then someone will have to read them.”

Naruto stared blankly at him.

“...and it will be easier for them to read if your handwriting is nice,” Minato finished. “When you write well, it helps other people read what you’ve written.”

“Oooh,” Naruto said, staring down at his worksheet. “Oh! That’s why Iruka-sensei yelled at me and said he couldn’t read my homework!”

“Sure,” Minato agreed. That seemed… plausible?

Naruto hummed as he finished up the last two squares, newly motivated. 

“He made me redo it,” Naruto said. “Iruka-sensei, I mean. I was mad at first, because handwriting worksheets are boring, but then he said Hitomi-sensei would have just given me a zero if she couldn’t read. I didn’t know it was my handwriting, you know. I thought they just hated me.”

Minato stared at the back of Naruto’s head while Naruto hunched over and carefully went over his homework, newly enthused to write perfectly and searching for mistakes. (Naruto did not seem to know how to tell a legible letter from an illegible one, but he was trying.) Minato would be annoyed if any kid told him this story, because Minato did not tolerate bullying among his ranks, especially from commanding officers to their subordinates. Especially teachers to their students. 

He was… furious, maybe? That it was coming from his own son. But he was also in denial. Naruto had to be misinterpreting something. This just didn’t make sense. So he was feeling… something. Like his brains were made of jelly, maybe. No room for true anger. 

“Naruto, I…” Minato stood. He felt like a ghost. He didn’t want to leave, but he did have to investigate some things. “I have to go,” he said. 

Naruto did not look devastated or even phased. 

“Okay,” he said. “Will you come play with me again sometime?”

“Yes,” Minato replied earnestly. “I promise. But first, I wanted to show you another reason you should work on your handwriting…”

Minato produced a small bottle of ink and a calligraphy brush from his flak jacket. Naruto narrowed his eyes at them and then nodded knowingly. 

“You’re a fancy nerd writer,” Naruto diagnosed with the wisdom of a sage. “I knew it.”

Despite feeling like he was simultaneously having an adrenaline rush and like he might collapse from emotional exhaustion at any moment, Minato burst into laughter. 

“These are ninja tools,” he said. “Have you learned about fuinjutsu in class yet?”

“No,” Naruto said. “What’s that? A type of super mega awesome ninja technique?”

“You could say that,” Minato answered slowly. “It’s a branch of ninjutsu that molds chakra via written instructions rather than hand signs.”

“Right,” Naruto said, clearly not having understood any of that. “Of course.”

“Um, well, I can explain more the next time we hang out,” Minato said. “I just wanted to show you what it looks like.”

He drew a hiraishin marker on the table. Naruto already had one in him, integrated right into his jinchuriki seal, but Minato wanted to be able to get back to this physical location as quickly as possible. 

“Oh,” Naruto said, leaning forward to watch him draw. “That does look cool. What’s it do?”

“I’ll show you next time,” Minato promised. “Why don’t you ask Iruka-sensei about fuinjutsu at school? You can tell me what he says.”

Naruto’s eyes widened. “Sure!” he said. “Definitely!” 

Two minutes later, Minato was alone outside on the street. He felt like he was having some sort of very quiet breakdown. 

His son was here, alive, and that was the greatest miracle that could have happened, but everything was just slightly off and wrong. Something nefarious had to be going on. And instead of curling up with his son for bedtime (beditme!), he had to go figure it out. 

And then, on top of all that, he’d maybe accidentally abandoned his own village. He needed to get back, because they needed him. 

And when I do, Minato decided, opening up to his Hiraishin network to teleport to Hokage tower, I’ll take Naruto with me. 

This Konoha wouldn’t want him stealing their jinchuriki. But quite frankly, who was going to stop him?

Chapter Text

“Fuinjutsu?” Iruka-sensei repeated, blinking down at Naruto. “Why are you asking about that?”

Iruka-sensei was outside after class today, watching the students who got assigned extra laps to run after school. Naruto got these often, although today he didn’t have to do them or clean the classroom or sit around redoing worksheets. He’d been quiet today, drawing pictures of him and his new ninja friend fighting off bad guys together. Teachers rarely yelled at him when he was quiet, even if he wasn’t doing his work or paying attention. 

(He hated that they all seemed to want him to just disappear. He wouldn’t do it. Not ever. That’s why he was going to be Hokage.)

“Um, someone told me about it,” Naruto said. “A ninja. He showed me a cool squiggle, you know, but he didn’t say what it was for.”

“Huh,” Iruka-sensei said. Then he took a moment to turn back around and yell at one of the runners for slacking off. Iruka-sensei basically had eyes in the back of his head. That’s how Naruto knew he was a good ninja. 

“Fuinjutsu is like ninjutsu, but written,” Iruka-sensei said when he was done yelling. 

“Ninjutsu?” Naruto repeated. 

Iruka-sensei sighed. “Naruto, do you even listen during lectures?”

“Um…” Naruto squirmed. He did try to listen, when he could figure out that the information being told to them was cool ninja stuff. But a lot of the time it wasn’t, and usually the lecture didn’t even make that much sense to him even when it was cool. 

“It’s okay,” Iruka-sensei said eventually, with another short sigh. “That’s why we repeat lessons. Naruto, ninjutsu is ninja techniques. Like this.”

Iruka-sensei didn’t do a technique, which was Naruto’s favorite thing for a teacher to do ever, but he did hold up his hands like he was going to do one. 

“Ooooh,” Naruto said.

“Fuinjutsu does the same thing, but with squiggles,” Iruka concluded. “You’ve seen ninja movies, right?” Naruto nodded vigorously. “That’s what ninja are using when they throw scrolls around. OI, INUZUKA, I SEE YOU–”

Iruka-sensei had to go round up the runners then, and he left Naruto. Naruto shuffled at the gate of the training grounds for a while, watching. 

That was probably the longest conversation he’d ever had with a teacher, ever, which included no yelling at him. It was probably the second longest yell-free conversation he’d ever had with an adult who wasn’t Old Man Third, right after his cool new ninja friend. The idea made him excited. Maybe people were finally starting to notice how awesome he was?

It also made him not want to leave Iruka-sensei. He wanted him to talk to him more, about anything at all. He wouldn’t even mind being yelled at if he was being seen. 

Oh! He knew! He still had a stink bomb in his school bag. 

Naruto hid in a tree overhanging the street outside the Academy and waited until Iruka-sensei was finally walking home. Then he threw the stink bomb. 

Iruka-sensei disappeared into a cloud of smoke, which was so cool. Then Iruka-snsei was standing on the branch next to him, grabbing him by the back of his collar. 

“NARUTO,” Iruka-sensei yelled. “How many times do I have to tell you–”

Iruka-sensei leapt down from the tree, taking Naruto with him. He wasn’t rough about it, the way some other adults were. He just put Naruto on his feet back on the ground. Then he put his hands on his hips and started lecturing about being a responsible ninja. 

And then, suddenly, Iruka-sensei bristled like a cat. His eyes darted around them. The street was getting dark, and Naruto couldn’t see anything weird going on. 

“Actually, why don’t I walk you home,” Iruka-sensei said. “Keep you out of trouble.”

Iruka-sensei didn’t lecture him any more, and so Naruto ran ahead of him in excitement, and then ran back, and then asked more questions about fuinjutsu. For example, if it was only for fancy nerds, why did it look so cool in movies?

“What?” Iruka-sensei said. 

“In movies it’s how you summon kunai and swords, you know,” Naruto said. “So why is it for nerds?”

Iruka-sensei pinched the bridge of his nose. “Naruto, we’re not at the Academy right now. I’m just trying to get you home safe.”

Naruto didn’t really get what Iruka-sensei meant by this. He did get that he was getting special attention right now, and not even getting in trouble, and that seemed like a good thing. 

Iruka-sensei walked him all the way up to the door of his apartment, and Naruto wondered if Iruka-sensei would stay and make him dinner the way his new friend had. Iruka-sensei would probably be even better at homework help, since he was a teacher and the new guy, Minato or whatever, had seemed confused about a lot of things. 

Iruka-sensei lingered in the doorway for a moment, but he didn’t come in. 

“Make sure you come right to school in the morning,” Iruka-sensei said. “Um, Naruto… were you paying attention in class, when Hitomi-sensei talked about what to do if ANBU ever stopped you?”

“ANBU?” Naruto repeated. That sounded familiar… “Oh! The cool mask guys?”

“Yes,” Iruka-sensei said. 

“Um… use the polite form?” Naruto tried. He didn’t remember any lessons about them at all. He only knew they were the mask guys because sometimes Old Man Third had them with him. 

Iruka-sensei snorted, a hard smile on his face. 

“Polite form is a good idea,” he said. “But if one talks to you, that means they’re following Hokage-sama’s direct orders. So you listen to them over anyone else, okay?”

“Um, okay,” Naruto said. “Do you want some tea, Iruka-sensei?”

Iruka-sensei hesitated. Then he took a step back and made a hand sign into the air above Naruto’s roof. His eyes were hard and serious as he stared up, like he was waiting for a reply.

“Sure,” Iruka-sensei finally said. “Naruto, why don’t you tell me about the squiggle someone showed you?”

Iruka-sensei didn’t stay and make him dinner. But he made Old Man Third’s tea and listened while Naruto explained all about his new friend, and then showed him the cool squiggle on his table. 

“Oh, that’s…” Iruka-sensei stared down at it, eyes wide. “Naruto, hold on a second. I have to talk to the people outside. Do not touch that.”

“What people?” Naruto asked. 

Iruka-sensei left without explaining, looking nervous. Naruto waited a long time, long enough for the tea to get cold. Iruka-sensei didn’t come back. 

Naruto felt tears prick at his eyes. No one ever stayed. 

I’m just like Minato, Naruto thought of his new ninja friend, rubbing at his eyes with a fist. A crybaby loser. 

xX The night before… Xx

Minato teleported directly into the Hokage’s office. It was late enough in the evening that it was empty. 

If he wanted to, Minato could have done this without setting off any alarms. The various types of security built into Hokage Tower were extensive, but it was very difficult to set up an alarm that didn’t require it to be triggered by crossing some sort of barrier. If you knew what you were doing, and you could teleport, avoiding them all was perfectly possible. It was a known security flaw, but it was also a flaw literally only Minato could exploit. 

He purposefully set off an alarm, to summon someone. Just one. He wanted it to be very obvious he was who he claimed to be. He slid a hand under the Hokage’s desk and activated one that had to be done manually, and only by someone within the Hokage’s inner circle who knew the appropriate hand signs. 

Two ANBU appeared immediately. Minato was disappointed neither was Kakashi. That would have made things a lot easier. 

“Hi!” Minato greeted, holding up both hands to signal he was unarmed. He put on his friendliest possible smile. “I’m sure you remember me. Can I speak to Sarutobi-sama, please?”

There was a very long, awkward silence. The ANBU on the left, in a Badger mask, had served under Minato and was undoubtedly the senior agent between the two. The one in the Cat mask was clearly a teenager. 

There were ANBU protocols for impersonators. There were not protocols for if your dead boss suddenly showed up again. 

Despite the moment of hesitation, Badge ultimately moved to attack, Cat on his heels. This was a wildly futile attempt. Hiraishin markers were almost impossible to remove by anyone but the user. The office was completely littered with them, including older ones made by Tobirama himself. Minato could move about as freely as he wanted. 

He disarmed Cat first. The kid reacted better to Minato suddenly being behind him than Minato would have expected. That is to say, the kid was quick enough on the uptake to start to turn around. Based on the pitch black curls and instant reaction, Minato would guess there was a Sharingan under that mask. 

Minato still had him unconscious and on the ground in less than a second. He was gentle about it, making sure not to do any irreversible damage. 

He then had Badger in a hold before Badger could even realize his teammate was down. 

“So!” Minato said, calmly as he could. “I am, actually, your Fourth Hokage. This will be a lot easier for us both if you cooperate.”

“If you’re Yondaime-sama,” Badger replied, “then you’d be smart enough to realize that sounds like crazy bullsiht.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Minato replied casually, even as five more ANBU agents appeared in the room. “Annoying, though. Could one of you at least go tell Sarutobi-sama what’s happening?”

He had to knock out thirty-two agents before Sarutobi showed up, flanked by four more. He did his best to be as gentle as possible. He didn’t want anyone with injuries a medic couldn’t fix up immediately, and he definitely didn’t want anyone dead. 

“Well,” Sarutobi said, eyeing the pile of bodies. Minato sat on his desk, kicking his feet and twirling a kunai in his hands. “This is a pretty compelling argument.”

They had a conversation about the possibilities and subtleties of time travel and alternate probabilities. Two different Yamanaka were called in. Minato submitted to being led down into T&I and had a lot more conversations with more people. Tests were run. The Hokage’s Council showed up and asked more questions. Minato repeated himself a lot. He offered to draw up his modified Hiraishin marker and triggered an hour of argument just over if that was safe for the village or not. The council left. More tests were done. Minato’s face ached from smiling as kindly as he could all night, and he was starting to feel antsy but unable to let himself fidget. He didn’t want unnecessary movement to be mistaken as a threat, after all. 

Well into the morning, Sarutobi dubbed him truly Namikaze Minato, dropped into this probability from another. 

Sarutobi learned back in his desk seat and rubbed his temples. They were now camped out, alone with a singular ANBU agent, in a secret office the Hokage had in the bowels of Hokage Tower’s basement. 

“I suppose you’ll be wanting to go back?” Sarutobi asked. 

“Of course,” Minato said. His eyes flicked over to the lone ANBU standing at attention in the corner. “Is Kakashi in the village? I’d be more comfortable with him.”

“He took an emergency mission just a couple hours ago,” Sarutobi replied. “You know how it is.”

He then took out his pipe and a tin of tobacco, excusing himself from saying more but still keeping eye contact with Minato as he packed tobacco into his pipe. 

Minato’s friendly smile became very fixed. This was very blatantly a deliberate move by Sarutobi, sending one of Minato’s closest allies away. Sarutobi was demonstrating he was still the one in control. 

A perfectly natural move, Minato decided. If Hashirama or Tobirama suddenly showed up in Minato’s office, claiming time travel, he’d still be suspicious even if they could prove their identities, at least at first. He was annoyed, but it was an understandable move. 

“Of course,” Minato said finally. “I do want to get back to my own timeline as soon as possible. I trust you’ll grant me full archive access?”

Sarutobi took a long puff of his pipe. 

“You may request any record relating to the issue that you need,” he said finally. “I’ll assign you an archivist to help.”

Interesting, Minato thought. His access was to be monitored and controlled, then. An abundance of caution in case Minato had malicious intentions he’d need other records for? Or was Sarutobi actively hiding something?

“I think it’s safest for everyone, although perhaps regrettable,” Sarutobi continued, exhaling smoke through his nose, “to limit your appearance in the village. Would you mind being held here, in a secure location?”

Minato dipped his head to the side. Sarutobi was very blatantly not mentioning what Minato felt was a huge elephant in the room. In the many discussions over probabilities and if impersonating a Hokage with such fidelity was even possible, no one had asked after Minato’s personal life and family, and he hadn’t volunteered any such information. No one had mentioned Naruto, not even him. 

“That seems wildly uncomfortable,” Minato said. 

“You would not be treated like a prisoner,” Sarutobi said. “I do sympathize that it would not be an ideal living situation, but we could assign handlers to bring you food and entertainment while you worked on your problem. Jiraiya has a new book I’d be happy to loan you a copy of.”

You’d know all about unideal living situations, Minato thought bitterly, then banished the thought from his mind. Sarutobi had been his revered Hokage and mentor. Minato owed him the benefit of the doubt. 

“It’s not just that,” Minato said. He broadened his smile. “I’d obviously like to spend time with my son.”

The atmosphere in the room instantly turned cold. Even the ANBU agent’s shoulders jolted slightly. Had even the ANBU not known? Was this truly a secret within the village?

Sarutobi set down his pipe, every move deliberate. 

“Ah, I see,” he said, voice carefully not giving a thing away. “I regret to inform you, Minato, that Naruto did not make it either that terrible night.”

Minato felt a flash of fury. How dare Sarutobi lie so blatantly to his face, about his child? 

Minato struggled to calm himself under Sarutobi’s watchful eyes, reeling in his own killing intent as much as possible. Naruto was the jinchuriki and Minato was an unknown player. It was natural to be secretive about Naruto, even if it pissed Minato off, for the boy’s own protection. 

“Interesting,” Minato said through gritted teeth. His fingers dug into the fabric of his pants over his thighs. “Because I just had a conversation with him yesterday evening.”

“Ah,” Sarutobi said slowly. 

He watched Mianto for almost a full minute, and Minato struggled to keep his face straight. He felt angry and betrayed, and all he wanted to do was go introduce himself properly to his son and hug him tight. Attacking or yelling at Sarutobi would solve nothing. 

Sarutobi picked his pipe back up. 

“Forgive my deception,” he said. “Naruto is important to the village and to me personally. I feel quite protective of him.”

“Oh really?” Minato said, raising his eyebrows. “But not so important you’d take him in, I saw. He showed me his apartment, which he lives alone in.”

Sarutobi sighed deeply. 

“I suppose you are owed an explanation, if you have already met him. After your death, Naruto was originally placed in a foster family,” he said. “They were relatives of my daughter-in-law, people I had personally vetted and trusted. But soon after, some… information about him got out.”

“What information?” Minato asked flatly. “His parentage? That he’s a jinchuriki?”

Sarutobi’s eyes slid closed and a grimace tugged at his face. 

“Your reputation as a clever man is well-earned,” he said finally. “We never found the source of the leak, but overnight it became well-known that the Kyuubi lived inside a baby, and within the week, the village knew it was Naruto. His foster family became fearful of him, and so we moved him into the orphanage for his own safety.”

“Until they started starving him,” Minato said, unable to keep venom out of his words. The ANBU agent shifted, ready to defend. 

“You had quite the conversation with Naruto,” Sarutobi said, voice still level. “Missed meals was a common punishment among all children. The orphanage has since been restructured with more oversight. However, given the village attitudes, Naruto's current living situation remains the best solution.”

“It is not,” Minato immediately disagreed. 

They argued. Sarutobi, who’d led the village through three wars, miraculously remained calm and poised the entire time. He had considered taking Naruto in himself, but he and his wife Biwako felt they were too old and busy with their own village duties to give him proper care, and his daughter-in-law had been pregnant. Sarutobi had done his best to contain the rumors about Naruto that made it impossible to find a safe caretaker, but once a secret was out, it was near impossible to take it back. 

“But why doesn’t he even know my name?” Minato asked. And then, his voice cracking in a way that made him feel like an insecure child to Sarutobi’s calm, “Why doesn’t he know Kushina’s name?”

“You had many enemies after the war,” Sarutobi started. 

“Bullshit,” Minato replied. “Konoha is a safe place.”

Apparently it wasn’t. Hyuuga Hinata, the Hyuuga heir, had been kidnapped three years ago by a Kumo ambassador. It had made Sarutobi reassess a lot of things about Naruto’s care, including information about his parents that Sarutobi had intended to share when he was old enough to understand. Naruto’s parentage was now an S-class secret. 

(Kumo had not tried that in Minato’s timeline. He’d like to think it was his superior negotiation skills, but perhaps it was simply fear of his ability to instantly catch up with the would-be kidnapper. Hinata would be Naruto’s age, could have been one of his friends. Minato would not have been merciful.)

“So you left him alone?” Minato asked, circling back around to that problem. 

“He has a guard when foreign powers are allowed into the village, or are detected within Konoha’s range,” Sarutobi said blandly. “For example, two agents were stationed at his apartment the moment I heard someone had invaded my office. They had been shadowing him since.”

Minato’s lips thinned. 

“I understand you are upset,” Sarutobi said. “But believe me when I say I do care for Naruto. I check on him personally with great frequency, and he comes to visit me often. He has help cooking and cleaning, and I personally take him to his medical check-ups. He is happy and healthy.”

He is not, Minato thought bitterly. 

He did not like Sarutobi’s decision making, and he would like to think that if Minato were tasked with a similar situation, he would find a superior solution. But he also had to recognize his feelings on Naruto were incredibly biased. Maybe he wouldn’t do better than Sarutobi when it wasn’t his own child. 

He still didn’t like it. Every word Sarutobi spoke made him feel more and more upset and frustrated. He bounced his knee, unable to tamp down his own frustrated energy anymore. 

“You need to sleep,” Sarutobi said. “You will feel calmer with some rest, and we can continue planning the way forward. We do have holding cells designed for village allies. The beds are adequate.” 

Those cells were for shinobi who had some sort of violent break, or an unstable jutsu on their person, or acquired dangerous knowledge, or any other circumstance which meant they could not be left unattended in the village. Minato supposed “adequate” was one way to say “not made intentionally uncomfortable.”

“I will be continuing contact with my son,” Minato replied. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sarutobi said. “Do not try to force my hand, Minato.”

Minato raised his eyebrows. 

“You and I both know,” he said, voice tight as his heartbeat pounded in his own ears, “that you cannot stop me going anywhere I please. That I’m down here with you right now and not with Naruto is my choice, not yours.”

Sarutobi held his gaze but had no reply. Minato stood. 

“I will be using the archives to research getting home,” Minato told him, “and I will be spending my free time with Naruto. I will cooperate with whatever redtape I find has a reasonable explanation, but do not for a second think you are calling the shots here.” 

He teleported away, out of Konoha and into one of the forests surrounding the village. This was perhaps not the most mature way to exit, but he also wanted to very clearly make the point that Sarutobi had no real control over him. Minato also desperately needed to blow off some steam, and doing so in the village would be bad optics. 

It was past noon by now, and the sudden sunlight made him blink. Minato really did need to sleep, because he was getting a headache from exhaustion, but also he needed to rasengan something. 

He smashed the biggest tree he could find, ramming a rasengan into its broad trunk. Shards of wood flew everywhere, and the top of the tree fell into its neighbors, taking more branches and a couple of smaller trees down with it, accompanied by a tremendous crash. It wasn’t as satisfying as he wanted it to be. Killing a tree didn’t make Naruto’s situation any better, or spontaneously reveal how time travel worked to him. 

Minato had very firmly settled on his decision to bring Naruto back with him, at least. If Naruto had had some sort of loving adopted family he’d miss, Minato might have rethought this plan. He didn’t have a single doubt now, though. Naruto would be better off with him, full stop. 

The question was what to do now. Even with an ANBU guard now on him, no one could truly keep Naruto from him, not with the Hiraishin marker in his belly. Minato was fully confident he could get to Naruto and knock out any guard whenever he wanted, no matter what Sarutobi might try. 

Minato didn’t really want to be committing acts of violence in front of his small son without prepping him for it first, though. And there was the risk of Konoha hurting Naruto in retaliation, if they thought Minato might do something extreme. 

Minato did not think Sarutobi would hurt Naruto, at least, which was the only reason the thought didn’t make him run off immediately to snatch Naruto out of the class he was probably in. Minato did believe that Sarutobi cared about Naruto, even if he thought Sarutobi was callous and stupid about how he’d gone about it. There was no reason for Sarutobi had to check on Naruto personally, after all, or bring him school supplies instead of letting him get them via the academy like other orphans. 

Minato also really did need access to the archives for research. He wanted to be extra careful about time travel, if he was also transporting Naruto. He had Hiraishin markers in the archives’ building, but if Sarutobi really wanted to, he could remove or destroy files. Minato might also want to request help from individuals in R&D who had more expertise in certain fields than Minato did, and he’d need to have Konoha’s favor to accomplish this. It would also be really convenient if Sarutobi called in Jiraiya and verified his identity, instead of Minato being forced to hunt the Toad Sage down himself and rehash his time travel story all over again. 

So, Minato would make an attempt to play nice with Sarutobi moving forward. He had set his non-negotiable boundaries and demonstrated that Sarutobi could not actually control his actions, but he didn’t mind jumping through other hoops as long as he was able to keep seeing Naruto. Sarutobi had made some horrible calls over his tenure as Hokage, and Minato was hurt some of those bad calls had been over his own son, but Sarutobi wasn’t an unreasonable or cruel man. There would be a way forward. 

Minato was tempted to go see Naruto right then. It was a school day, and it wouldn’t be difficult to peek into an Academy window. 

He did need to sleep, though. He was upset, and his brain was all over the place, and he wasn’t sure what he would do if a teacher yelled or another student was mean to Naruto. And even if nothing happened, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to pull himself away. 

He could take a nap. That would be fine.

Minato hadn’t slept anywhere but his own bed (or, occasionally, slumped over his desk) for six years, but he’d grown up on the frontlines of war and run countless field missions. He could still stick himself to a tree branch and regulate his chakra to stave off the winter chill. 

Just until the Academy lets out, he told himself as he laid out on one of the thick branches of a Hashirama tree. Then he could go bother Naruto about doing his homework and make him eat a vegetable. Maybe they could play that card game. 

Despite it all, Minato fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Chapter Text

When he was done crying, Naruto heated up one of his meals in his microwave. There were green peppers in it, which were nasty, and he carefully picked them out and piled them into a napkin to take down to the dumpster. 

He thought about how his new friend Minato had said vegetables made you strong. Naruto didn’t think Minato understood just how mega gross peppers were. Besides, what would a wimpy guy like Minato know about being strong?

Naruto did like the rest of the meal. The current lady he had to check on him scolded him a lot, but she was the best cook so far. He wished she was nicer, so he could ask for his favorites more. He’d told Old Man Third about this, and the old man had chuckled and said he’d pass on Naruto’s preferences to the mean lady. 

Nothing had changed, though. He still got scolded, and she still kept putting gross peppers in his food. 

Well, Naruto guessed it didn’t matter. She would leave too eventually, and he’d get a new lady who was mean about new things. Maybe she’d even invent a new gross vegetable. 

While he ate, Naruto thought about where Iruka-sensei had gone, and then what Iruka-sensei had said about the cool mask guys. Was Naruto going to get to meet some soon? They were cool, sure, but it always seemed like they were even more likely to ignore Naruto than anyone else. They never talked. 

Naruto did know where they hung out. He liked hanging out at Hokage Tower, because Old Man Third would talk to him if he wasn’t in a meeting, and if he was in a meeting, Naruto could look at cool ninja. And so Naruto knew the masked ninja were always going and coming out of one building. 

He went to get his spray paint out of its hiding place. The cleaning lady would yell at Naruto when she found his prank supplies, but he had lots of hiding places she never looked. His spray paint was hidden behind his summer bed linen. 

If he pranked the mask guys, then they’d definitely talk to him. 

He was halfway to Hokage Tower before Naruto realized he’d forgotten his napkin of green peppers. He’d meant to toss them on his way out. Oh well.

There were always ninja around the Tower, but there’d be fewer this late in the evening. All Naruto had to do was scoot around the backside of the mask guys’ building, and probably no one would see him. Easy peasy!

He was going to draw a big gross snail, like he used to find out by the Academy when it was warmer. Or, no, what if he drew one of the mask guys saying something dumb like, “I farted!” That would be funny. He bet everyone would stop and look at that. 

There were a bunch of old boxes and junk behind Hokage Tower and the mask guys’ building, and some prickly bushes that got in the way of spray painting. That was okay, though. Naruto was good at climbing on things. He could just stack up the junk. 

Naruto, being a very sneaky and cool ninja-in-training, took a moment to scope the area, just like ninja in comics were always doing. There was no one around. Perfect!

xXx

Minato slept longer than he meant to. While he stayed fighting fit, he hadn’t run a real mission in years, and something about being thirty instead of twenty-two had put his body out of whack. Not only did he oversleep, but not having a bed had done something horrible to his spine. 

I should do more practical training, he thought as he stretched. He could take Naruto camping, and then they could both practice. Maybe invite Kakashi too, as a “guard,” so his advisors wouldn’t get all fussy about him going off by himself. It would be fun. He bet Naruto would love Kakashi, and Kakashi would certainly love teasing Minato about being out of practice. 

Minato took a moment to focus on his Hiraishin marker network and was surprised to find Naruto was not home. Minato did not get any information from his markers besides how far they were from him and other markers, but he was very, very practiced at reading the pattern he’d left in Konoha. He could identify the marker he’d left in Naruto’s apartment, but there wasn’t a second one near it. 

It took Minato a second more to find Naruto. Just like with Kushina, Naruto’s marker could be identified by the fact that it was one of the very few that moved. (The other one that moved, in Minato’s timeline at least, was the one he’d given Kakashi. This Kakashi appeared not to be carrying it anymore.)

Naruto was, for some reason, at Hokage Tower. 

Had they decided to take Naruto into custody, since Minato had made his intentions clear? But it felt like, based on his relationship to other markers, Naruto was outside. Had Minato just caught them in the act of moving him? Surely Sarutobi would know trying to physically hide Naruto from Minato was impossible. A move like this would just turn out embarrassing for him. 

Frowning, Minato went to his son.

Naruto was alone, standing unsteadily on a stack of the ever-present boxes from the Tower’s cafeteria. A spray can was in his hand. 

The box buckled under Naruto’s feet. The stack collapsed. Minato snatched him out of the air.

“Whoa!” Naruto yelped, eyes wide. 

“Careful,” Minato said, feeling a smile spread over his face. Naruto was so little and warm and alive in his hands. 

He’d been smiling all night and day, trying to appear friendly and cooperative to Sarutobi and his cronies. Now the smile was completely genuine. 

He’d caught Naruto under his arms, and the kid had dropped his spray can. Naruto tilted his head back to peer up at him, and his face split into a big grin that made Minato’s insides go all warm and fuzzy. 

“It’s you!” Naruto cried, excited. Then his eyes widened, and in a comically exaggerated whisper he said, “I’m being sneaky, so be quiet, okay?”

“Okay,” Minato replied, matching Naruto's exaggerated whisper. He put Naruto back down on his feet, then squatted in front of him and picked up the fallen spray can. “What are you being sneaky for?”

How had a six year old even gotten spray paint?

Naruto straightened up with excited glee, like the joyous energy he got from whatever he was doing was so powerful it was just shy of lifting him off his feet. 

“I’m pra–” he started at his normal volume, then clapped his hands over his mouth. He tried again in his terrible whisper, “I’m pranking the mask guys.”

Naruto’s face was deeply mischievous, and he was clearly proud of himself. It was very cute, and it took a moment for Minato’s brain to focus on something other than memorizing Naruto’s expression. 

“The mask guys?” Minato repeated. His eyes wandered over the whitewashed wall Naruto had been getting ready to spray. This was the back of ANBU headquarters. “You mean ANBU?”

“Yeah, yeah, them!” Naruto said, again forgetting his whisper.  

There were already three ANBU watching them, hidden away. Minato wondered if one or all of them were this guard Sarutobi had assigned Naruto, or if they were the normal guards for the building. They hadn’t intervened with Naruto’s graffiti attempts yet, and they certainly hadn’t reacted to Minato’s appearance. Sarutobi must have warned them Minato would be around. 

Or maybe they belong to the group of thirty-two he’d already knocked out…? Regardless, three ANBU didn’t pose a threat to him. 

Naruto reached for the spray paint. Minato thought that a responsible parent would stop Naruto from defacing village property, but also Naruto looked so pleased with himself. 

Minato couldn’t help himself. He let Naruto have the can. 

“What’s your prank?” he asked. Another pair of ANBU appeared, and then another. Minato’s lips turned up in an even bigger smile. “Can I help?”

Naruto’s face scrunched up in immediate suspicion. “You want to help? But you’re a grown up.”

“Grown ups like having fun too,” Minato defended. “Besides, some ANBU were mean to me yesterday.”

Naruto nodded like this made sense to him. 

“You are kind of a weirdo for an adult,” Naruto agreed. “Okay. You can help.”

A grand total of eighteen ANBU had gathered, vibrating with anticipation in their hiding spots. Minato was deeply curious about what their orders were now. Under normal protocols, someone should have intervened with Naruto’s intent to deface by now. 

Naruto wanted to make another pile of boxes. Minato pointed out that while he would definitely catch Naruto again, the stack would probably fall over. Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment, and then brightened. 

“Can you pick me up?”

“Sure,” Minato said, way too quickly. 

Gods, he’d be so upset if a different random strange adult took this much immediate attention in Naruto. He really needed to have some conversations with Naruto about talking to strangers. Konoha was mostly a safe place, but a jinchuriki was a high-profile child, and they’d definitely had problems with kidnappings perpetuated by Konoha-nin themselves. 

But to do all that, he’d need to explain to Naruto who he was, and he didn’t want to do it in a way where Naruto internalized that random men could just claim to be his father. Tricky, tricky…

“I can’t see,” Naruto said, and Minato refocused on their prank. 

He’d held Naruto under his arms again, up to the wall. Naruto had sprayed a single line, in a practiced sort of way that indicated he’d definitely spray painted things before. 

“You can’t see?” Minato repeated. 

“Yeah, ‘cause it’s dark, you know,” Naruto said, then fidgeted in Minato’s hands. 

This was true. There weren’t many streetlights back here. Experienced ninja could enhance their own vision with chakra to see in low light levels, but little Naruto definitely couldn’t. 

“Do y’have, umm,” Naruto said, nearly dropping his spray can as he squirmed some more. “In class one time, they gave us these lights that go on our heads and said they were ninja tools. But they took them back, you know. Next time I’ll steal one…”

Minato did not have a headlamp on him, because he’d been dressed for office work, not a field mission. 

“Let’s see…” he said. 

Rather than put Naruto down, he switched to wrapping one arm around him and tucking him under his arm. Naruto giggled happily at this adjustment, unbothered and relaxed. Minato loved every second of this: the quasi-hug of Naruto’s body pressed against his, Naruto’s joy at the game, the impossible opportunity to just goof off with his kid. His smile was hurting his cheeks again, but now in the best way possible. He didn’t even bother with telling Naruto he shouldn’t steal from the Academy. That could be for later. 

Minato patted down his various pockets. He did have a pocket flashlight in one of the flaps of his flack vest, and he switched it on and offered it to Naruto. 

“I need both hands, you know,” Naruto protested. 

Minato hoisted him onto his shoulders next, Naruto giggling the whole way. It was possibly the best sound Minato had ever heard, right up there with when Kushina laughed so hard she couldn’t help but snort. At this point, Naruto could say he wanted to burn ANBU headquarters down, and Minato would gladly help him. 

Minato held the flashlight and pointed it at the wall while Naruto directed him on where to move, his play at whispering completely abandoned. Naruto very boldly commanded him to go left or right, but it seemed Naruto did not actually know his left from his right. It was both adorable and also yet another thing on a very long list of things Minato would have to go over with him. 

Naruto may have poor handwriting, but he definitely had a certain artistic vision. He drew an ANBU agent with a snail mask. The mask was blank with the pinched mouth of a slug and antennae, and Naruto concentrated so hard on drawing a spiral snail shell as a strange growth on the side of the ANBU’s head that he briefly stopped his ongoing monologue about how snails were slimy and gross. 

“I don’t think there is an ANBU Snail,” Minato observed. 

“Huh?” Naruto answered. “Lower, lower! I gotta draw his cool sword.”

Minato crouched slightly. “All the masks are a specific animal, right?”

“Okay,” Naruto replied. 

“So you call them by their animal names,” Minato said. “You drew ANBU Snail.”

“Is there an ANBU Dragon?” Naruto asked. “I bet he’s the coolest.”

“No,” Minato said with a laugh. “They're all real animals.”

“I’ll be the first ANBU Dragon then,” Naruto said, now starting on... floating kunai, or something, around ANBU Snail. “Then I’ll be Hokage, you know!”

“Sure,” Minato agreed. If Naruto wanted to be ANBU Dragon… well, no, Minato would not let his son into ANBU just because he wanted it, and he didn’t intend to give him special treatment once he was working as a ninja. 

But he wasn’t going to tell his son that mythical animals were not feasible ANBU designations. 

(Minato sometimes regretted letting Kakashi into ANBU, but… well, after losing his other students, he’d been terrified of letting Kakashi out of his direct supervision. ANBU meant that not only did Minato have direct control over Kakashi’s missions, but when Kakashi obviously needed a break but refused to take one, Minato could assign Kakashi as his own guard without the humiliation of forced leave.)

Naruto wanted to draw a speech bubble of ANBU Snail announcing he was farting. 

“Why don’t you pick something longer?” Minato suggested. “You can work on your handwriting.”

With the kid on his shoulders, Minato could not see Naruto’s face. But he definitely let out a huff of annoyance. 

“Like what?” Naruto asked. Then, in true Naruto fashion, he simply answered his own question. “Oh, oh, maybe he’s saying, ‘I fart green peppers and cauliflower!’ ‘Cause, green peppers are the grossest of all time, and cauliflower makes me fart, you know.” 

“O-oh,” Minato replied. “Sure. That would be funny.”

Naruto drew the speech bubble first, which Minato thought was an interesting strategy. He didn’t get to see if Naruto managed to fit all this writing in the speech bubble, because one of the ANBU finally leaped down from his hiding spot on the roof. 

“ANBU Cat,” Minato greeted. “Glad you’re up and about again.”

ANBU Cat twitched but did not respond to this statement. Instead, he said, “Sir, this is both trespassing and defacement of Konoha property–”

“CHEESE IT!” Naruto screamed, and then yanked on Minato’s hair.

“Naruto,” Minato hissed. 

“GO, GO!” Naruto yelled in excited glee, now kicking him too. Minato reached up and wrapped his hands around Naruto’s wrists to stop him tugging. That hurt!

ANBU Cat started a standard monologue that was going to lead to him announcing he was going to detain Minato and Naruto. Minato was sure Cat did not think he could actually enforce this. He knew first hand. 

“RUN!” Naruto screamed with the delight of a kid playing a game, his words completely devoid of any real fear of being caught. 

Two more ANBU came out of hiding, surrounding them. 

Well, okay, Minato decided. It’s not like there were going to be any real consequences. 

He flipped Naruto off his shoulders and to a more secure hold under arm. Naruto let out more laughter, even as he dropped his spray can again. 

“Hold on, Naruto,” Minato said, then chucked his flashlight at ANBU Cat. 

He didn’t actually intend to hurt Cat, who snatched the flashlight out of the air. Minato took the fraction of a second of distraction to dodge around Cat and then hop onto the roof of ANBU Headquarters. 

This was the worse route for escape, because most of the other ANBU agents were up here. But Cat was probably the fastest of the agents present, and following Minato up a building would slow him down. Minato dodged around the agents up there with the ease of an Academy teacher dodging around their students. Naruto shrieked in delight the whole time. 

Minato hopped into a tree next, and then the roof of a business building in the adjacent shopping area. 

A handful of ANBU agents followed them, but they were not doing it in much earnest. It was more for show than a real attempt to catch him, it seemed. 

“Go, go!” Naruto cheered. “This is so cool, mister!”

Well, Minato could show Naruto something really cool. He concentrated on his Hiraishin network, and then…

The Hiraishin marker he’d left in Naruto’s apartment was not there. Minato nearly stopped his casual run over the rooftop. 

So not one of the eighteen ANBU had intervened, because they wanted Minato distracted. They’d wanted eyes on him while he screwed around doing something harmless, so they could enter Naruto’s apartment without him intervening. But why?

If he took a couple minutes to concentrate, he could find where the marker had gone. He knew where every marker in Konoha was; it would only take a small headache to figure out where there was a sudden new placement. 

He teleported to the park down the street, where he’d originally met Naruto, instead. 

“Whoa!” Naruto said. “How– mister– you’re really fast.”

Minato set Naruto down on his feet, grinning at him. Naruto stared up at him, wide-eyed with awe. 

“It’s my special technique,” Minato said with a wink. “Why don’t I walk you home, Naruto?”

Naruto took his hand without any prompting, which almost made Minato’s heart melt. Then Naruto spent the entire walk giving Minato a speech about how he couldn’t believe someone as nerdy and lame as Minato could do something so cool. 

Just like Kushina, Minato thought, holding back laughter. 

Minato stopped Naruto from opening his payment door. There was definitely someone inside. 

“Let me go first,” Minato said, voice hard. Naruto shot him a nervous look, but stepped back without question. Minato flashed him a small, reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. Just stay behind me, okay?”

Naruto nodded. Minato pushed open the door. 

Shimura Danzo was sitting at a kitchen table. It was not the one that had previously been in Naruto’s apartment; this new one had a much darker grain of wood.

“What the heck?” Naruto cried from behind Minato. 

“Shimura-san,” Minato greeted, gesturing at Naruto to remind him to stay behind him. 

Danzo did not greet him back. Instead, he cut straight to the chase. 

“You will not be tricking Naruto into accepting any of your Hiraishin markers,” he said, voice dead serious. 

“Uh, what?” Naruto asked. One of his little hands balled into the fabric of Minato’s pants. 

Danzo continued without pause, “You know your interference is bad for Konoha, and it’s bad for this child you seek to protect. I will not be tolerating it.”

They don’t know Naruto already has a marker, Minato realized. He’d assumed they did. It had been a tightly kept secret, but Sarutobi at least had known Kushina had one integrated into hers. Naruto’s seal was exactly the same. 

“You work fast, Shimura-san,” Minato said. “I only painted that yesterday.”

“You are more predictable than many think, and less careful,” Danzo replied. He stood, shoving his hands into the wide sleeves of his kimono. He jutted his chin in Naruto’s direction. “An Academy teacher identified and reported it. The teacher was then given immediate audience with the Hokage and described that you have been hovering round the boy. Do you really think we do not take care of our own, Minato?”

Minato raised his eyebrows. No title or even an honorific, huh? Danzo had never respected him, geez. 

Minato was glad someone had noticed his admittedly suspicious-looking behavior and reported it, and that Sarutobi had taken it seriously. It meant there were people looking out for Naruto, but it was also an annoying development. 

“I think I already made myself clear with Hokage-sama,” Minato said, emphasizing the superior rank to Danzo. “Are you here on his orders, or are you still ignoring them in favor of your own superiority complex?”

Danzo snorted. “Age has made you more impertinent, I see.”

“Did you come here just to insult me?” Minato asked, voice flat. 

“I came to ask a question that seems to have slipped Hokage-sama’s mind,” Dazo said, spine somehow straightening even more. “What, exactly, are your intentions with Naruto?”

He’s my son, Minato wanted to say, but also this would be a terrible and stressful way to reveal that information to Naruto. 

“He’s my friend!” Naruto yelled instead, and Miato had to put a hand on his head to prevent him from moving around in front of him. “He’s nice to me, and he helps me! Why are you bullying him, you old geezer?”

Danzo did not so much as glance at Naruto. Instead, gaze still focused on Minato, he asked, “Is your real son still alive?”

Minato couldn’t help it. His breath hitched. Danzo snorted. 

“I thought so,” he said. 

Danzo moved forward, and Minato straightened his own back, refusing to back down. Danzo had been a terror in his prime, but he was elderly. Minato was confident he could take him down in seconds, even with Naruto clinging to his knees. 

Naruto shuffled around to the other side of Minato’s knees, and Danzo simply pushed open the apartment door. 

“Hiruzen may entertain your delusions,” Danzo said, “but I know what you are after. You will back off from Naruto, or I will intervene.”

“I don’t take well to threats,” Minato warned. 

“We’ll see,” Danzo said, and then stepped out into the darkness of the night. 

The door swung shut behind him, leaving behind tense silence. 

“Oh man, they left the peppers!” Naruto groaned loudly. “Why the heck did they replace my table but leave the peppers?”

“Er, sorry, Naruto,” Minato said, tension retreating from his body as he watched Naruto pout cutely over a pile of green peppers on a napkin. “I think I got your table confiscated…”

He tried to explain the Hiraishin, since Naruto had just seen it. Naruto did not seem the least bit bothered by the fact that Minato had left a piece of fuinjutsu that would let him break into Naruto’s apartment whenever he wanted. 

“No, they took it away because I could use it to rob you, or… or hurt you,” Minato tried to explain, his voice cracking at just the idea of hurting Naruto. 

“But you wouldn’t,” Nauto said, still sounding confused. “'Cause we’re friends, you know. Hey, if you put one on my textbook, and then I threw the book off my balcony, could you teleport into midair and then do a backflip?”

Minato’s lip trembled as he stared down at Naruto, who called him a friend and trusted him so much that it hurt. He would not let Danzo or Sarutobi or anyone keep him away. He would do a million backflips, just to hear Naruto laugh. 

“Oh!” Naruto suddenly said, dropping his napkin of peppers so they scattered across his new table. “I wanted to show you!”

Naruto zipped off to the back room of his apartment, and then came back with a piece of paper. It had an unfinished set of math problems on one side, and an intricate drawing on the other. 

“I drew us!” Naruto said brightly. “Look, see, we’re fighting a monster. I have a sword because swords are cool. And you have glasses because you’re a nerd, and also I realized our hair is the same so we were hard to tell apart. Anyway, the monster has two heads–”

Minato couldn’t help it. He burst into tears again.

“Mister,” Naruto sighed, exasperated. 

“I– I love it,” Minato stuttered out through embarrassing, wet sobs. “Tell me more.”

“I can’t believe you seemed so cool earlier,” Naruto said, shaking his head. He picked up his napkin and shook the rest of the peppers off, and then handed it to Minato. 

The napkin was wet. Minato accepted it anyway.

Chapter Text

Minato very, very much wanted to put Naruto to bed. He wanted to read him a story and then pat his back until he fell asleep. He also thought… well, this would be a very weird thing for an adult friend Naruto only knew two days to do. 

Minato had not liked Danzo’s threats and didn’t want to leave Naruto in the wake of them. But he also didn’t want Danzo controlling what he did. Knowing Danzo, there was a chance that staying with Naruto 24/7 was exactly what he wanted, and by doing so, Minato would be playing right into his convoluted little plan. 

Minato could always teleport to Naruto. No one could take that away. It was safe to go and come back. 

Minato slept in the forest again. He broke into the quartermaster’s supplies first, to knick a tent and a bed roll, because apparently thirty year old spines had problems sleeping on hard surfaces. 

He spent a very long time debating going back to Naruto in the morning. It occurred to him that Naruto was out committing crimes instead of homework or studying, and maybe Minato should see if there was anything he could complete before class. He could make him breakfast and sneak an extra scarf into his school bag.

Also, Minato needed to use a sink. He hadn’t brushed his teeth in a while. He also needed a toothbrush.

Necessity won out, and Minato bought a toothbrush and toothpaste from a corner store and then brushed his teeth in the second floor bathroom of Hokage Tower. Shiranui Genma walked in on him. 

“Uh,” Genma said. He stood frozen. 

“Hey,” Minato said through a mouthful of toothpaste suds. 

“Is this some sort of joke…?” Genma asked as Minato spat out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth. 

“No,” Minato said brightly. “I expect you’ll hear a Hokage’s missive or two shortly.”

He patted Genma's shoulder on his way out of the bathroom. Genma stared after him, shell shocked. 

That was fair, Minato supposed. Abusing henge for practical jokes was pretty frowned upon, but it was also not unheard of younger ninja. He’d pretend this was Genma’s conclusion, and not that his old guard would just let a random unknown impersonator walk around.

Minato knocked on Sarutobi’s door instead of just teleporting in. He was playing nice, afterall. 

“I was wondering when you’d be back,” Sarutobi said. He looked like he’d slept even worse than Minato. The entire room smelled sharply of tobacco, like he’d been in here smoking all night. 

Minato flopped casually into the chair across from his desk. 

“Sorry,” he said. “I had to go blow off some steam. Man, it’s strange to sit on this side of the desk again.”

He crossed his legs and smiled. Perfectly friendly, almost harmless. 

“I see,” Sarutobi said at length. 

“I came to talk to you about archive access,” Minato continued. “I decided I’m alright with having someone vet records for me, as long as the process isn’t too slow.”

“That can be arranged,” Sarutobi said. He reached over and patted a small stack of papers. “I’ve already selected someone for you to work with and given her an emergency briefing. She’s free to meet with you whenever.”

Minato purposefully broadened his smile enough for his eyes to crinkle. “Great,” he said. 

Sarutobi stared at him for a few moments, then sighed, exhausted. 

“Have you made any decisions regarding… accommodations?” Sarutobi asked, sounding preemptively resigned. 

“Oh, I thought I’d just stay with Naruto,” Minato said. “Speaking of which, I had the most interesting conversation with Shimura-san last night.”

“I can imagine,” Sarutobi said dully. 

Minato drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. “I was wondering if those were your orders or not.”

Sarutobi’s mouth thinned into a hard line, but he said nothing. Well, that answered that. Sarutobi had always kept Danzo on a loose leash, and he was very good at looking the other way. When Minato had complained, years ago when he was still new to the hat, Sarutobi had told him: Every Hokage has had a shadow, to correct oversights. Keep your eye on him, but let him do what he needs to. 

This was yet another of Sarutobi’s policies that Minato simply didn’t agree with. Maybe Sarutobi, who’d fought in battle and bled alongside Danzo, could trust him implicitly, the way Minato would trust Jiraiya or Kakashi making a decision he didn’t understand. But Minato certainly didn’t trust Danzo, and he’d been forced to spend years reeling him in. 

“Speaking of which,” Minato continued, “I need you to tell Naruto I’m his father.”

Sarutobi simply raised his eyebrows. 

“I need him to believe me,” Minato explained. After a moment of hesitation, he offered up the additional olive branch: “You’re the closest he has to a guardian. I want him to learn it from a trustworthy source, one that he knows cares about him. I don’t want Naruto thinking he can trust random strangers because they can make up stories he wants to hear.”

After a very long pause during which Sarutobi did not stop looking incredulous, he finally said, “I’m glad you’re attempting responsible parenthood.”

This wasn’t really a yes. But it also wasn’t a no. 

Instead of continuing this conversation, Sarutobi said, “I have sent word to Jiraiya, as I imagine he’s the best suited to correcting fuinjutsu accidents besides yourself.”

“Thank you,” Minato said. 

They switched to logistics. Minato would have his archivist consult, and he warned Sarutobi he might need space and people from R&D, which Sarutobi nodded along to. Sarutobi was willing to grant Minato a per diem as long as he continued working on leaving, which was good because Minato had spent all his pocket money on a toothbrush. 

“I’d be happy to cover a hotel room,” Sarutobi hinted.

“No thanks,” Minato replied. 

When they were done, Minato thanked him for being so cooperative. 

“Don’t thank me so soon,” Sarutobi said with a deep sigh. 

Minato chose not to unpack that. He bowed and left, intent on finding this archivist. 

xXx

Archivist Haruno Mebuki was a no-nonsense woman in a carefully ironed and pressed formal dress, about a decade older than Minato himself. She managed to use impeccably polite language while also sounding like she was completely unimpressed with him. 

Minato had seen the name Haruno on paperwork before, but he’d never met Mebuki. He had no idea how. She was a… strong personality. 

“The Tobirama scrolls are antiques,” she stressed more than once. “Do you have proper technique for handling them?”

“Believe it or not, I’ve handled them a lot,” Minato told her. 

Mebuki did not look like she believed him. She had already collected the scrolls on time travel for him, at least. 

As Hokage, Minato could take whatever files and scrolls and documents he pleased and read them in his office. He could even take them home if he wanted. 

As a run of the mill Konoha-nin, he had to sit in a cramped little room in the archives building while Mebuki breathed down his neck. It made him feel like a teenager again, going through Tobirama’s scrolls for the first time. He did not mention to Mebuki that in his timeline, several of Tobirama’s scrolls lived at his house simply because he liked them. 

“Can I eat lunch in here?” Minato asked as a joke. The absolutely scandalized look Mebuki made was almost worth the lecture. 

He bought lunch at a convenience store near the archives. Several people gave him very weird looks. Minato had forgotten to ask Sarutobi what story he was telling the general populace for why Minato was now suddenly around. Maybe he should have left his cloak with Mebuki…?

Minato did finally teleport to the Academy to check on Naruto. The ANBU were back, with one agent on the roof of the school and one hidden in a tree outside of Naruto’s classroom. They both tensed when Minato arrived, but he ignored them. They did nothing. 

Minato had missed the lunch hour and settled for peeking in a window at Naruto's class. The students inside were in a lethargic post-lunch haze. One– that had to be Shikaku’s kid– was flat out asleep at his desk. 

Naruto sat at the back of class, looking disgruntled as the teacher lectured. He wasn’t taking notes, but half the students weren’t either. Minato squatted on the wall outside, shoveling shredded cabbage and meat into his mouth as he debated if he should do anything or not. 

He didn’t, because he didn’t remember any parents doing anything like barging into class to talk about proper note-taking when he was in the Academy. But also he’d never had parents, so he wasn’t sure what was normal. 

The teacher said something about more math homework, and Naruto and several other children groaned loudly.

“NARUTO!” the teacher yelled, completely ignoring that an Inuzuka boy in the front row had pretended to gag. 

Stand down, Namikaze, Minato had to instruct himself, even as every muscle in his body clenched in anger. Killing intent will scare the kids. 

Inside, Naruto looked unhappy, but he didn’t look any more upset than he had before he’d been yelled at. The teacher had gone back to lecturing. Minato calmed down. 

The thing was, it wasn’t like Minato was against Naruto being disciplined for acting out. He just wanted him treated fairly, like all the other kids. If he were in his own timeline, he could set up an inquiry, get a report on what were patterns of behavior and what were just one-off events for teachers, and then he could discipline people where needed. 

But here he had no institutional power. He was just a dad. He didn’t know what regular parents… did. 

If Minato wanted parenting advice, he had plenty of adult friends with kids he could ask. He regularly got drinks with Ino-Shika-Cho. Kushina’s old friend Uchiha Mikoto checked in on him sometimes. The problem was that while those friends were here physically, he did not have that relationship with them in this timeline. 

His adult friends in this timeline were… Mebuki. Kind of. 

When he went back to the archives, he asked Mebuki, “Do you have kids?”

“A daughter,” Mebuki said with a little sniff. “She’s six, and at the top of her class for academics.”

Mebuki transitioned to a long rant about how reading and arithmetic and good manners were more important than being able to shove another little kid over in a spar. As she talked, she unpacked a new set of scrolls for him. 

“Um, sure,” Minato agreed. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he disagreed with Mebuki. He was a little intimidated by the idea of arguing with her when he inevitably asked for a document Konoha decided he shouldn’t see. Maybe she was ANBU Dragon. “Has your daughter ever, ah, struggled with anything academic?”

Mebuki eyed him like he’d brought his lunch into the archives. 

“Of course not,” she said. 

“My son… does,” Minato said very slowly. “I checked on him during lunch, and–”

“You shouldn’t do that,” Mebuki dismissed immediately. “Your son needs to learn independence. If he fails because he doesn’t pay attention, or because he doesn’t study, then he fails. That’s what I tell Sakura.”

That seemed… wrong?

“How does Sakura… know… how to do those things?” Minato asked. 

He certainly didn’t remember learning any of those things. But also, he’d never had to study. He simply remembered things. 

“When she fails, I correct her,” Mebuki said plainly. “She fails less and less every day. But failure is a better teacher than we parents are.”

Minato felt kind of bad for Sakura. He hoped Mebuki was a kinder mother than she was an archivist. 

That first day Minato didn’t even get through even half of Tobirama’s writings on time travel and probabilities. He already knew the gist of them, so he was reading closely and taking notes on finer details, taking special care to jot down any references. Tomorrow, Mebuki would start working on those references. Tobirama wrote in a very old style and didn’t use modern citation methods, and any additional documents Minato requested would have to be cleared by multiple higher-ups. Mebuki had a lot of work ahead of her. 

For today, she just sat there looking scary. Mebuki was very good at her job, Sarutobi had promised, but she was just a chunin. She didn’t have the clearance to look at any of the scrolls she’d pulled, and so she did not assist Minato in reading. 

Towards the end of the day, Minato started checking the clock almost every minute. 

“I want to pick my son up,” he told Mebuki earnestly. 

“Punctuality is a virtue,” Mebuki said, although Minato could still feel her judging him. Then she sniffed and said, “There’s a boy in Sakura’s class, a real troublemaker. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. He arrives late almost every day, never follows directions, and even pranks teachers, and Sakura comes home and giggles about it. I have been working very hard to correct her behavior on this matter. Punctuality, discipline, obedience– those are shinobi virtues. Make sure you model those for your son, lest he turn out like that Naruto.”

Minato decided to request a new archivist. 

He didn’t bother confronting Mebuki. Like Naruto’s teacher, she was just a symptom of some terrible clusterfuck Sarutobi had spent six years failing to untangle. 

I should start a list, he thought. 

xXx

Minato bounced on the balls of his feet as children trickled out of the Academy. A group of parents and caretakers lingered around the Academy gates with him, although the group wasn’t very big. Konoha was a safe place for kids to walk home alone. Still, Minato knew that Kushina had wanted to pick Naruto up herself every day. If she couldn’t do it, he would. 

This was it. He was finally going to explain things to Naruto, and then he was going to move in with him and love him so much.  

A couple of people gave him curious looks, but no one approached or openly stared for more than a few seconds before looking away. Minato imagined most ninja knew he was running around by now, and the students here would be too young to remember him and have reason to boggle. He was either a time traveled Hokage who was better to ignore in favor of not getting involved, or just some random man. 

The stream of children thinned, all of the parents had left, and he still didn’t see Naruto. Minato frowned slightly. He could feel Naruto’s Hiraishin marker was inside the building. Should he go inside too?

A teenager in a chunin uniform walked out of the school. He saw Minato and froze, then immediately turned around. Minato watched the kid’s shoulders stiffen and then slump and straighten up again. 

The kid walked over to him. 

“Uh, hi, sir,” he started. “I’m Umino Iruka–”

Minato tilted his head back in recognition. “You’re one of Naruto’s teachers.”

Was Minato about to hear a Mebuki-style review of his son? He could feel his mood darken against his will. 

“Y-yes,” Iruka agreed. 

Iruka was a few years younger than Kakashi, still gangly in the way teenagers could be. Minato hadn’t been familiar with the given name, but he recognized the family name and the scar over the bridge of his nose. Iruka wasn’t a standout ninja skillswise, but he had a no-nonsense work ethic and strong sense of fairness, which was why Minato had approved his application for Academy teaching assistant. Sarutobi apparently had the same thought process. 

Weird, that they could think the same, when Minato was currently so unimpressed with Sarutobi’s leadership. 

“Naruto’s cleaning the classroom right now,” Iruka said, very noticeably not meeting Minato’s eyes out of nerves. “He, um, was accused by another student of stealing her school supplies.”

“Okay,” Minato said flatly. That seemed… well, he understood Naruto was a troublemaker. But he also understood that Naruto frequently got in trouble for things that weren’t his fault. 

“I wasn’t assigned to his class today, so I don’t know the details,” Iruka continued. “But I thought you’d like to know where he is.” 

“Thank you,” Minato said, voice still flat. 

“Right,” Iruka said, and then bowed stiffly. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Minato replied, then teleported away. 

So, Iruka wasn’t on his steadily growing shit list. Not yet, at least. At least the kid had the balls to speak to him, knowing full well who he was and what his relationship to Naruto was. 

Minato teleported directly to Naruto and ended up in the boys’ bathroom. The ANBU watching through the window nearly fell off the wall. Minato again ignored her. He was annoyed by the idea that, if this kept up, ANBU might spy on future intimate family moments, but for today he supposed that wouldn’t matter. Soon he’d be removing Naruto faster than ANBU could follow. 

Naruto was perched on the edge of the sink, gripping the edges of the mirror and making faces at himself. 

He yelped in surprise when he saw Minato behind him. 

“What are you doing here?” Naruto demanded. 

Minato raised his eyebrows, immediately back to his good mood now that Naruto was in front of him. 

“I thought you were cleaning the classroom?” Minato said. 

“I’m cleaning the bathroom,” Naruto corrected. Then he shifted nervously on the sink’s edge. “Um, uh, this is how I clean sinks…”

There was indeed a sponge in the sink, and a bucket of soapy water on the floor. 

Minato wanted to take Naruto and run. He didn’t really care if Naruto was stealing or not, not in the face of everything else that was going on with Naruto. But at the same time, he did care. A good parent would address this. 

“I heard a rumor you stole something,” Minato said gently as Naruto climbed down from the sink. 

Naruto froze with his little hands still on the edge. He’d left dirty footprints all over the sink, undoubtedly making more of a mess for himself to clean up. Or, well, it would be more for him to clean up if Minato was leaving him here to clean, which he wasn’t going to do. 

“You can tell me if you did, and I won’t get mad,” Minato said slowly. “And you can tell me if you didn’t and got in trouble anyway, and I’ll help you. I just want to know what happened, that’s all.”

Naruto glowered up at him. 

“Ami takes Choji’s pencil every single day,” Naruto said, stomping his little foot in indignation. “How was I supposed to know Shikamaru steals them all back?”

“O-oh,” Minato said. This was not how he was expecting this story to go. 

Naruto did steal this girl Ami’s entire pencil case, because he thought at least some of her pencils belonged to someone else Ami was bullying. The implications of him also taking all of Ami’s writing supplies did not seem to have occurred to him at all. Ami told on him, the teacher had not listened to Naruto’s confusing story at all, and Shikamaru had called him dumb. 

So. That was a lot. Minato had really underestimated the intense drama of first year Academy students.  

The good thing was that Naruto wasn’t stealing to be mean, or because he didn’t have his own pencils. He thought he was righting a wrong, even if he hadn’t made the best decision. Minato felt himself relax. 

He thought Naruto cleaning a bathroom by himself was pushing it for punishing such a little kid, even if Naruto had taken an entire pencil case. And he didn’t like how the teacher had talked to Naruto, even if Naruto’s impersonation of the teacher was funny. But the situation wasn’t as bad as he thought it might be. 

Minato decided he could talk to Naruto about going to adults he trusted with problems like this later. Preferably after Naruto understood that Minato was an adult he could trust with anything at all. 

“Here,” Minato said, offering Naruto his hand. “I’ll break you out.”

Naruto’s eyes widened with excitement. 

“Like with the–” Naruto started, voice and full volume, and then cut himself off. In his comically loud whisper, he asked, “Like with the masked guys?”

Minato leaned in and whispered back, “Exactly.”

Without a single thought for the consequences of skipping out on something a teacher told him to do, Naruto slapped his hand down onto Minato’s. 

Should Minato talk to him about that? Eh, that could be dealt with later. 

Minato decided to let Sarutobi have warning he was back, so he teleported into the bows of a Hashirama tree outside of Hokage Tower, rather than directly into Sarutobi’s office. 

“Whoa!” Naruto cried, and Minato had to hold him by the arms to steady him on the tree branch. Naruto peered through the leaves at the Tower. “Are we going to see Old Man Third?”

Minato crouched carefully next to him, making sure not to jostle the branch and leave Naruto feeling unsteady, even as he kept his hands firmly on him. 

“Yep,” Minato agreed. “He needs to tell you something important about me, okay?”

“Okay…?” Naruto replied. 

Minato licked his lips nervously, debating the best way to explain this. 

“I really, really want to tell you myself,” he said. “But it’s important that a trustworthy adult tells you, so you know it’s true.”

Naruto squinted up at him in confusion. He was perfectly at ease in the tree, like he knew Minato would never let him fall. 

(Or like he was too young to have to have learned to fear falling. Either way, Minato wouldn’t let it happen.)

“Aren’t you a trustworthy adult?” Naruto asked. 

“Er…” Minato started. “Well, I am, but you should make sure I’m… that I’m not lying…”

Naruto stared at him like this made no sense to him. Then he shrugged and squatted down on the tree branch himself. 

“Whatever,” he said. “Look! I can climb down myself, you know!”

Minato cognitively knew tree climbing was taught from day one of the Academy and was an encouraged game for all children in Konoha. He’d gone through life assuming any kid Naruto’s age could competently climb, right up until the exact second his son did it in front of him. He fretted over Naruto the whole way down. 

“D’you know where Old Man Third’s office is?” Naruto said, retaking Minato’s hand. “C’mon! I’ll show you!”

Naruto took off at a run, and Minato felt his face melt into a smile. He didn’t even give any of the freaked out staff or increasingly on-edge ANBU a second glance as Naruto charged up the tower stairs. 

He imagined Naruto running up the stairs in his timeline, coming to see him after school had let out, to tell him about the pranks he’d pulled and the friends he’d made… 

Naruto did not even bother knocking before pushing open the doors. Maybe Minato should add that to the list of things to talk to Naruto about.

Sarutobi had been waiting for them, because he was leaning back in his chair with his unlit pipe in his mouth, not hunched over paperwork or speaking to someone or staring out the window in thought. His eyes met Minato’s with a deeply tired look. Then his gaze dropped to Naruto, and he summoned a smile. 

For all his screw ups, Minato did believe that Sarutobi cared about Naruto. 

“Naruto, I told you to talk to my secretary first before barging in,” he said kindly. 

Naruto stuck his tongue out. “She’s mean!” he said, grabbing Minato’s arm with his other hand so he could hang off of it. “I don’t like her!”

Sarutobi’s eyes rose and met Minato’s again. 

“And who’s your friend, Naruto?” Sarutobi asked. 

“Don’t you know him?” Naruto asked. “He’s a ninja, you know. Don’t you know all the ninja? His name is Minato and he’s my friend.”

Sarutobi took a long draw on his pipe, although it was unlit. Biwako had warned Minato more than once, during Kushina’s pregnancy, that he must never smoke around babies or small children. 

“Sarutobi-sama,” Minato said. It was very important to him that Naruto be informed properly. But he didn’t have all day. 

“I understand your eagerness,” Sarutobi said. “But you haven’t given me much of a script.”

“I gave you all day to come up with one,” Minato told him flatly. 

“What’s going on?” Naruto asked. “Are you arguing?”

Sarutobi sighed. 

“This is one of those complicated adult things, Naruto,” Sarutobi said. “We’re aren’t arguing. We’re discussing.”

Naruto pouted. Minato put a hand on his head. 

Sarutobi put his pipe down. 

“Well, I don’t see any reason to sugarcoat it,” he said. “Naruto, this man is named Namikaze Minato. For the last six years, he was dead.”

Naruto peered up at Minato, tilted his head back against the weight of his hand. 

“He doesn’t look dead,” Naruto said. 

“No,” Sarutobi agreed. Naruto leaned back further, grinning up at Minato as Sarutobi talked. Minato grinned back. “I’m sure he will explain the details to you. But it’s important that you understand he was, for all intents and purposes, dead for the entirety of your life. 

“Naruto, Minato is your father.”

Naruto’s eyes widened, the goofy grin sliding right off his face. His body went completely still. 

“He wanted me to be the one to explain, so you understand it to be true,” Sarutobi finished. “Minato is, verifiably and truly, your father.”

Naruto hiccupped and his eyes went watery, clearly overwhelmed. 

“B-but,” he started. 

Minato had gotten what he wanted from Sarutobi. Maybe there existed another world where this had all gone better, with more trust and good faith, where he would have wanted Sarutobi— the one adult Naruto felt completely safe around— to help him with this conversation. 

But they weren’t in that world. Minato wanted privacy from Sarutobi and from his prying ANBU. He teleported himself and Naruto back to Naruto’s apartment. 

“Hey, Naruto,” he said, dropping to a squat in front of Naruto. Naruto was tearing up still. 

“A–are you r-r-really…” Naruto spluttered out. 

“Yes,” Minato said, as sincere as he could be. “You’re my son, and I love you so much.”

Naruto flung himself into Minato’s chest, his little hands clenching in the fabric of his flak jacket. Minato let himself fall back onto his butt and then held Naruto as tight as he dared. He pressed his face into his hair. 

“The moment you were born,” Minato said, his breath rattling as he concentrated on the things he wanted to tell Naruto right away before he too started crying, “was the happiest I have ever been. I have thought about you every single day since. I was so, so happy to meet you, and I’m never leaving again.”

Naruto said something into Minato’s chest. Minato laughed wetly and rubbed his back. 

“I can’t hear you,” he said. 

Rather than pull away, Naruto’s solution was to talk louder. 

“Why’d you die?” he asked, syllables still muffled. Minato understood, Why did you leave me?

“I didn’t want to,” Minato assured him. “But it’s hard to explain.”

He talked for a while, trying to keep the concept of time travel simple. Naruto hadn’t seen either of the movies Minato could think up as examples of something similar. Naruto did turn his face to the side, to press his cheek against Minato and still be able to speak easily. 

Clean and clear examples were not one of Minato’s strong suits. The conversation took a long time. 

“So you thought I was dead?” Naruto repeated more than once. 

Minato understood what the real question was: Why did you never come back to me? 

Except, if Minato had just thought Naruto was dead, he would have still looked for him, looked for a way to save him or get him back, until he knew for certain that he was truly gone. Minato had, instead, been absolutely positive his infant son was dead. He’d held his little body. He’d buried it. 

He did not share this last bit with Naruto, but it was important that Naruto understood that Minato had not just simply given up on him. 

Eventually, Naruto’s stomach growled. 

“Why don’t we get dinner?” Minato suggested. Naruto tightened his grip on him, as if he were afraid to let go. While Minato would let Naruto cling to him for as long as he needed, it was also important that he ate. 

Minato bribed, “I’ll take you to your mom’s favorite place.”

Naruto finally perked up, although he didn’t let go. 

“My mom?” he said, stunned and excited. “You knew my mom?”

Minato laughed. “Of course I knew your mom. We were married. And guess what her favorite food was?” 

“What?”

“Ramen.”

Naruto gasped. 

Chapter Text

Naruto sat with his dad– his dad– at the ramen stand. His dad– his dad– kept grinning at him as they waited for ramen. He had a really nice smile that Naruto liked. It made Naruto feel like he cared about what he said. 

Naruto had seen adults with nice smiles before. But usually when they looked at him, the smile shrank, or it got less nice. When his dad– his dad– looked at him, his smile got bigger. 

Naruto sniffled and rubbed his nose. Oh no, had his dad given him crybaby genes?!

“It’s okay,” his dad told him, then pulled a napkin from the box on the counter. He reached for Naruto’s face and then paused. “Um, you can do it, or… I can…?”

Naruto grabbed the napkin to blow his own nose. He was a ninja-in-training after all!

Minato had a photo of Naruto’s mom, tucked away in his ninja vest. It was little, but Naruto couldn’t stop looking at it. Minato had propped it up between them on the counter, against the stand the menu came in. Naruto’s mom smiled back at them. 

She was dead, which made Naruto sad. But Naruto had already known she was dead, so it didn’t hurt so much. 

“She’s pretty,” Naruto said. “I like her hair. I wish mine were like hers.” His hand went up, and he tugged at his own hair. “I mean, I guess I have your hair, so that’s okay. But her hair is better, you know.” 

Minato laughed, and then he ruffled Naruto’s hair. Naruto hated when Old Man Third did this, but somehow it was okay when it was his dad. He liked the weight of his hand on his head, knowing that he was there. 

“When I first saw her introduce herself at the Academy, I thought Kushina was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen,” Minato said. “She was also the bravest girl I ever met. Oh, and funny. And strong.”

“Was she a ninja?” Naruto asked. Maybe he could have at least one cool parent. Not that he didn’t like Minato! Minato was more like a nerdy ninja. 

“Mmhm,” Minato said. The ramen guy appeared with their bowls, and Minato picked up the photo and tucked it back into his vest. Naruto was sorry to see it go, but also he didn’t want ramen soup to get on his mom. “She was a really, really powerful ninja.”

“So she was cool?” Naruto asked eagerly. “A badass?!”

“Little kids shouldn’t use words like that,” Minato chided, but then he winked. “But yes. She was very badass.”

Naruto slurped his noodles while Minato talked about his mom. The noodles were maybe the best thing he’d ever tasted, so he knew his mom had good taste on top of being a cool badass ninja. 

Naruto’s family name was Uzumaki because his mom was from a famous clan and Minato wasn’t, so her name won. This made sense to Naruto. Obviously he was going to be a cool badass ninja, so he needed a cool badass name. 

The Uzumaki didn’t live in Konoha, though, and they’d all died a long time ago. But Naruto’s mom had moved to Konoha before that, and she’d been in the same class as his dad. His dad told a story about how she was kidnapped one day, and then he’d gone and saved her. Naruto didn’t super get this story, because it seemed like Minato should be the weeping crybaby that got saved. But! His mom had been super smart about being kidnapped, and she’d left a trail of her pretty hair for Minato to follow. 

“And then you fell in love?” Naruto asked. 

“Hmm,” Minato said, still smiling down at him. “I think I fell in love the moment I saw Kushina. But maybe that was when she decided she loved me back.”

Minato explained that, when he was in school, Kushina used to make fun of him and call him a wimpy nerd. 

“You are a nerd,” Naruto told him, and Minato laughed. “And you cry a lot.” Then he said, “I wish I could meet my mom.”

“I wish so, too,” Minato said. He leaned in like he was telling Naruto a secret. “I miss her a lot.”

When Naruto was done with his ramen, Minato said, “Now I want to hear about you, Naruto. For example, I know you like ramen and hate peppers. What are your other favorite foods?”

“Peppers are the worst,” Naruto agreed. “And ramen is the best! Especially this ramen, you know! And I also like…”

Naruto frowned. There were some foods he liked for which he had no real name, because most of his food was pre-prepared stuff the cleaning lady left for him without explanation. He attempted to describe them to Minato, who nodded along like Naruto was telling a very interesting story. 

“Oh, and snacks!” Naruto said, remembering some sweets Old Man Third brought him recently. He listed them to Minato while they walked back to his apartment. He grabbed for Minato’s hand, and Minato let him hold it the whole way and even squeezed his hand back, just like Naruto saw other parents doing.

Well, Minato had let him hold his hand before too. But now it was even better! Because he was Naruto’s dad! And he was nice to him and listened to him, even if he was a wimpy nerd!

“Hey,” Naruto said as he kicked off his shoes.

“Naruto, put your shoes away neatly,” Minato said. Naruto knew he was being scolded, but Minato said the words like he was the happiest man on earth, so it didn’t sound like scolding. Weird. 

It was okay though. Dads were supposed to tell kids not to kick their shoes, and Minato was weird in a good way. Naruto placed shoes neatly along the wall before stepping into his slippers. 

“Hey, so,” Naruto repeated, “am I going to live with you now?”

“Ummm,” Minato said, suddenly looking sheepish. “That’s something we have to talk about. Let’s sit down.”

Minato put on the pink slippers again. When Naruto rushed to sit at his new kitchen table, Minato suddenly pursed his lips and frowned. Naruto felt a sudden pang of worry, that maybe he’d done something wrong and then he’d get yelled, just like at school. 

But Minato didn’t yell. Instead he told Naruto to stand back up because he wanted to check the table over. He then leaned over it and ran his hands all over. Eventually he clicked his tongue and then slipped something into his pocket. 

He grinned at Naruto, same as before, and Naruto felt relieved. 

“All clear!” Minato announced. “Do you want me to make tea?”

“Um, hot chocolate!” Naruto asked. 

Minato went through all the cabinets, and then for some reason snooped in the oven and the trash bin and other places hot chocolate definitely wouldn’t be. 

There wasn’t any hot chocolate, so Minato made the tea. He talked while he worked. 

“I don’t have a house or an apartment right now,” he said. 

“Because you were dead?” Naruto asked. 

“Because I was dead,” Minato confirmed. “But in the near future, I’ll have one, and we can live in it together.”

“Can I keep my stuff?” Naruto asked. 

“Yes, you can keep your stuff,” Minato agreed. “But, for right now, Naruto… would you be okay if I lived here with you?”

“Yes! Duh!” Naruto yelled immediately. “Oh, but I only have one bed…”

Minato pulled a scroll out of his vest, and used it to summon a bedding roll. This was easily one of the coolest things Naruto had ever seen. Did kids with ninja parents just get to do this all the time?!

“Maybe this weekend we’ll go shopping and I’ll buy a futon,” Minato said. “But this is fine for now.” He turned to Naruto. “What do you think? Do you want me to sleep in your bedroom with you, or sleep in the kitchen and give you privacy?”

Naruto opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly felt overwhelmed. His dad was asking him about where to sleep. His dad was here, and he was staying with him. He had a dad. Was he really allowed to have a dad? What if he was dreaming? What if Minato left or died again? What if Minato found out about how no one liked Naruto and started to ignore him too?

Naruto wanted to say he wanted Minato to sleep as close as possible to him. Instead, he started to cry. 

“Oh, Naruto,” Minato exclaimed, and then he was sitting next to Naruto on the floor at the table. He put his arms around Naruto and pulled him against his chest. “Hey, it’s okay.”

He rubbed Naruto’s back. Old Man Third hugged Naruto sometimes, but he never did that. It felt nice. 

“It’s okay,” Minato repeated. “I’m here, okay?”

And even though Naruto couldn’t stop crying like a pathetic little baby, somehow it did feel okay. 

xXx

Minato held Naruto until he calmed down. It didn’t take long; Naruto was a resilient kid. After a few minutes of back rubs, Naruto pulled away. He snorted snot back up his nose as he blinked up at Minato with glassy eyes. 

“So now what do we… do?” Naruto asked, voice tiny and shy. 

“Right now?” Minato said. “Anything you want.”

“Do you want to see my comic?” Naruto asked, instantly filled with excitement. His face brightened like he hadn’t been bawling his eyes out moments ago. 

He dashed off to his room, and then ran back with a wad of papers he’d stapled together poorly. Minato sat obediently at the dining table, and Naruto flopped down next to him, slapping the papers down on the table. 

“Okay, so this is a story about the Ramen King,” Naruto started. Then he trailed off, looking up at Minato. 

His shyness was back. Minato grinned at him, willing him to ask whatever he wanted. 

“Um, can I…” Naruto said. His cheeks flushed. “Kids sit in their parents’ laps, right?”

“Of course,” Minato said, scooting back slightly and leaning back to give Naruto room. His heart pounded with anticipation. He thought he’d never get to do this with Naruto. 

Naruto crawled into his lap, and Minato wrapped both arms around him. Naruto was so little, and warm, and alive and breathing. Naruto was tense at first, even as he leaned back against Minato’s body. He did it gingerly, like Minato might disappear into the ether. 

“You okay?” Minato asked. Naruto tilted his head back to meet his eyes. 

“You’re not going to make fun of me, are you?” Naruto asked. 

“No,” Minato told him simply. “I think you’re cool, Naruto.” 

“And you’re not gonna decide you don’t like me anymore and leave?”

Minato shifted, tightening his grip on Naruto with one arm and moving the other so he could run his fingers through Naruto’s hair. 

“No,” he promised. “You’re my son. We have the same hair and everything. You’re stuck with me forever, no matter what.”

Naruto did relax then, fully reclining back into Minato’s chest like he was a comfy chair. He sat like that for a few seconds, one hand resting on top of Minato’s arm across his belly. Then he sat up straight, arms reaching for his comic. Minato loosened his grip as Naruto bent forward to lean over his comic. 

Minato leaned forward with him, resting his chin on the top of his head. 

“Okay, so,” Naruto was saying, opening his makeshift comic book. “This is a map of the Land of Ramen. It was in the middle at first, but Sakura-chan said books put the map first…”

xXx

Minato didn’t get to put Naruto to bed, because Naruto fell asleep in his arms. Minato sat there for over an hour, just marveling at the kid in his arms and trying not to make noise while he fought back more tears. This was his son, miraculously alive, and willing to trust him and let Minato love him. 

Eventually, Minato had to stand and put Naruto in his bed. His first time tucking Naruto in! 

The ANBU had shown up again midway through Naruto’s Ramen King comic. Their observation wasn’t aggressive in that they stayed outside, which was more privacy that many under watch were given. Minato waved out the window at the one stationed on the wall before pulling the blinders. 

Minato was used to having a guard on him at all times, and once he had Naruto back in his own timeline, he would almost definitely assign a guard specifically to Naruto. That someone might be at his window didn’t bother him. He was annoyed by the intrusion it represented for his relationship with his son. At least the ANBU he could physically see didn’t have a typical Hyuuga phenotype. He might be tempted to intervene if he knew a byakugan was on him. 

Now, the recording device he found on the underside of Naruto’s kitchen table… that pissed him off. He pulled it from his pocket and examined it. Standard issue, same as any shinobi could pick up. Not one of the more advanced spy fuinjutsu, possibly because he and Kushina had gotten drunk one night and figured out a way to reverse them to spy on the other side… 

He’d broken the device the second he’d found it. He tossed it in the kitchen trash. 

Minato spent some time rifling through Naruto’s apartment next. He didn’t want to pry too deep into Naruto’s personal stuff until they knew each other better, but he also needed to know what he was working with in terms of “items a person needs to live” and searching for other listening devices. He’d done a preliminary check before while pretending to look for hot chocolate, but now he took even more time to dig further into things. 

Minato took an inventory of everything in the kitchen and bathroom and poked around in a linen closet and Naruto’s clothes closet. Naruto’s bedroom had a little living area created by a TV with a rug in front of it, which was covered in candy wrappers and some beat up comic books. Minato took a few moments to tidy it. 

He couldn't wait to assign Naruto chores…!

Minato found no further bugging, but he wasn’t really expecting it. A shinobi of his caliber could easily find and debug an entire apartment very quickly, and so it generally wasn’t worth the resources to plant more than one on an experienced ninja. If they bothered to check, they’d find them all immediately. 

Of course, sometimes even the best ninja forgot to check. They could be distracted, or lulled into a false sense of safety. It had almost entirely slipped Minato’s mind, he’d been so excited about spending time with Naruto. That was why it was always worth it to plant the one bug. 

Now, what to do about it…

First of all, Minato obviously wasn’t going to not plant Hiraishin markers all over the apartment. He’d already dropped a couple, the second Danzo had left the night before. He wanted the convenience of moving around freely, the instant access to his and his child’s living space, and now he additionally wanted the petty fuck you to Danzo. A marker could be removed by moving what it was attached to, but Minato had all sorts of surfaces to mark. 

He painted a marker on the floor by the front door, as he had in his own home, and then on the door itself. He planted a few more random ones across the floor and walls. He marked the underside of a couple cabinets and the bathroom sink and the linen closet. He silently crawled under Naruto's bed and drew one there, and another one on the floor in front of the TV.  

Then he sat at the kitchen table and finally took a few minutes to concentrate and track down what happened to Naruto’s old table and the marker attached to it. It took a few minutes of meditation, but he eventually located the lost marker in a civilian neighborhood towards the outskirts of the village. 

He teleported to it and found himself in a back alley. The table was propped up behind a dumpster, with one of its legs broken off. It just looked like junk someone had set out. Clearly they had considered the fact that he could just teleport to any marker and determined the best strategy was abandonment. 

The real question was, was Danzo still screwing around with his own chapter of ANBU, and was he still based out of a Hashirama-era underground bunker? 

And did he realize Minato had access to that bunker, because Tobirama had left his own markers inside? 

Minato tapped his chin, debating the way forward. 

Danzo’s ROOT was almost definitely still in operation, he decided. That’s how Danzo maintained his power, that and the fact that Sarutobi had implicitly supported him. Minato hadn’t even tried to shut him down his first couple years in office, because the village was at war and he didn’t want to distract himself from that with massive internal restructuring. If everything about these timelines were the same up until the day of Naruto’s birth, then Danzo would know that Minato had some base knowledge of ROOT and its internal mechanisms. 

In his own timeline, Minato had eventually attempted to force Danzo into retirement. When that hadn’t worked, and against Sarutobi’s advice, Minato had ended up putting Danzo on trial for treason. 

Technically as Hokage, Minato could punish anyone he wanted without having to justify himself to anyone. But he didn’t believe in such actions against his own comrades without a fair investigation, and Danzo was an important enough figure that Minato could have faced severe backlash if he could not produce evidence to the public. 

The evidence, dug up over the course of years of investigation, had been overwhelming. They’d uncovered all sorts of heinous things, from some weird conspiracy involving Orochimaru’s defection to a secret agreement with Hanzo of Ame. Many of Danzo’s recruits had no known origin, despite some being clearly part of Konoha shinobi clans. They were still working on piecing the mess together. 

His timeline’s Sarutobi had apologized to him, back hunched over with age and the weight of regret. His Danzo was currently sitting in the bowels of T&I, set for execution, but with too much intel in his brain for Minato to finalize the sentence without running him through every interrogation Ibiki and Inoichi could come up with. 

As for this timeline, Minato had no way to guess what Danzo had been up to with six more years left unchecked. A lot of Danzo’s actions were, in the best faith interpretation, done as a misguided and arrogant attempt to protect Konoha’s interests during a time of war. Minato had no idea where his attentions would shift during peacetime. 

There was a good chance that Minato knew significantly more about Danzo than Danzo would anticipate. He still remembered the brief look of surprise on Danzo’s face when he’d been arrested. Corruption could only grow to such absurd levels when the perpetrator had no fear of being caught. Danzo’s arrogance would make him unlikely to predict Minato had investigated him. 

But what to do about it? Minato still needed Konoha’s cooperation to get home, and Danzo’s interference would be treated by Sarutobi as part of Konoha’s will. This Konoha clearly wanted Minato out, but anyone who’d thought for more than two seconds about his actions would conclude he was intending to bring Naruto with him. They’d slow down his research and try to split him and Naruto up if he rocked the boat in the wrong way. 

At the same time, despite often coming off as a pushover, Minato wasn’t going to let Konoha think for a second they could fuck around with him or his son. This wasn’t his Konoha. He wasn’t Hokage. He had no responsibility to anyone but Naruto. If they started a fight, Minato would finish it, and he needed them to know that. 

He would win, too. They knew that. That’s why they hadn’t tried to kill him already. 

Right, Minato decided, reaching forward for the table. I’ll make a point without being too aggressive. 

Tobirama’s Hiraishin markers were a little tougher to use, but he could still do it. He dragged the table out from behind the dumpster, and then the next moment, he was in Danzo’s secret ROOT office.

Despite the six year difference, the office looked essentially the same. It was an underground office, windowless and lit only by a dim emergency light over the door. There was nothing special about it: the desk was the same as any officer’s desk, the filing cabinets along the wall looked mundane. 

As he leaned the table against Danzo’s desk, Minato briefly considered snooping. That would be a huge time and energy waste without a goal, though, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t just come back. 

Like, obviously Danzo was going to flip out and set up more security. But that still couldn’t keep Minato out. 

Minato did decide not to make it obvious he had markers in the buildings, besides the one on the table he was gifting them. He left through the door, easily disabling the fuinjutsu trap on the way out. He moved cameras in the hallways and undid more fuinjutsu as he made his way up to the exit. The hallways were well-lit and he did have to hide from a couple of roaming masked shinobi, but the top couple floors of the ROOT complex were administrative and therefore mostly empty after-hours. It would be unusual for admin to be at work this late into the night, barring some village crisis. 

Am I a village crisis? Minato wondered as he pushed open the bunker door to exit into the patch of forested training ground it was hidden under. He teleported back to Naruto’s apartment immediately. 

Guess I could be… 

xXx

Minato slept on Naruto’s floor and spent his morning in a blissful haze. 

He understood, seeing Naruto try to get himself ready in the morning, why the kid was late to class frequently. He had an alarm someone had set to go off every morning, but other than that, as a six year old he obviously had no time management. He spent a long time picking out his outfit and then, when Minato asked if he ate breakfast or bathed first, spent a long time verbally debating which he wanted to do next. Minato took his own shower and came out to find Naruto had abandoned the breakfast he’d prepared and was making toast. 

Naruto’s school bag, at least, was packed up because neither of them had thought about his schoolwork at all last night. All Minato had to do was slip one of the pre-made lunches Naruto had into it. 

“Did you have homework?” Minato asked, and Naruto just stared blankly back at him while he chewed on his toast. 

He definitely had math homework, Minato remembered. 

Minato found Naruto’s school planner in the bag. Naruto had started to copy his homework assignment and then simply stopped halfway through, leaving off any information Minato would need to know to figure out what the assignment was. 

He flipped through the pages of the planner. Naruto only managed to copy down full homework assignments only about a quarter of the time. Many pages had drawings of stick figures holding ninja weapons instead of writing. 

Welp, Minato thought, chagrinned. At least drawing will help with fuinjutsu later?

Did Academy teachers not check students were writing their homework down? Minato remembered his planner being checked over a lot in his first few years, but he couldn’t remember how often or for what purpose. 

Maybe he should have a meeting with Naruto’s teachers. There was no point trying to make any sort of systemic changes in this Konoha, because he was simply going to remove Naruto as soon as he could. But he didn’t want Naruto falling behind in school, and he couldn’t help Naruto with homework if he didn’t know what the homework was. 

“I’m going to write you a note,” Minato told Naruto. He dug a pen out of his vest. “You can show it to your teacher if they ask about the missing homework.”

The Academy teachers should be briefed already, but also Minato had no idea what specifically Sarutobi was disclosing to anyone. He debated what his note should even say. 

There was a box at the bottom of every page prompting teachers to write notes to parents and parents to write back. They were all blank. Minato couldn’t wait to fill them up, but he did have limited space. 

He wrote a brief note about Naruto going through some major adjustments at home that had prevented him from doing homework. Then he politely asked that teachers double-check Naruto was actually copying down his assignments. That should be enough, right?

“Are you going to walk me to school?” Naruto asked, curious. 

“I’ll do you one better,” Minato said. “We can use Hiraishin again.”

Naruto was so excited by this prospect that he tripped over his own feet rushing to put on his shoes. 

All things considered, Naruto was still running through the front doors right when the bell rang. Ah, well. Some excellent shinobi were chronically late. 

Naruto being late did mean Minat couldn’t talk to a teacher without disrupting class. Well, he’d just do it in the afternoon. 

Minato went to the archives and realized he’d forgotten to ask to replace Mebuki. 

“The Aiuchi citation will need to be borrowed from the capital’s special collections,” she reported of her progress on obtaining references. “It will be difficult to convince them, but don’t worry.” She held up her hand, knuckles flexing inward like a beast showing off their claws. “I will make it happen.”

“Um, thank you,” Minato said. Maybe he would hold off on firing her, if she could hold her tongue. 

That day was less nerve wracking than before, not in small part because Mebuki now had tasks to do instead of lecturing him on how he held a scroll. The day was productive. Minato pushed through most of the Tobirama scrolls, and Mebuki presented him with pages of careful notes on what documents she thought matched with citations, where they were located, and what steps she’d need to take to obtain them. 

She was confident she could get at least a couple of them to him by the next morning, even with the red tape to get them cleared for viewing by Minato. 

“I know where Fujita-san buys her morning coffee,” Mebuki said of Hokage’s assistant in charge of such approvals. Her eyes were steely as a ninja off to war. 

ANBU Dragon, Minato thought as he packed up for the day. Perhaps he should assign mythological designations to exceptional non-ANBU personalities. He bet Naruto would have some great ideas.

Chapter Text

Naruto woke up in the middle of the night, suddenly aware he was alone again. He couldn’t hear his dad in the other room, no matter how hard he concentrated, like he had been able to before. 

Naruto knew from movies and stories other kids told that ninja could go completely silent if they wanted. That’s how sometimes teachers would sneak up on him mid-prank. But the sudden absence still made him worry. What if his dad didn’t come back? Should he get up and go look for him? 

Somehow he fell back asleep instead. And then, when his alarm went off, his dad was back! And he took him to school with his cool ninja technique!

Naruto scooted into class only five seconds after the bell rang, he swore. The main teacher, Mako-sensei, looked at him like he was going to yell, but then he didn’t. Phew!

Iruka-sensei was in class today, already at the board and writing boring notes for them to copy. Naruto grinned. Any day where Iruka-sensei was there was a good day. 

Naruto went to his usual seat. There was a boy already sitting there. 

“Uh, hello?” Naruto whispered. “That’s my seat.”

The boy stared up at him. He was very pale with dark hair and eyes, and he just sort of stared at Naruto with no real expression on his face. 

“No, it’s not,” the boy said. “I sit here everyday.”

“No, you don’t,” Naruto said very slowly. Maybe this boy was kind of stupid. “Because I sit there everyday, you know.”

“Naruto,” Mako-sensei called, sounding very cross. “Sit down so we can get started.”

Scowling, Naruto moved further down the row. There was an extra seat next to Hinata, which no one sat in because Hinata was a weirdo. She didn’t even look up at him when he sat down. 

The chair at this new seat had uneven legs. Naruto rocked back and forth a few times. Hey, that was fun… 

He rocked some more. 

“Naruto.” Iruka-sensei was standing over him. “Have you been paying attention at all?”

“Yes,” Naruto lied immediately. 

Iruka-sensei’s mouth thinned out the way it did when he was two seconds from yelling. Naruto blinked up at him, waiting. He liked when Iruka-sensei came and talked to him, even if he yelled. 

“Naruto, what are you meant to be doing right now?” Iruka-sesei asked. “What did Mako-sensei just tell you to do?”

“Uh…” Naruto glanced around the classroom. Everyone else had their workbooks open. Hinata, hunched over her desk, bent up her workbook so he could see the cover was for their survival training. “Survival training!”

Iruka-sensei pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Get out your workbook,” he instructed Naruto, then he manually flipped through the book to the right page for him. “Do you remember we learned about dangerous animals yesterday? This is a review.”

There were a bunch of questions where Naruto had to circle what he was supposed to do in certain scenarios, which involved things like running into bears or snakes. The answers all had little cartoons instead of reading, which he liked, because it took him a really long time to figure out what the questions were. 

Iruka-sensei watched him for a little bit, and then moved down a row to yell at Shikamaru for napping in class again. 

The morning was okay. Then, before they got to go to lunch, Mako-sensei announced they’d be doing math next and for everyone to turn in their math homework as they left for lunch. Everyone dug their homework and lunchboxes out of their bags and lined up at his desk. 

Naruto was nervous for a moment, because Mako-sensei got extra grumpy when he was hungry right before lunch, but then he remembered he had a note! Naruto had never had a note from a parent before, but he knew they were basically magic. Choji’s parents had made it so he could snack in class. One time Ino had turned in a note that magically excused her from running laps for three whole days. 

Naruto very proudly slapped his school planner down on Mako-sensei’s desk and announced he had a note from his DAD!

Mako-sensei did not look directly at him, because Mako-sensei never did unless he was going to yell at Naruto. But he did look at the note. He frowned. 

“Naruto,” Mako-sensei said very seriously, finally looking at him. “What adult did you trick into helping you with this?”

“Huh?” Naruto asked. “It’s not a prank, you know. I met my dad and he gave me that. See?”

Naruto actually had no idea what the note said, because it was filled with kanji he couldn’t read. But probably it said something like: I am Naruto’s dad, and he’s too cool for your lame homework, so there.

“What are you talking about?” Shikamaru asked from behind him in line. 

“Naruto, this is a very serious thing to lie about,” Mako-sensei started, working his way up to a yell, but then suddenly Iruka-sensei was by Naruto’s side and waving his arms like he was nervous or something. 

“Mako, Mako,” Iruka-sensei said very quickly. “Remember that missive we all got?”

“What does that have to do with–” Mako-sensei started. 

“They’re related,” Iruka-sensei said, placing a hand on Naruto’s shoulder. 

Suddenly, Mako-sensei’s eyes went huge. His whole face went white. Naruto squinted at him. Was he sick?

“Sensei?” Shikamaru drawled. 

“Why don’t I talk to Naruto about it,” Iruka-sensei said, and then suddenly Naruto was being pushed up to the back of the classroom. 

Naruto fidgeted while the last of the class filed out. Mako-sensei still looked really freaked out. Maybe he found out that Naruto’s dad came back from the dead. That did sound really weird, like his dad was a zombie or something. 

“Okay,” Iruka-snsei said with a deep sigh after Sasuke, the last person in line, left the classroom. Iruka-sensei sat at the desk next to Naruto, which looked funny because Iruka-sensei was a teacher. “Naruto, I met your dad yesterday. He seemed nice.”

“He’s the best,” Naruto exclaimed, and then he told Iruka-sensei all about Minato. How he was super nice, and also a crybaby nerd, but he showed Naruto some cool jutsu and helped him run away from the mask guys, and also he knew Naruto’s mom. 

“That’s great,” Iruka-sensei said, a strained smile on his face. “Has your dad told you anything about, uh… his job?”

“He’s a ninja,” Naruto said immediately. What else to the job was there?

“I think you should ask him about that,” Iruka-sensei said very slowly. “I think it’s important for you to know.”

“So then you tell me,” Naruto said, confused about why everyone kept doing this. 

“That’s not my place,” Iruka-sensei said after a very long pause. “But, hmm. Naruto, this is hard to explain. I want you to understand that people will know who your dad is, but I don’t think Hokage-sama announced you’re his son.”

“Why not?” Nauto asked, feelings hurt. He had a dad now. Was that a bad thing? Why wouldn’t Old Man Third tell everyone? 

“I think for privacy,” Iruka-sensei said. “Your dad is… kind of famous.”

“No way,” Naruto said with a laugh. “Famous people are cool, you know.”

Iruka-sensei just stared at him for a very long time. 

“Anyway,” Iruka-sensei said awkwardly. “I’m going to convince Mako-sensei to excuse your homework this time. But you can’t use a famous dad to get out of doing work in the future, alright?”

“Well duh!” Naruto replied. “I’m gonna work hard no matter what, train my butt off, and become Hokage!”

Iruka-sensei made a funny face. Naruto had no idea why, because Naruto regularly told Iruka-sensei about how he was going to be Hokage. 

Naruto next went out to the yard with his lunch, having already forgotten most of his conversation with Iruka-sensei, except the most important parts, which were that Iruka-sensei had been nice and that Naruto had successfully gotten out of doing math homework. 

Usually, Naruto played by himself at lunch, or sometimes he ended up in a fight with another kid. Today, the boy who had stolen his seat walked up to him. 

“Hello,” he said. “Do you want to be friends?”

“No!” Naruto yelled back immediately. “You stole my seat!”

This didn’t turn into a fight, the way Naruto yelling at his classmates often did, because Shikamaru walked up to them next, with Choji trailing behind him. 

“What do you mean you have a dad now?” Shikamaru asked. “And why did that scare Mako-sensei?”

Naruto puffed himself up. He was proud to explain his awesome life to Shikamaru. Minato was a crybaby loser, but he had to be cooler than Shikamaru’s dad, who was probably a lazy wimpy lamewad like Shikamaru. Naruto told him as much. 

“Shikamaru’s dad is the Jounin Commander,” the seat-stealing kid said, his face still blank and creepy. “So I think he’s probably very good at being a shinobi.”

“Who are you?!” Naruto yelled at him. 

“I’m Sai,” the boy said. “I’ve been in your class all year.”

Shikamaru frowned. “No, you haven’t.”

The boy turned his creepy eyes to Shikamaru. “How would you know? You’re asleep most of the time.”

Choji laughed, and so Shikamaru backed off. Kiba bounded over to them, asking loudly if they were playing a game, and could he play too, because the girls were being boring. 

“Hey, I have a question,” Naruto said, realizing that Shikamaru had had his dad much longer than Naruto had had his. “You guys have ninja families, right?”

“I have two parents and they are ninja, yes,” Sai said immediately. “I experience a normal home life.”

“Uh, okay,” Naruto replied. 

He asked if it was normal for parents to just leave in the middle of the night, and then come back. He did not say he was afraid it meant his dad might be planning to leave him. 

“No, that’s very suspicious,” Sai said. 

“What are you talking about?” Shikamaru said with a yawn. “My dad gets called in in the middle of the night all the time. Sometimes he’s not even back by morning.”

“Really?” Choji asked. “My dad never does that.”

“That’s because he's a field commander,” Shikamaru said. “He’s off-duty when he’s in the village, Choji.”

“Well, my mom–” Kiba started. 

Naruto frowned as he listened to his classmates debate his question. It seemed like maybe there were a lot of different types of ninja jobs, and for some of them you just got summoned in the middle of the night to do stuff. This made Naruto feel better. Maybe Minato had just had a cool mission.

Now Naruto was interested in this, though. He wanted to ask as many of his classmates as he could about if their parents ever left in the middle of the night for cool missions. Shikamaru followed him, asking more questions about Naruto’s dad and where he’d been. 

“He was dead,” Naruto said. “It’s not hard to understand, you know.”

He said this in front of a group of girls, and Ino stuck her nose up.

“That’s probably code that he was in ANBU,” she said with the air of a complete know-it-all. “Sometimes they disappear for years and then come back. That’s what my mom said happened to my cousin.”

“Didn’t she also tell you not to repeat that?” Shikamaru said, scratching his ear. “Girls. You’re all gossips.”

Ino shoved him. Ami stood up, put her hands on her hips, and explained in great detail that her mother was a cool kunoichi who was constantly being summoned to go fight people in the middle of the night. 

“Fight people?” Ino said, distracted from her attempts to hit Shikamaru. “Your mom’s a medic. She’s being summoned to the hospital.”

Another girl said her father got summoned on missions in the middle of the night sometimes, and then Sakura-chan said neither of her parents ever did. 

“That’s because they're not real ninja,” Ami said. “They have desk jobs. I bet they can’t even do ninjutsu, just like you.”

Sakura-chan stared at her feet. This made Naruto feel a little bit bad for her. Naruto also thought her parents sounded lame, but he didn’t like seeing her get all sad. 

“Anyway, Naruto,” Ami said, turning her face to him. She preened. “I walked by the teacher’s lounge and heard Hitomi-sensei telling Mako-sensei you bailed on your punishment yesterday! You’re gonna get it.”

She laughed at him. 

Oh shoot, Naruto thought. He didn’t have a note for that…

xXx

Minato spent the day in a reasonably good mood. Mebuki had produced several new documents on fuinjutsu theory, which Minato had never read before. They weren’t really immediately applicable to the problem of time travel so much as he needed them to understand the structure of the seals Tobirama had been describing, but they were interesting. He enjoyed reading them. 

He wondered if Danzo had found the table yet. If he had, he hadn’t retaliated. 

As much as he liked advanced fuinjutsu theory, it was exhausting to read, especially when he had no one to bounce ideas or thoughts off of. Mebuki politely hummed at his commentary, but she had no real input to offer. 

Minato’s mind started to wander by the end of the day. Naruto needed groceries, and Minato wasn’t actually sure how he was supposed to have time to do a full day’s work, work with his son on his homework, shop and then cook a meal, keep things clean, and then also have time to just hang out with his kid. 

He certainly wasn’t sure how he was going to do it when he was Hokage again and randomly had days where he spent fifteen hours in his office. At least then he’d have more people he could just order around. He’d had his assistant pick up groceries or babysit a plumber at his house more times than he’d like to admit. 

He considered asking Mebuki for advice, and then immediately decided against it. Mebuki probably managed her personal time with as much terrifying efficiency as she managed the archives. 

“Will you be working on the weekend?” Mebuki asked eventually. It was Friday. 

“Um,” Minato replied, considering. Weekends meant Naruto wouldn’t be in school, which meant Minato could hang out with him, and also he was unsure if it was play to leave a six year old by himself, even if Naruto was pretty self-sufficient. But also, he wanted to get this done as fast as possible. “Maybe half days. Would you mind if I brought my son?”

Mebuki eyed him like he’d started snacking in her archive. 

“How old is he?” she said at length. 

“He’s six,” Minato said. “He’s in Sakura’s class, actually.”

Mebuki’s eyes narrowed, like Minato had just presented her with an especially difficult math problem. 

“You’ve heard of him,” Minato said helpfully. “His name is Naruto.”

All the color in Mebuki’s face drained, so at least she had shame. However, she didn’t offer an apology for her rude words the other day. She also banned Naruto from the archive. 

“He’s too young,” she said with one of her little sniffs. “I don’t even bring Sakura in with me.”

“That’s a pity,” Minato said. “Well, we’ll see then. Do I need to tell you ahead of time if I decide to come in?”

They hashed out some more logistics, and then Minato offered to Hiraishin Mebuki to the Academy to pick up their kids. The gobsmacked face Mebuki made at just the thought was, actually, pretty funny. 

“I appreciate the offer, but my husband watches her in the afternoons,” she said with a dismissive wave, and then Minato was at the Academy gates. 

Turned out, Naruto was being held after class for punishment again. Minato found him in his classroom, alone with Iruka. When he stepped into the room, Iruka gave him an incredibly stressed look. 

“Dad!” Naruto called, leaping up from his desk immediately. 

“We need to talk,” Iruka said. 

“Naruto,” Minato greeted his son. “Hold on a second. Sit back down.”

Naruto sat back down at his desk, looking hurt and betrayed. Oh no, now Minato felt bad… 

Iruka looked like he might vomit at any second, even as he gestured for Minato to move to a corner of the room so they could talk without Naruto overhearing. Clearly he was uncomfortable with whatever he was going to say. Or maybe he was just terrified to talk to Minato. That would be fair. 

“I think it’s fair to explain to you why your child is in detention,” Iruka said with a shaky voice. 

“Go on,” Minato said, his own voice hard. The this better be good was implied. 

“I recognize the situation is complicated,” Iruka continued. “However, Naruto stole a classmate’s supplies, and I don’t think it is good for him as a shinobi, or fair to his classmates, to not correct the issue–”

“Did you ask him why he was stealing?” Minato interrupted, and Iruka looked vaguely like he might cry from nerves. 

However, once Iruka kept talking, Minato didn’t find the situation too bad at all. Iruka had talked to Naruto about the pencil thing, and then to the other students involved. And then– Iruka explained this very circuitously, but Minato could read between the lines– the other teachers had wanted to double Naruto’s punishment for skipping out on it, and then flipped and wanted to drop the matter altogether when they learned Naruto was his child. 

“So you took it upon yourself to discipline my son?” Minato asked, putting a hand on his hip. 

“Naruto is… he has good intentions, but he struggles a lot in the classroom,” Iruka said slowly. His gaze was resolutely on Minto’s shoulder rather than his face, but his voice had evened out. “I don’t want this to turn into a situation where he fails to learn important lessons because he’s getting special treatment. Um, either because his parent is… you… or in the other direction because of… prejudice. Sir.” 

“And what lesson is he learning here?” Minato asked, jabbing a thumb in Naruto’s direction. 

“That stealing from classmates is wrong,” Iruka said firmly. “I told him next time to come to a teacher, or to you. But I think maybe it would be more meaningful if you had a conversation about it with him too.”

On a more practical level, Naruto’s punishment was just the math homework he’d missed. Now he had time and space and the undivided attention of a teacher to help him. 

“What about the other girl?” Minato asked. He did not, for most intents and purposes, care about another random small child getting what was coming to her for childish bullying. But he didn’t like the idea of Naruto being singled out when there were other wrong doers involved in the pencil drama, especially when apparently teachers thought a fair response was to double the punishment. 

“It’s against school policy to share other student’s details to parents,” Iruka said flatly. 

Minato laughed. Yeah, okay, this kid had a spine of steel. Minato would believe he was genuine in his explanation, and also he found the reasoning fair. Naruto had stolen his classmate’s pencil case, and that needed to be addressed. As long as Iruka was fair about it and also explained to Naruto why what he did was wrong, Minato was okay with it. 

“Well, alright,” Minato said. He clapped Iruka on the shoulder, and the poor kid looked like he was about to collapse. “You're a good teacher. I’ll be back soon.”

He went grocery shopping. 

xXx

Good news: Minato got to have a long conversation with Iruka while Naruto tugged on his cloak and then his hand. 

Iruka said he’d personally check Naruto was copying things down properly in his planner. Iruka was an assistant who moved between classrooms, so he might not be able to every day, but he also volunteered to talk to Naruto’s main teacher. 

“It is policy to check every day for first years,” Iruka said. “But um… well, I’ll talk to Mako-sensei about adherence.”

Bad news: Naruto was mad at him. He’d been under the impression he’d both gotten out of his math homework and his punishment for stealing scott-free.

“I thought parents got you out of trouble!” he whined while Minato chopped vegetables for dinner. 

“You did steal a pencil case,” Minato told him. “We talked about why that was bad.”

Naruto scowled. Minato felt bad. He had just bailed Naruto out of his original punishment, so this must seem like very confusing mixed messaging to a six year old. Stealing a pencil case was not actually something Minato cared much about, in the grand scheme of things. But it was a big deal in the world of first year Academy students, and Minato didn’t want to set a precedent where Naruto thought he could break rules and Minato would just get him out of trouble. 

Before Minato could figure out how to discuss the nuance of the situation with Naruto, the kid’s bad mood transitioned into anxiety that Minato would get mad and leave him again. This almost instantly broke Minato’s heart and made his breath hitch.

“Naruto, I’m never going to leave you,” he said. “Promise.” 

“Then why’d you leave at night?” Naruto asked, accusing. 

Oh, he’d noticed that? What an observant kid. 

Minato put down his knife. He sat next to Naruto and rubbed his back. 

“Sometimes we’re going to have to be apart, but it will only be temporary,” Minato said. “For example, parents don’t come to school, and kids don’t go to work, right? That’s normal.”

Naruto stared up at him and said, “So then were you on a cool ninja mission last night?”

“Um… something like that,” Minato said. 

Being Naruto, this was all he needed to cheer him up. Minato went back to cooking, and Naruto happily babbled about his day in school. He’d done some investigating of what his classmate’s parents did, and reported on everything he could remember. 

“...and then Ami-chan said that Sakura-chan’s parents aren’t real ninja ‘cause they work at desks. Is that true?” Naruto asked. “Can you be a ninja and have a lame job?”

Minato frowned as he watched his soup slowly bubble. 

“Lots of ninja have desk jobs, and they’re very important,” he said. Naruto looked incredulous. “Naruto, being Hokage is a desk job.”

Naruto’s eyes widened in shock. 

“Nuh-uh!” he protested. “Being Hokage means you’re the strongest! You fight bad guys all day! Old Man Third just doesn't ‘cause he’s old!”

Minato opened his mouth to ask Naruto what he thought Minato did all day, and then remembered that Naruto did not actually know that Minato was Hokage. Which. 

Well.

Huh. 

He should figure out a way to explain that. But it still wasn’t as immediately important as figuring out Naruto’s whole… situation. 

“I think that made Sakura-chan sad though,” Naruto said, and then started picking his nose, which was yet another thing to add to Minato’s ever growing list of things to address. “She gets sad a lot. Like when other kids say mean things to me, I just hit ‘em ‘cause I’m cool. But Sakura-chan just gets sad.”

Okay, so there were… so many things to address there. Parenting was hard. 

“Naruto, wash your hands,” Minato told him, and then started on preparing plates for them both. “So, when kids say mean things, that’s bullying…” 

They had a long talk about bullying, and how this Ami girl was a bully, and how yes, technically Naruto was a bully if he made fun of Shikamaru or stole Ami’s pencil case. They talked about what to do about bullies: how Naruto could tell Iruka (Iruka, specifically, because Minato had no idea what was up with the other teachers), how he could cheer Sakura up, how it was okay to tell Ami to stop as long as he wasn’t breaking any school rules.  

Naruto, in Minato’s opinion, had a good heart. He was empathetic to his classmates when they got upset. He’d even wanted to help Minato, an unknown adult, that night in the park. But because nearly everyone had treated Naruto like crap his entire life, Naruto had a complete disconnect in his brain about how harsh words could make someone feel bad. He didn’t see any way to solve a situation besides yell more or act out. This was just his normal. 

This revelation made something dark churn in the pit of Minato’s stomach, made him wish for a physical thing he could work his frustrations out on, preferably with violence. It made him resent Konoha as an institution. How dare they do this to his son, who had done nothing wrong? 

“But Shikamaru is a lazy lamewad,” Naruto said, genuinely confused, as Minato tried to prompt him into saying something kind about his classmates. 

Well. At least Naruto was cute and funny, and Minato was here now to teach him to be kinder by example. Mebuki’s opinions on parenting were… flawed… but at least she understood that part right. 

Minato told Naruto he was proud of him for wanting to defend his classmates. 

“Maybe I will ask Iruka-sensei for help next time,” Naruto said, nodding to himself. “Usually adults just ignore me or don’t believe me, but you know, I told him she steals pencils every day and she tried lying to Iruka-sensei and now she has two whole weeks of extra laps!”

Chapter Text

Naruto had to admit it. He was related to a big, giant nerd. 

For one brief, glorious moment, Naruto had thought he was going to watch Saturday morning cartoons with his dad. Old Man Third had done this with him one time, and it had been fun to hear someone else laugh along with the cartoons. But his dad said he had to go to the library to work, and then he’d given Naruto a really sappy, wibbly look and said he could come too. 

Naruto had not wanted to go to the library, even if he did like that his dad wanted him to come. So now instead of watching cartoons, he was at the library. He felt grumpy about it. His dad made annoying, boring choices! 

Naruto had been to the library before, of course. The Academy had a field trip here one time, and Old Man Third had brought him once. Both times everyone had been very concerned about showing him how to find books to read about learning boring stuff. Naruto, being cool and smart, had quickly figured out he could come here and read comics for free!

“I’m not allowed to bring them home though,” Naruto told Minato seriously. “‘Cause I took a comic into the bath with me, to read in there, you know, and then the librarian yelled at me and put my name on some list so they don’t give me books.”

Minato cocked his head to the side and smiled all tight, the way he did sometimes with the stories Naruto told. It was about two steps away from being scary, and Naruto had gathered it meant he was mad about something someone else did, because when he didn’t like what Naruto did, he always just told him and was never scary or mean about it. But he did get like that about other people sometimes, and Naruto had yet to figure out the pattern of what made his dad mad.  

“Is that so?” Minato said. “We’ll take them out under my name, then.” 

Minato let Naruto pick two comics, but then he said Naruto had to get a real book too. So Naruto put his two comics and one boring horrible book on the desk while Minato smiled at the librarian and told her his name, and then the librarian turned bright red and started stuttering while she checked out Naruto’s books. 

“My son, Naruto, said you have him on a blacklist,” Minato said, putting a hand on Naruto’s head. That tight smile was back. “You can go ahead and take him off. I’ll make sure he takes care of his books at home.”

“R-right!” the librarian stammered, and then nearly dropped a bunch of papers trying to find Naruto’s name. 

Naruto vaguely remembered Iruka-sensei mentioning people would know who Minato was. He’d also said… well, Naruto didn’t remember, so it couldn’t have been important. 

“So we can go watch cartoons now?” Nauto asked as they walked out of the library. 

“Umm,” Minato said. “Sorry, kid.”

It turned out there was an even bigger, nerdier library behind the regular one. This one was so nerdy you had to get special librarians to even go find your books, so there weren’t any shelves or anything to look at. Instead they went to a boring little room without even windows, and some old lady with light-colored hair flared her nostrils in outrage at Naruto. 

He stuck his tongue out at her. 

“Naruto,” Minato scolded. “Be polite. This is Sakura-chan’s mom, Mebuki. She’s helping me do research.”

Minato sat Naruto down at the table in the little room, and then Mebuki gestured Minato over into a corner. But the room was small enough that Naruto could still mostly hear what they were saying. 

“We agreed to no children,” Mebuki hissed. 

“Sorry,” Minato said, putting his hands up and looking all sheepish. “Naruto is… adjusting, so I don’t want to leave him alone. You understand, don’t you?”

Then Minato’s smile morphed into something much more confident, and he leaned into Mebuki and said something about how he appreciated Mebuki’s understanding, and she was so helpful to him. Mebuki’s cheeks turned pink. 

“Don’t let him touch anything,” she said, and then turned on her heel and marched out of the room.

She came back with a super old scroll, which actually did look kind of cool. Naruto reached for it immediately. 

“Nope,” Minato told him, gently catching his wrist. “This isn’t for kids, Naruto. You work on reading that book, and I’ll work on reading this. Okay?”

Naruto scowled and turned to his book, which Minato said he had to read at least some of before he could look at the comics. The book was about a group of awesome-looking ninja Minato called the Sannin, and had lots of pictures, and some of the pictures had blood, so he hoped it would be cool. 

Also, he didn’t have to read if there were pictures!

“No,” Minato said when Naruto made to turn the page. Minato didn’t even look up from his scroll as his hand covered Naruto’s, stopping him from turning the page. “Read the text. There’s furigana. You can do it.”

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Minato next. Minato’s lips quirked up, and then again without taking his eyes off his stupid scroll, he reached up and pinched Naruto’s cheek.  

Ugh!

“Nerd,” Naruto muttered under his breath. He said it as mean as he could, because this was Saturday and he was being made to read, but the little smile on MInato’s face didn’t falter. 

Naruto overall had a terrible morning. Reading was always awful, and Minato would coach him through trying to remember what letters were instead of just telling him. He didn’t get far enough in the book that Minato let him switch to the comics, and Mebuki gave him a scary look if he got too close to the old scrolls she set on the table. When they finally left to go home for lunch, Naruto felt restless and frustrated and cranky. 

But then the best thing ever happened!

“Do you want to get a head start  on shurikenjutsu?” Minato asked. 

xXx

Minato watched as Naruto’s excitement tanked immediately when Minato announced the first thing they had to learn was safety. 

“Shuriken and kunai are dangerous,” Minato told him, standing across from him in the dusty training ground. “It’s easy to cut yourself or hurt a classmate if you don’t learn safety first. Here, look.”

Minato showed him a faded scar on his thumb, from grabbing a shuriken wrong during an Academy drill. Naruto would only be using dulled weapons for now, but the Academy curriculum transitioned students to sharpened blades quickly. Some clan kids were probably already practicing with them at home. 

Naruto became briefly fascinated with Minato’s hand, grabbing it with both his own little hands and turning it over to examine it from all angles. Minato let him, a smile tugging at his lips. 

“And this one?” Naruto asked, pointing to a scar on the back of Minato’s hand. 

“Oh,” Minato said. “I blocked a kunai.”

Ideally one wouldn’t block a kunai with their bare hands. But it was certainly better than blocking a kunai with one’s face. 

“And this one?” Naruto asked, touching a scar on the back of Minato’s knuckle. 

Minato patiently described the source of all the scars on both hands for Naruto. A good portion of them were from mishandling his own weapons– which happened to anyone who used bladed weapons a lot in battle, where circumstances and adrenaline could make even an expert’s fingers slip– but some of them were from enemies. The latter genre of explanation made Naruto gasp in awe every time. 

So cute, Minato thought, and he resisted the urge to pinch Naruto’s cheeks or to pull him into a hug and just hold him for the rest of the afternoon. 

They were in the first empty training ground Minato had located, with a brand new set of dulled training weapons. Naruto’s physical training at the Academy so far had been mostly conditioning, climbing, some games to work on dexterity, and the occasional taijutsu exercise with an accompanying spar. Soon the Academy would start on weapons, more advanced taijutsu, and chakra manipulation, but Minato wanted to be the one to give him those lessons first. 

He’d missed Naruto’s first steps, his first words. He wouldn’t be missing any more firsts. 

The best thing about getting to train Naruto was that they could do it entirely at Naruto’s own pace. There was no war he needed to prepare him for as quickly as possible, and the Academy would take care of preparing him for their tests. If Naruto wanted Minato to explain every scar on his body to understand weapons safety, they could do that. This was just as much about familial bonding as it was Naruto’s ninja training. It was about them getting to know each other, and Naruto learning to trust in Minato. 

Minato felt a stab of annoyance that ANBU was once again watching them, even during this intimate moment. He’d thrown them off by using Hiraishin over and over to scope out a training ground, but they’d finally located them. 

He wasn’t sure what the strategy behind the constant surveillance was. It certainly wasn’t for Naruto’s safety. There was no safer place Naruto could be than with Minato squatting next to him, demonstrating how to hold a kunai. It also wasn’t because Sarutobi had any delusions that ANBU could stop Minato from grabbing Naruto and teleporting to the other side of the continent if he wanted. 

A power play, maybe. A reminder that Minato was reliant on the good graces of this Konoha to get what he wanted, so he better behave. And this was true: Minato could remove Naruto at any time, but he couldn’t take him home without Konoha’s support in undoing time travel. 

Eventually, either Minato or Konoha would have to make a move on the other. But for now, he could politely ignore the ANBU, and Sarutobi’s office could keep signing off on the paperwork Mebuki pushed through. 

“I’m gonna make a bullseye on the first try!” Naruto declared, holding up his kunai in an adorably incorrect fashion. “Believe it!”

Naruto’s first try didn’t even hit the target, but Minato hugged him and told him he’d made a good try. 

xXx

Hiraishin wasn’t developed to be used sight-unseen. The user had some control about where they teleported in relation to the target marker, and Tobirama had written in his notes that it would be best implemented with a visual on the target marker so one could pick the optimal time and place to teleport themselves. 

Minato often used his markers without a visual on them. One just had to be smart about it. 

He knew that Danzo would be paranoid about him breaking into ROOT again. He was unsure if Danzo could guess he’d actually used Hiraishin to get in rather than break in. He was positive Danzo couldn’t guess that his range of where he could teleport away from markers had only increased with practice the last six years, or that he’d mastered using Tobirama’s seals on top of his own. 

The table marker was still exactly where he’d left it, even days later. He went to go see what was up. 

Minato went just after midnight. He used a genjutsu to hide his presence, and teleported to the ceiling rather than the table the marker was stuck to. 

Danzo’s office was now bare of furniture, except for Naruto’s poor broken dining table. Two agents were squatting in the small room, one trained on the door and one trained on the table. Neither reacted to Minato’s presence. Minato might be known for being flashy, but one didn’t run as many missions as Minato had without becoming an expert in stealth. 

Have you moved out, Danzo-sama? Minato wondered, and then teleported to one of the Tobirama markers within the bunker. 

The entire bunker was abandoned now, save seven ROOT agents patrolling it. Minato assumed they were there to report on if he came snooping again or not. Seven agents weren’t enough to stop him, and Danzo knew it. 

None of them were good enough to even notice Minato. A Hyuuga with an active Byakugan would have, but say what one would about the Hyuuga’s paranoia over their eyes being stolen-- Danzo had yet to steal any member of their clan for ROOT. 

Now, where have you run away to…? MInato wondered, mentally running through any other space in Konoha a person could hide an entire secret branch of ANBU from. 

Tobirama, smelling the whispers of war during his tenure as Hokage, had started on a large number of projects for secret bunkers and passages in case Konoha were ever invaded. Over the course of the three wars that followed, Sarutobi had finished most of them, but a very small fraction had ever ended up in use. Because all of them had been started under Tobirama, almost all of them had his Hiraishin markers. 

Minato found ROOT’s new headquarters easily. The new space was more cramped, and that meant there were fewer spaces free of agents. Minato left quickly. 

When he went back to Naruto’s apartment, Naruto was awake in bed. He made an irritated, sleepy noise. 

“Did I wake you up?” Minato asked, reaching over to pull Naruto’s blanket up over his shoulders. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

One could be the stealthiest ninja on earth, but apparently if you shared a room with your kid who was a light sleeper, he’d notice your absence if you were gone too long. 

“Where d’you keep goin’?” Naruto demanded, voice slurred with sleepiness. 

“Secret ninja things,” Minato half-whispered conspiratorially, pulling up the chair he’d stolen from a Hokage tower break room for the purpose of reading to Naruto in bed. He patted Naruto’s back. 

“I promised you I’d always come back,” Minato said, but Naruto was already asleep again. 

Maybe next time he should leave behind a bunshin… 

xXx

The next few weeks settled into something of a routine. Minato got to cook for Naruto every day and accidentally set off his smoke alarm twice. Naruto continued to look betrayed every time Minato made him do homework, but his planner now contained full copies of his homework and a lot of notes home about Naruto goofing off in class. Minato learned he could bribe Naruto to do chores and homework with kunai practice and training games. The Ramen King comic got half a sequel, and Minato had a long talk with Naruto about how Naruto should draw during break time and not in class. (Yes, even if Minato loved the comic with his whole heart.)

Minato diligently worked through scrolls and documents in the archive and finally started piecing together what might have gone wrong with his Hiraishin. If he was right, it shouldn’t be too difficult to reverse… but he had no idea how to test that it actually worked. 

“What are the odds,” he said to Mebuki, chewing on the end of his pen as he glared at his notes, “that there’s a timeline where Konoha is underwater, or a lava pit?”

Mebuki shot him one of her sharp stares. “Have you been reading Naruto-kun’s comic books?”

If his theory was right, his ability to timeline jump relied on there being another Minato’s seals to jump to. So it did seem more likely that screwing up time travel and ending up in a more dangerous timeline would mean him in the middle of some horrible war, or whatever happened in the probability where the… where all three of them died. If it were just Minato trying to get back, he might risk it. But if he were also taking Naruto, he had to get it exactly right. 

“I am being forced to negotiate with the capital’s archives,” Mebuki said next, segueing into a new conversation. Her eyes lit up the way some frontlines Jounin got right before a battle. Mebuki had yet to lose a fight with the capital archives. 

Lucky for Mebuki, Minato had decided she was on his side. And he had decided this for her. He’d been buttering her up, borderline flirting, complimenting her and flashing her his most charming smiles. He’d gotten her to come to lunch with him every day this week, and to let him teleport her to the Academy to pick up their kids. She called Naruto -kun now. 

Minato was an extremely charming and charismatic man. Lots of political analysts had spent a lot of time trying to dissect this, which meant it was basically an objective fact. Mebuki hadn’t stood a chance. 

Minato wanted Mebuki on his side for two reasons. The first was that she was an invaluable cog in Konoha’s bureaucratic machine. If Haruno Mebuki wanted a document or a file, Haruno Mebuki was going to get it. And if Minato hinted it’d be so helpful if he could get his hands on some old reports… you know, ones he even already knew about as Hokage because he’d been there… 

Well! She was working on getting them for him. 

The other reason he was charming Mebuki was that he did desperately need a babysitter for Naruto to get any work done on the weekends. The idea of leaving Naruto alone in his apartment when he could be with Minato gave Minato hives, even if Naruto himself didn’t seem overly bothered by the idea. But at the same time, Naruto was clearly having a miserable time in the archives, even when Minato let him read comics or draw, and Minato’s attention was split trying to prevent his high energy son from grabbing at things or making mischief. 

He obviously wouldn’t tell Mebuki that she had to watch Naruto. That would be professional disrespect. But he did hint that Naruto would probably be better behaved if he had a friend to distract him. 

Minato met Haruno Sakura on a Sunday. She was a shy little thing, hiding behind her mother’s skirt with her hair combed over her face. 

“Sakura, you know Naruto-kun,” Mebuki sniffed. “No need to be shy. Go on, show him your book. Quietly.”

Minato wouldn’t mind noise, as long as there was reduced danger of his son licking something or jumping onto the table with all the valuable antique scrolls. He didn’t contradict Mebuki, though. Quiet seemed more like Sakura’s comfort zone. 

Minato had had a very long talk with Naruto about how he wasn’t allowed to call Sakura a nerd, or lame, or a wimp, or any of the myriad of insults Naruto casually used to talk about everyone he ever met.

Maybe Minato should have been stopping Naruto from calling him those things? But he’d sounded so cute… just like a little Kushina… 

“It’s about a kunoichi who falls in love with a prince,” Sakura explained of her book, which was clutched to her chest like a life preserver. Her tone was hesitant, like she wasn’t sure if that was the actual topic of her book or not. 

Minato was surprised to find himself tense. Naruto had so far only shown interest in stories about ninja doing “cool stuff,” and he was not shy about loudly explaining why things he didn’t like were terrible. Minato actually didn’t know how Naruto would react to another kid telling him about something he had no interest in. 

Minato really, really wanted Naruto to develop the skills to make friends. When he brought him back to his own timeline, Naruto would be starting from square one with his Academy class. 

“Are there pictures?” Naruto asked Sakura. 

“Yes,” Sakura said, perking up. In a more confident voice, she opened her book and said, “Look, you should see how the kunoichi disguises herself as a handmaid…”

Minato relaxed and turned back to his notes. It turned out Naruto was fine with romance as long as at least one person was a ninja. He didn’t even mind looking at the pictures of pretty dresses as long as it was a ninja disguise, or… the kunoichi’s ridiculous fantasy costume. 

Sakura ended up reading the book outloud to Naruto, in the tone of a child showing off a skill rather than one actually interested in sharing the story. She ignored that Naruto fidgeted and looked around the room periodically, too entranced by her own voice to care much about his reactions. But Naruto was definitely more entertained than he had been on previous days, and Sakura would pause and engage with him when he did zone back into her story to ask questions or make observations. 

So… they weren’t instantly friends, but even Mebuki seemed more relaxed. 

At the end of the book, the kunoichi made friends with the dragon imprisoning her and then defeated the villain by tricking him to look into his own cursed mirror. The dragon ate the villain’s invading army, and the kunoichi and the prince got married. 

“Why didn’t she just beat ‘im up?” Naruto asked. “That’s what I would have done, you know.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Because that wouldn’t have been as cool, Naruto.”

“Whaaaat? But they’re ninja! That’s the coolest thing to do–”

“Being tricky is cool,” Sakura started, her voice rising. “Naruto, you’re so stu–”

She cut herself off, eyes darting over to Minato. Her face turned red, and she buried her face in the book. 

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “You’re right, Naruto. It would have been better if she beat him up.”

Mebuki sighed loudly. 

“Minato-san,” she said, as he’d told her to address him by his first name. “I think it’s best we call it for the day.”

“...sure,” Minato agreed after a beat, carefully rolling his scroll back up. It was close to lunch time anyway. 

Naruto had a huge frown on his face as they walked out of the archives. 

“Why’d Sakura-chan get like that?” he asked. 

Minato ran his hand through his hair, debating how to answer. Sakura had clearly backed off because he was in the room, but he didn’t know if it was because she knew he was Naruto’s dad or because she knew he was Hokage. He also wasn’t sure if it was a good thing she held herself back from calling Naruto stupid, or if letting kids communicate freely would be better for Naruto’s social life. After all, he didn’t want people bullying his son, but also learning to talk about different opinions was good for kids. Tricky, tricky. 

“She gets like that when people are mean to her,” Naruto said, squirming. “I don’t get it. Was I mean to her?” 

Oh, yikes, Minato thought. 

“No, you weren't mean,” Minato told him. “You did a really good job playing with her, Naruto. I think she just got nervous because me and her mom were there.”

“Oooh,” Naruto said. “Like how when teachers are around, you can't say bad words.”

“Uh, something like that,” Minato replied. 

“Sai said a bad word in class once,” Naruto continued, lighting up. “Mako-sensei screamed for two whole minutes! It was funny because then Sai was all, ‘I don’t understand what is wrong with saying shit, if we all shit,’ and then Mako-sensei got confused–” 

“U-uh, Naruto,” Minato said, “you shouldn’t swear either…” 

xXx

On Monday, Mebuki presented Minato with a book as he packed up for the day. 

“Sakura found this useful while learning to read,” she said. “Naruto-kun might too.”

“Oh, thank you,” Minato said, accepting the book. “Did Sakura have fun yesterday?”

Mebuki’s lips thinned slightly. “I believe she enjoyed reading, but she was upset she might have angered you. I told her to behave in a ladylike manner, but never to put up with a boy’s bad opinion.”

Minato laughed. 

“I’ll have information on those files you requested by the end of the week,” Mebuki continued. “Please enjoy that book.”

Oh, interesting, Minato thought. 

A few days later, Mebuki passed him another book for Naruto. It was a chapter book too advanced for him to read on his own, but it featured a warring clans era ninja going on adventures and fighting demons. 

“It was a gift for Sakura from an uncle, but she didn’t have much interest in it,” Mebuki said. “You might want to check it for appropriateness.”

At Naruto’s apartment, when Naruto made a huge show of taking his homework out like it was the most torturous task in the world, Minato flipped through the book. He found a girl’s birthday card tucked into it. He pocketed it before offering the book to Naruto as something he could read him before bed. 

“I’m going to stay up a little to do some reading, okay?” Minato told Naruto after he tucked him in and read him a chapter of the new book. Naruto hummed sleepily.

Minato retreated to the kitchen. The card was made out to Sakura, but one side was a hand-written nonsense poem about a turtle turning six thousand years old. Minato pulled out the reading practice book Mebuki had given him and set about decoding the poem with it. 

Mebuki had not been able to get her hands on any of the records Minato wanted. In fact, they’d been so high security, she’d backed out immediately and then decided to contact him via code rather than risk saying anything out loud. This was wise of her, as Minato and Naruto were often under ANBU surveillance. 

She had, however, figured out where the records were located.

Nice, Mebuki, Minato thought. He wished he could give her a raise. 

Chapter Text

Naruto had discovered the second best thing ever, right after discovering he had a dad. 

It started with him putting a tack on Mako-sensei’s slipper. He’d seen a spare one on the bulletin board in the hallway while they’d been waiting in line for the third years to get out of one of the taijutsu practice rooms, and he’d snuck it into his pocket. Then he’d poked himself with it twice during taijutsu practice, so he got rid of it as quickly as possible by putting it in Mako-sensei’s classroom slipper, sitting with all their own class room slippers along the wall while they practiced the kata he showed them.

Mako-sensei had stepped on it and screamed. That had been funny in a regular way. But then, Naruto had seen Sakura’s face light up. She’d held up her hands to hide a giggle. 

She turned and grinned at Naruto. 

His stomach had gone all warm. He thought about it, about Sakura’s smile and how good it made him feel, all day long. 

Naruto was used to the satisfaction of making someone finally look at him. He knew he liked it best when people looking at him were nice about it, like how his dad correcting his kunai throw and then telling him he did a good job just for trying was way better than Mako-sensei ignoring him mess up a kata. But it hadn’t really occurred to him how much better it felt to get positive attention until just now. 

Mako-sensei never gave him detention any more, but he did write a note home. He looked nervous about it for some reason. 

“Why did you do that?” Minato asked him at home, eyebrows raised. He wasn’t mean, but his voice was sterner than normal. 

“Well, I had the tack,” Naruto explained. 

According to Minato, this was a bad prank, because someone had gotten hurt. Naruto hadn’t really thought about that. 

“When we spar or practice fighting, there’s a chance of hurting someone, but both sides agreed to it,” Minato lectured. “We never, ever hurt our fellow Konoha-nin unless they agree with it first. That’s how we know we can trust each other on missions. Do you understand?”

Naruto fidgeted, uncomfortable. He wasn’t used to feeling guilt. He didn’t want to feel bad about hurting stupid Mako-sensei. 

“But Sakura-chan laughed…” Naruto muttered. 

Minato’s expression collapsed into something gentler. He reached over and pulled Naruto into a hug. 

“It’s good you’re getting along with Sakura,” he said. “But you can find other ways to make her laugh. After all, you're really funny, Naruto.” 

There were a lot of things about Sakura that Naruto didn’t really get. She was always there with her mom when they went to the archives on weekends, and she always brought a book she wanted to read. Some of them didn’t even have pictures. Naruto liked comics, but he just couldn’t wrap his head around liking books or scrolls as much as Sakura or his dad did. 

He also didn’t really get why she’d just curl into herself when people were mean to her, instead of yelling or hitting the way Naruto would. He didn’t get why at lunch she’d go sit with girls who made fun of her big forehead. 

But she laughed at his pranks. 

Maybe he wouldn’t plant any more tacks, and maybe his dad confiscated a bunch of his prank supplies, but he could still nab smoke bombs from the supply room and draw funny things on the board when teachers were out of the classroom. 

And Sakura would laugh. 

She still didn’t play with him at lunch. But on the weekends, she started trying harder to find books and comics he actually liked, and her eyes lit up when she walked into the boring archive room and he was already there. 

On a Saturday, she was suddenly really shy again. 

“Go on,” Mebuki said, pushing her forward. 

“U-um,” Sakura said, face turning red as she turned to Minato. 

Another thing Naruto didn’t get about Sakura is she always got really nervous whenever she had to talk to his dad, and sometimes even when his dad just looked over at them. He sort of got it, because her mom was real scary and sometimes she made Naruto nervous, but also his dad was basically the least scary ninja ever. 

Sakura took a deep breath and said, “There’s a special market today. I was wondering if Naruto could come with me to go see it, please. Um, sir.”

A huge smile cracked across Minato’s face, and Sakura’s face somehow turned ever redder. Naruto had no idea why. His dad had the best, nicest, friendliest smile. 

“That sounds like fun, Sakura-chan,” Minato said. He turned to Naruto. “What do you think? Do you want to go?”

Naruto would have gone with Sakura even if she wanted to go to the regular library. The archives were boring. 

Mebuki put her hands on her hips next and absolutely grilled Sakura on where the market was, and how to get there from the archives, and what time they’d be back, and did she have her watch on her to keep track of time, and how much pocket money she had and if she was keeping track of it. 

Minato eyed Mebuki while she did this, looking slightly baffled. When she was done, he gave Naruto his own pocket money and told him to mind Sakura. 

(As they left, Naruto heard Mebuki say, “Yes, that’s how I know she’s actually going to remember. What do you do?”)

Sakura didn’t take off running like Naruto would, but she had a happy little skip in her step as she went. 

“There’s vendors from all over the continent,” she babbled excitedly. “Last time they came, my dad got me…”

She talked about all the cool things she’d seen last time. Naruto didn’t really care about trying Wind Country tea or pretty hair pins from Water Country, but he liked the idea of new candies to try and someone selling lizards as pets. 

Before his dad came back, Naruto had spent a lot of time just wandering the village. He’d seen the normal Konoha market of course, and he’d even stumbled upon special markets before. But he’d always happened upon the special ones by chance, and never with pocket money he could just spend on whatever. He’d definitely never gone to one with a friend. 

A friend! Naruto thought, excited. 

The market was set up in a training ground near Konoha proper, with a bunch of tents and stalls and tons of people milling around. When the entrance came into sight, Naruto couldn’t help but run ahead. Sakura ran after him, yelling for him to slow down. 

The special market was crowded once he was inside, and Sakura grabbed the back of Naruto’s shirt as he went to dodge around adults flocking around a stall selling kitchenware he didn’t care about. 

“NARUTO!” Sakura screeched, somehow sounding exactly like Iruka-sensei. Naruto skidded to a halt. He’d never heard Sakura yell before. “We could get separated in the crowd!”

“Oh,” Naruto said. He guessed they could, since they were both little. It’d be hard to see Sakura around the grown-ups if she got lost. 

He let Sakura take the lead, since she seemed to know what she was doing. She went slower than he wanted, and spent a lot of time looking at things he didn’t care about like books or dolls with fancy clothes, so he sometimes ended up skipping ahead to the next stall. 

She did read him the menu at a place selling fun looking candies and ice creams, and they played together with some of the games and toys set out at the types of stalls Naruto wanted to look at. 

She stopped him from spending all his money on the first toy he saw. 

“What if you see something you want more later?” she asked. She sounded like she thought Naruto was stupid, so he stuck his tongue out at her, but she didn’t actually say he was stupid, and also she had a good point. 

“Okay,” he said, nodding. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” Sakura said, leading him back into the crowd. “What do you even like? Maybe someone will be selling stink bombs.”

There was a whole row of people selling live animals, and Sakura listened with rapt attention as an old man from Rice Country explained to her that pigeons were good pets. Naruto did think it was kind of interesting to see a bunch of pigeons in different colors and shapes from the ones in Konoha, but then he got distracted by a big tank of frogs at the next stall. 

“You can buy these?” he asked the stall owner, a squat little old lady. 

“Yes,” said the old lady. “But you’ll need a tank, and food too.”

The cost of all of those things together was more than Naruto had, and also the lady said she wouldn’t sell to him without a parent’s permission. He whined to Sakura about it while they looked at baby goats. 

“Don’t you already have frogs?” Sakura asked, sounding confused. 

“What d’you mean?” Naruto asked. The stall owner had some vegetables out for kids to feed to the goats, and he pushed a carrot through the fence. “Why would I have a frog?”

“Um, I mean…” Sakura said, bending down to get a better view of the goat as it ate Naruto’s carrot. “Not you, but… your dad…”

Naruto stared blankly at her. 

“Why would my dad have frogs?” he asked. 

Sakura fidgeted, tugging at the bottom of her shirt. 

“I thought he summoned them,” she said. 

Naruto thought very hard about this. He remembered his dad talking about summoning animals, back when Naruto had been trying and failing to read that book about the Sannin. There was a picture of a frog, somewhere, and a snake and a slug. But his dad had used a bunch of words he didn’t really get, and Naruto hadn’t followed the explanation. 

His dad got like that sometimes, getting excited and giving very long and confusing explanations. He would slow down and try again when Naruto asked, but also Narut had wanted the book to go away as fast as possible, so he’d just nodded and turned the page. He’d taken the book back to the library as soon as he could get away with it. The only thing he’d really learned about the Sannin is they had something to do with Old Man Third, and maybe his dad had met one of them once. 

“No, I don’t think so,” Naruto said finally. 

“O-oh,” Sakura said. “I thought… well, you would know.”

After they’d seen all the animals and gotten to play with puppies, Sakura announced they had to go back to the archives soon, so they should go buy whatever they wanted with the last of their money. 

“Oh yeah,” Naruto said. He’d forgotten he was supposed to be looking for something cool to buy. Maybe he would just get more of that candy he liked. 

Sakura announced she wanted a journal to start a diary in. 

“You’re such a nerd,” Naruto told her good naturedly. “Er, I mean… you’re…” He squinted at her, and Sakura scowled back at him. “...smart.”

Sakura rolled her eyes, but she didn’t get all sad like he was afraid. Phew!

The stall she took him to sold all sorts of notebooks and journals, bound in leather and decorated in cool patterns. This must have been one of the stalls Naruto skipped for being boring, because he had no memory of it. 

Some of the journals were cool, he would admit, even if they were for boring stuff like writing. 

“You should get this one,” Naruto said, picking up an orange one. The leather had a swirling pattern pressed into it. 

“Ew, no,” Sakura said, wrinkling her nose. “I want a pretty one.”

Sakura, being Sakura, had picked out a dark purple one already, but then she got distracted by one with a bunch of flowers and pieces of gold on it. 

“Oh, wow,” she gasped. 

“Yeah, that one’s way prettier,” Naruto agreed. 

Sakura asked the vendor for the price. It was more than she had, and her shoulders slumped. 

Naruto felt bad. Sakura was a huge nerd with boring interests, but she’d lit up when she saw the journal the way she did right before she laughed at one of his pranks. He liked seeing her happy. 

“Here,” he said, digging his own money out of his pocket and offering it to her. 

Sakura’s eyes widened. 

“N-no way,” she stuttered out. “Naruto, that’s your money.”

“But all I want is candy,” Naruto said, “and that’s a really cool journal. Better than the other lame one you want.”

Sakura accepted. She still had a huge grin on her face as they walked out of the market. She’d taken the journal out of its bag, and was turning it over and over in her hands. Naruto was definitely glad he’d given her his money. 

He’d had enough left over for a bag of candy, too! 

It was a bit of a walk from the training ground to the village proper, and Naruto grabbed Sakura’s hand to drag her down a cool short cut he knew. Well, maybe it wasn’t shorter, but the little path went by another training ground with a bunch of training dummies, which was cool. 

“Naruto, we shouldn’t,” Sakura complained, but she let him drag her down the path anyway. 

Then, suddenly, an older girl was pulling Sakura’s journal out of her hands. 

“What is this?” the girl asked. She had two friends, a boy and girl, with her. 

“It’s mine,” Sakura protested, reaching for it. The girl, who was a couple years older than them and bigger, shoved her back. 

“Hey!” Naruto yelled, outraged. He waved his fist the older girl. “You can’t shove Sakura-chan! Give her journal back!”

The girl snorted. “Nah,” she said, “I think I deserve this more. Don’t you think?”

The other girl, who had her  hair pulled back in a ponytail, snickered meanly. 

“Yeah, Haruhi,” she agreed. “I bet the little pink brat can’t even write yet.”

Sakura’s eyes fell to her feet, her shoulders hunching over. Naruto’s nails dug into his palms. He never liked seeing her like that. 

The main footpath had had lots of people walking around, to get to the market. There was no one else on this side path. Adults always ignored him, but they wouldn’t ignore Sakura– but there weren’t any adults around to help, not even if he shouted. 

“Give it back!” Naurto shouted again. “Or I’ll beat you up!”

“Naruto, don’t,” Sakura said, eyes still on her feet. 

“Big threats from such a little shrimp,” the boy of the group said, and then he shoved Naruto. 

Naruto, naturally, hit him back. 

“NARUTO!” Sakura shrieked. 

Naruto’s fist connected with the boy’s chest, and the boy made a surprised grunt. But then the boy’s hand was around Naruto’s arm and twisting back, and then Naruto was suddenly being slammed into the ground. 

“STOP!” Sakura yelled, and Naruto saw movement out in his peripheral vision as Sakura lunged at them, but then the ponytail girl was holding Sakura by both arms. 

“What do you think, Haruhi?” the boy asked. “Should we teach them a lesson?”

Haruhi pretended to fan herself with Sakura’s journal. 

“Hmm,” she said. “You know, I think I recognize the boy. He’s the baby’s class clown, isn’t he? We’l be doing everyone a favor if we beat him up.”

Then she kicked Naruto in the head. Naruto saw spots and he cried out in pain, and she pulled her leg back to do it again.

The ponytail girl screamed, and then Haruhi let out a wheeze as Sakura slammed into her back. Haruhi tuned on her heel, driving her elbow down into Sakura, and Naruto struggled against the hold the boy on him, wishing he was just a little stronger–

A dark blur rammed into Haruhi. The journal went flying. A pale hand grabbed it out of the air. 

“S– Sai?” Sakura gasped. 

“What the heck–” the ponytail girl said, holding her now bleeding arm. 

The boy let go of Naruto to make a swipe at Sai. Sakura yelped as he nearly knocked her over in the process. 

Sai dodged him easily, and then sent him toppling over with a kick to his backside. What the heck? Since when was Sai so strong?

“This is pretty stupid of you,” Sai said to the three older kids. Sakura held out both her hands to Naruto. 

“Stupid of you to get involved,” Haruhi spat back, standing up to her full height. “We’re all third years. You guys don’t stand a chance.”

“You are stupid,” Sakura screeched, tugging Naruto to his feet. “Naruto’s the Yondaime’s son.”

“That’s…” the boy started, but then he suddenly looked unsure, his eyes tracing Naruto’s face. He turned around, craning his head to look at Hokage monument.

Naruto still wanted to beat these kids up. But his head really hurt. Sakura maybe had a point about being sneaky being cool too. If she could convince these kids of such a crazy story, when everyone knew the Yondaime was dead and Sakura knew Naruto’s dad was just some nerd who liked reading, then Naruto would go back and steal her another journal. 

“She’s right,” Sai said in his creepy monotone. “Someone must have told you he’s back by now, right? It would be stupid of you to upset him.”

The three older kids floundered for a bit, but ultimately ran off. Sakura sniffled, clearly fighting back tears. 

“Th-thanks, Sai,” she said. “Naruto, are you okay?”

Naruto jerked away from her… poking his head or something. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” he said. “Sai, when did you get all cool?”

Sai’s face morphed into some sort of very creepy smile. 

“Just talented, I guess,” he said. “I’m glad you’re okay. Sakura-chan, is this yours? It’s nice.”

He handed Sakura over her journal. She took it, looking nonplussed. 

“I have a journal too,” Sai said. “I draw in it. You two should come over to my normal home sometime and see it.”

“Um,” Sakura replied. 

“That was cool though, you know!” Naruto announced, folding his hands behind his head. “But I totally didn’t need your help, Sai.”

Sai’s smile looked like he’d drawn it on, it was so unmoving. 

“I wanted to help,” he said after a beat, “because I want to be friends with you, Naruto. I think your pranks are funny.”

Naruto brightened. 

“Really?” he said. Sai opened his mouth to say more, but Naruto’s brain was already moving to new ideas. “That was a good prank, you know, Sakura-chan! About the Yondaime.”

Sakura stared at him. 

“What?” she said. 

“What you said,” Naruto said. “About him being back and me being his son. I can’t believe they fell for that!”

He laughed. Sakura continued to stare at him. 

“Oh,” Sai said, except he said it in a monotone instead of like he was actually surprised. “Naruto, did your dad not tell you? He’s the Yondaime.”

It was Naruto’s turn to stare. That didn’t… no, that didn’t make sense. 

He turned his face to the Hokage Monument, visible over the trees. The Yondaime didn’t really look like his dad, except for maybe the shape of his hair. But Old Man Third’s head didn’t really look like him either. 

“Did your dad tell you the day he died?” Sai asked. “The Yondaime died the day you were born, didn’t he?”

That… that was true. Naruto knew the Yondaime died on his birthday because the whole village got really sad. And– and his dad said he died the day he was born, too. Old Man Third even always said his parents both died on that day. He’d just never thought very much about that, since lots of people died on his birthday. 

“Naruto,” Sai pressed. “What’s the Yondaime’s most famous technique?”

“No way,” Naruto gasped, tears pricking at his eyes. No way. No way that was true. 

“Naruto, maybe you should ask your dad about this,” Sakura said nervously. 

Naruto turned her, upset and not even knowing why. “You knew?” he asked. 

“I–” Sakura hugged her journal tight to her chest. “Yes, my mom told me. B-but I thought you knew. That’s why I was asking about frogs!”

“Awfully strange he was keeping it a secret,” Sai said. “I would want to investigate why.”

“Sai,” Sakura argued, puffing her cheeks out. “Everyone knows the Yondaime is the best Hokage. He has to have a good reason.”

Sai’s weird smile didn’t leave Naruto’s face. 

“I mean, he left his son alone for six years,” Sai said. “And he’s keeping secrets from him? And Naruto, didn’t you say he leaves in the middle of the night? I wouldn’t trust him.”

Naruto didn’t know why he did what he did, but he punched Sai in the face. Sai staggered back. 

“Naruto,” Sakura gasped, scandalized. 

“It’s okay,” Sai said, rubbing his face where Naruto hit him. His smile was still in place. “Naruto, I hope we can still talk about your funny pranks in school.”

Then he ran off, right into the woods. 

“Sai is so weird!” Sakura yelled when he was out of sight, stomping her foot. “Naruto, are you sure you’re okay? I wouldn’t listen to a single word Sai said. My mom says your dad is really nice, nicer than people normally are to archivists. He’s a good person.”

Naruto just stared up at Hokage monument, his thoughts all jumbled up. The Yondaime, the coolest of all the Hokage? His dad? 

Why didn’t he tell him?

As if hearing his thoughts, Minato was suddenly in the training ground two feet from them, Mebuki at his side with their arms linked. Sakura yelped in surprise and fumbled her journal. 

“Hey kids,” he greeted, beaming at them. “You were running late, so–– what happened?”

Like flipping a switch, he turned serious, crouching in front of Naruto and picking a stick out of his hair. Naruto scowled down at his feet, feeling too confused to look him in the eyes. 

“Oh, it was terrible!” Sakura cried, and launched into the whole story to her mother. She left out the part about the Yondaime and Naruto hitting Sai, making it sound like the older kids ran off when Sai showed up and turned out to be secretly badass.

Sakura had bit the ponytail girl to get out of her hold, but she was otherwise unharmed. Naruto’s head hurt because he was bleeding, and Minato pulled a tiny first aid kit out of his flak vest and frowned slightly while he gently rubbed alcohol on Naruto’s face and then stuck a bandaid on the cut. 

“Sai was here?” Mebuki asked. “The rude-mouthed boy in your class?”

“Yes, but he left,” Sakura said. “Mama, you should have seen him, he was really good…”

“Naruto,” Minato said, quiet so only Naruto could hear him. “Are you okay?”

Naruto sniffed and then pushed Minato back so he had more space. Minato let him. 

“Y-yeah,” Naruto said, rubbing his eyes. “She only kicked me once, ‘cause Sakura saved me.”

Minato smiled. “I’m glad,” he said. 

Then he stood up fully and turned to Mebuki, raising his eyebrows in askance. She raised her eyebrows right back. 

“Oh, you want my opinion?” Mebuki asked finally. Her lips thinned. “Usually I’d talk to the parents, or their teachers. Unfortunately, we don’t know who they are.”

“Oh,” Sakura said, pulling something from her pocket. “Um, in school they said to report extracurricular fighting to the principal with the student’s full names, so I stole their school IDs…”

Mebuki’s eyebrows rose even further. Minato laughed, absentmindedly burying one hand in Naruto’s hair. 

“Nice thinking, Sakura-chan,” he said. Sakura blushed. 

“Well, since everyone is okay,” Minato said, and then he stepped further into Naruto and moved his hand to his shoulder. “Mebuki and I thought you might be late because you were having fun, and I remembered these things usually have food, so…”

They walked back to the market to find some lunch. The school IDs were slipped into Mebuki’s pockets, and Sakura explained all the things they’d seen like nothing bad had happened at all. 

Minato made a grab for Naruto’s hand, and Naruto pulled it back. 

“Everything okay, Naruto?” Minato asked. 

“Um,” Naruto said. He wasn’t sure if something was wrong or not. He felt… bad, somehow, about his dad, but he didn’t know why. Shouldn’t he be excited his dad was someone so awesome? 

“Do you want to get away from the crowd?” Minato tried. “We can go home, if you’re still upset. Whatever you want.”

Naruto bit his lip. He felt bad, but also his dad was the nicest dad ever, wasn’t he? He made Naruto feel noticed, and safe, and loved. 

“No, I want to stay,” Naruto said finally, taking Minato’s hand. “One of the stalls had this noodle soup, like ramen, but from Water Country, and Sakura-chan said…”

They went to lunch and had fun, and then Minato bought Naruto one of the toys he’d seen in the morning. They went home, and Naruto found a movie on TV to watch while Minato laid on his back and read a newspaper. 

Every once in a while, Naruto thought about asking Minato if he really was the Yondaime. He chickened out last second every time, though. He kept thinking about all the things Sai had said. All of them were true, weren’t they? What if his dad was keeping secrets and lying on purpose, and if he asked, Naruto would get in trouble?

What if he left him?

“Okay,” Minato said, when the movie was over. He sat up and stretched, and then reached over and turned off the TV. “Now we have to have a talk.” 

Naruto perked up, wondering if his dad would explain this whole confusing Yondaime thing. 

He didn’t, though. He talked to Naruto about how he was proud of him for defending Sakura, and that it made him happy that Sakura and Sai were his friends that would help him. He said it made him sad and angry that the bigger kids had hurt Naruto, and that they were going to get into big trouble for picking on younger kids. But then he said a bunch of things about “escalation” that Naruto only half understood. Apparently, Naruto shouldn’t have hit that kid after he’d been shoved. 

“I know it’s confusing,” Minato said, carefully cupping Naruto’s chin with one hand. “One day, you will have to use your fists to defend yourself or someone you care about or Konoha. But if it’s just an object, like a journal, it’s not worth it. You come to me, and I’ll take care of it for you.”

Because you're Hokage, and people have to do everything you say? Naruto wanted to ask. 

“Or Mebuki, if Sakura’s involved,” Minato kept going. “Honestly, she’s probably scarier than me…”

Naruto didn’t ask. He didn’t dare.

Chapter Text

When Naruto went into class on Monday, Shikamaru walked up to him and got right in his face, squinting at him. 

“What?” Naruto snapped. 

“Nothing,” Shikamaru said, and then walked off without explanation. 

“Hello, Naruto,” Sai greeted him. His weird smile was already in place. “Can I sit next to you?”

“Okay,” Naruto said slowly. He guessed Sai was kind of cool. Better than the kid who usually sat there, at least. 

By lunch, the whole school was buzzing with a rumor that three kids in the third year had been mega punished due to getting into a fight with the Yondaime’s kid. This was not exciting because kids had gotten into a fight; that part happened all the time. But everyone was very excited that the Yondaime was back and he had a kid. 

Naruto sank lower and lower into his seat. Usually he’d like attention and would stand up and announce himself for the entire world. But something about getting attention for being someone’s kid, not for being Uzumaki Naruto, the coolest kid in class, made him feel small. 

The whispering got so bad, that at the end of the day, Mako-sensei read out some missive from the Hokage’s office. 

“Those of you with shinobi parents have probably already heard this,” he started. 

I have a shinobi parent, Naruto thought. Why did everyone know but me?

Mako-sensei didn’t point him out as the mysterious kid, at least. 

When class let out, Naruto stayed in his seat. His dad always came to pick him up, even if he was late sometimes because he was kind of a scatterbrain, but for the first time, Naruto didn’t really want to be seen with him. 

Sakura walked up to him with a big frown on her face. 

“I looked your dad up in one of my books,” she said. “If you want to see.”

Sai stayed with them while Sakura flipped through the glossy pages of some sort of history book. Naruto’s dad had three whole chapters, and the second chapter had a full-page photo of him in Hokage robes. 

“Yeah, that’s definitely him,” Naruto said hollowly. 

“It’s so strange he didn’t say anything,” Sai said. “Maybe you should ask Sandaime-sama about it.”

“Oh!” Sakura said, brightening. “Sai, that’s the first good suggestion you’ve had. Naruto, if you’re afraid to talk to your dad, Sandaime-sama can definitely help you!”

“I must return to my average two-parent household now,” Sai said, swinging his backpack over his shoulders. “Naruto, let me know how your meeting with Hokage-sama goes.”

He walked out of the room. Sakura puckered her lips as she packed up her book. 

“He’s so weird,” she said. “Your dad didn’t say anything at all?”

“No,” Naruto said, squirming in his seat. 

His dad had taken off work on Sunday so they could watch cartoons how Naruto wanted every weekend, and then they spent the rest of the day playing training games. It had been so fun Naruto almost forgot anything bad had happened at all. He had barely even thought about it even when his dad had gently peeled off the band-aid on his temple and declared him all healed. But of course, today had been one huge, horrible reminder. 

“I want to see Old Man Third as soon as possible,” Naruto confessed to her. “But I don’t know what to tell my dad… what if he wants to come with me?”

Sakura nodded seriously and said, “Okay, Naruto, I got you.”

She stayed with him in the classroom until his dad showed up. 

“We’re inside?” Minato asked. Then with a teasing smile he said, “You don’t have detention again, do you?”

Sakura stood up straight and said, “Actually, sir, we were wondering if we could go down to the library together. I told Naruto I’d help him with our history homework.”

“That’s very kind of you, Sakura-chan,” Minato said. He turned to Naruto. “You want to do homework?”

“Yes,” Naruto said immediately. “I love doing homework.”

Minato looked dubious. Sakura smacked her own face. 

“Naruto,” she hissed. Then she sighed and said to Minato, “Okay. The truth is, he told me that I’d like a comic he knows. But then we really will do our homework, promise.”

Sakura slapped both hands together and bent her head in askance. Minato made a big deal of thinking it over. 

“Okay, fine,” he said finally, grinning at them both. Then he pointed at Naruto. “But make sure you’re home before dark, okay?”

He teleported off. They had to repeat the same story to Sakura’s dad, sitting outside and waiting, but he gave them much less grief over it. 

“You’re going to have to really come find me at the library and do your homework after,” Sakura said as they walked. “Or else your dad will know we lied. Oh, and we need to pick a comic to pretend to have read. Tell me a title and I’ll read it while I wait for you.”

Wow, Sakura was super smart. Naruto was never calling her a nerd again. 

Naruto took the stairs up to Old Man Third’s office two at a time, same as always. The secretary outside looked exasperated, same as always. 

“You’re lucky,” she told him. “He has a canceled meeting. You can go in.”

And go in Naruto did. Old Man Third smiled kindly at him and pushed his bowl of hard candies to the edge of his desk as Naruto settled in his seat. Naruto felt better already. This was familiar and safe. 

“I’m happy to see you,” the Old Man Third said, putting out his pipe the way he did whenever Naruto visited. “What brings you today here, Naruto?”

“Um, okay,” Naruto said, swinging his feet in the chair. “So, this is going to sound super weird. Is my dad the Yondaime?”

Old Man Third paused in the middle of tapping the tobacco out of his pipe into a little pot. He carefully wiped the sides down with a handkerchief. 

“Did your father tell you that, Naruto?” he asked. 

“Uh, no,” Naruto admitted. “But he is, isn’t he? Sakura-chan showed me him in a book and everything. Why wouldn’t he tell me?”

Old Man Third sighed and folded his hands on his desk. 

“I warned Minato this would happen,” he said, sounding very tired. “Well, Naruto, since you already know, I might as well tell you. Yes, your father is the Yondaime Hokage.”

Naruto perked up. That was good, wasn’t it? Sandaime would tell him why it was a secret, and then he’d know, and then he could bask in the glory of having a cool dad. 

But then, a look of incredible sadness passed over Old Man Third’s face. 

“He wanted me not to tell you,” Old Man Third said, his voice heavy, “because he didn’t want you to figure out that he has to leave soon.”

Naruto’s heart stopped. The world went white. 

“No,” he choked out. “No, you’re lying.”

Old Man Third stood up and walked around his desk. He crouched down in front of Naruto and put both hands on his shoulders. 

“Naruto, he explained it to you, right?” he said. “That man isn’t from this world. He’s from a different Konoha, one where he has a duty as Hokage. You go to the archives every weekend because he’s researching how to go home. He explained all this, correct?”

“Wh– wha– what?” Naruto said. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, even as his chest shuddered. He couldn’t see. He could barely feel Old Man Third ‘s hands on him. 

“He has to leave, as soon as possible,” Old Man Third repeated, even as every word hurt Naruto. “He has to go be Hokage for his own, different Konoha.”

“No,” Naruto said, tears now streaming down his face. “No, you’re lying! He said– he said I’d go live with him, in a new house!”

“Naruto,” Old Man Third said, his voice soothing. His hands were still on his shoulders, but he made no move to wipe away his tears or rub Naruto’s back the way Minato would. “It’s true. It’s what he’s been planning all along. Haven’t you noticed he hasn’t been looking for a house, or another place for you to live? Didn’t he tell you?”

Naruto wailed. He cried harder than he ever had. This wasn’t fair! He finally had– he had someone who cared for him, and took care of him, and made him feel loved, and now he was going to leave? Had always planned to leave? 

“Naruto,” Old Man Third was saying. “Naruto, you’re hurt. I understand. You can stay with me if you want. My grandson–”

“NO!” Naruto practically howled. “No, no, NO!”

He didn’t know what he wanted. He knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted his dad to hold him and tell him what was going on!

He shoved Old Man Third away and knocked over his chair. Then he ran out of the office. He ran back to the library, desperate to find Sakura and have her tell him what was really happening. She was smart, wasn’t she? She’d know!

Sakura wasn’t in the library. Naruto tore through the shelves twice, before a librarian caught him and told him off for running and making noise. 

“Where’re your parents?” the librarian asked, and Naruto yanked his arm free of their grip and ran outside next. 

xXx

Minato spent his sudden free time cleaning Naruto’s apartment. He’d told Naruto’s former caretaker she was no longer needed, but maybe he should have asked her to come clean periodically. This place got so messy so quickly, and convincing Naruto to even take out the trash was like pulling teeth. 

When the sun started to go down, Minato wondered vaguely if Naruto was on his way home yet. He hoped he was having fun with Sakura, even if he wouldn’t be surprised if neither of them got their homework done. 

He concentrated on his Hiraishin network, searching out Naruto. He found him not in the library, nor on his way home, but in a training ground a whole two kilometers out of Konoha. 

What on earth? Minato wondered, anxiety spiking through him. Even if he and Sakura decided to go do something else, why would they be there?

He went to Naruto immediately. 

This training ground was forested, and Naruto was curled up under a tree and sobbing. Minato was on the ground next to him in an instant. 

No enemies, Minato noted on the surroundings, although three ANBU agents were hovering, just watching his son ball his eyes out.

“Naruto,” he said, pulling Naruto’s arms away from his face to check for injuries. “Naruto, who hurt you?”

Naruto had snot caked across his face and his eyes were bloodshot. He’d obviously been crying for a while. He was uninjured, and so Minato tried to pull him into a hug. Naruto wailed louder and shoved him away. Minato let go of him. 

“Naruto, what’s wrong?” he tried. “Let me take you home, make you some hot chocolate, and we can talk–”

“No!” Naruto yelled, pulling his knees up to his chest. “No, you’re a liar!”

Minato’s mouth clicked closed. 

Okay.

No one said parenting would be easy.

He took a deep breath. 

“Why am I a liar, Naruto?” he asked as calmly as he possibly could. 

What gushed out of Naruto were a bunch of angry, hurt words that barely made sense. Minato had lied because he was secretly the Yondaime. He was leaving Naruto. He left in the night and never said why. He was leaving Naruto. Everyone knew he was the Yondaime except Naruto, so probably he was making fun of Naruto and didn’t actually like him. He was leaving Naruto and Old Man Third had said so.  

“Okay,” Minato said, voice as deadly calm as it would be on the most dangerous of missions. 

He had, as he listened to his small son cry and shudder, an intense wave of rage. How fucking dare Sarutobi. How dare he betray Minato like this? How dare he betray Naruto, hurting him like this? He felt the urge to hunt down Sarutobi and cut off his head.

This wasn’t about Minato, though. Now was not the time for his anger. Now was about Naruto, and making sure Naruto was calm and safe.

“Here,” Minato said, offering Naruto his hand. “Take my hand.”

Naruto scowled at his hand for a few moments, then looked into his eyes suspiciously. Minato mustered a smile for him. 

“Go on,” he said. “Nothing bad will happen.”

Hesitantly, Naruto wrapped his little fingers around Minato’s.  

“Okay,” Minato said, very seriously. “Now you never have to let go, not until you want to.”

“W-what?” Naruto said, voice cracking. 

“This is my promise to you,” Minato said. “I’m not going to leave you, not ever. And even if you don’t believe me, you can hold on to my hand forever, so I can’t leave you.”

Naruto’s eyes widen. His grip on Minato’s fingers tightened. “R-really?” he asked. “Even in the bathroom?”

Minato leaned into him, and Naruto didn’t flinch this time. 

“Even in the bathroom,” he said. 

Naruto let out a sad, wet giggle. 

“Now,” Minato said, curling his fingers inward so he could rub his thumb over Naruto’s fingers. “You don’t have to let go, but since we're holding hands anyway… can I take us home?”

Naruto nodded weakly. Minato aimed right for his bed, and then pulled Naruto’s back to his chest as he sat on it. He kicked his shoes off exactly the way he scolded Naruto for doing, and then crossed his legs on the bed. 

“Now, who told you I’m the Yondaime?” Minato asked.

“Um, I think Sakura-chan,” Naruto said. “When those big kids tried to beat us up. She said they were stupid for messing with us, ‘cause I’m the Yondaime’s son.”

“Okay,” Minato said, chewing this over in his mind. This part was really his own screw up. He hadn’t meant to be keeping it from Naruto, but it had genuinely slipped his mind except during a handful of moments when it would be extremely inconvenient to address. After all, who cared about learning fun facts about Minato, when he could be learning things about Naruto?

Naruto leaned forward so he could turn his head and peer up at Minato. 

“Are you really?” he asked. 

“Yes,” Minato said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It wasn’t supposed to be a secret. I just… I thought it was more important to ask you questions about you, then to tell you things about me.”

Naruto looked at him like he stupid. Which, he sort of was. 

But Naruto straightened himself back up and then flopped back against Minato’s chest again. 

“I was really mad,” Naruto said. “And then sad, you know.”

“I know,” Minato said. He kissed the back of Naruto’s head. “I messed up. It was my fault, and I’m sorry. But Naruto, that doesn’t mean I’m going to leave you. I love you. I would never.”

Narut shifted in his lap. His fingers tightened again. 

“Old Man Third said you had to go back, because you’re… um, you’re from a different Konoha. And the other Konoha needs a Hokage.”

“I am from a different Konoha,” Minato said slowly. “We talked about this. Do you remember?”

“Sort of,” Naruto said after a very pause. “But I didn’t really get it. You're going to leave?”

Minato licked his lips, debating his answer. 

“I’m going to take you with me,” he said finally. 

He hadn’t voiced this outloud, not even to Naruto, because this Konoha would not stand for their jinchuriki to be stolen. He didn’t need Naruto loudly announcing to his entire class and ANBU that his dad was whisking him away to another Konoha. 

But clearly Konoha already fully understood this to be his plan and was already working against it, for Sarutobi to do something so stupidly hurtful to Naruto. The cat was out of the bag; there was no longer a risk involved in voicing it outloud.  

Minato continued, “I do need to go back to my Konoha, because a village needs its Kage. And for… another reason that we should talk about. But Naruto, I’m taking you with me. That was always my plan.”

“Really?” Naruto asked. Minato couldn’t tell if he was excited by the idea or not. 

“Really,” Minato said. “How… how does that make you feel, Naruto?”

Naruto had at least one friend here now, and Minato was going to feel bad taking him away. But also, Naruto would undoubtedly be better off with Minato than staying here. 

Naruto obviously wasn’t putting much thought into never seeing Sakura again, because his next set of questions were about what Minato’s Hokage office was like, and if his secretary would be mean to Naruto too. Despite himself, Minato laughed. 

“Do you have a candy bowl?” Naruto demanded. 

“Yes, but I’m going to make you eat healthy snacks when you visit,” Minato replied. “Special snacks, just for you.” 

After Naruto quizzed him on what his house was like, Minato looped the conversation back around. 

“But, you know, Naruto,” he said, “the Sakura in my Konoha won’t be your Sakura.” He paused, thinking of other people Naruto liked. “Or your Iruka-sensei, or your Sai. You’ll have to say good-bye to them.”

“Oh,” Naruto said. He fidgeted. “Well, I’m not sure Sakura-chan likes me anyway. I went to find her, and she was gone…”

Apparently Sakura had orchestrated the library lie. Minato would have to keep in mind that she would just lie to authority for a friend, when he was properly Hokage again. 

He did think it was strange she’d left the library. Minato had spent a lot of time quizzing Mebuki for parenting tips, and he thought he had a pretty good handle on Sakura’s character. If she abandoned her post, it seemed like there should be a reason. Of course, she was a little kid, so her reason could be something like getting hungry and wanting a snack… 

The whole situation was unusual. He could mull that detail over later. 

“Okay, well,” Minato said. Time to rip the band-aid off. “Naruto, there’s another secret I have to tell you. This is a really big one, okay?”

Naruto sat up, wet eyes blinking up at him curiously. Minato almost winced. This might start another crying session all over again. 

“It’s about the Nine-Tailed Fox,” Minato said. “It’s a long story, but it’s really important. So stop me if you don’t understand something, okay?”

He talked first about the first attack, about how an enemy of Konoha had unleashed the fox on Konoha, and how Senju Mito had sealed the fox inside her. 

“Whoa!” Naruto said. “Inside her? She must have been super strong!”

Minato’s lips ticked upwards. 

“Yes,” he said. “Now, here’s an important thing to know about Mito. Senju is her name after marriage. But she was born Uzumaki Mito, from the Uzumaki clan.”

Naruto gasped. He slapped his free hand against his chest. “Like me!”

“Like you,” Minato agreed. “Like your mom. Now, Mito kept the village safe from the Fox for a long, long time by keeping it inside her. But, like everyone, she eventually got old. She was going to die. So what do you think they did with the fox?”

“Ummmm,” Naruto said. “I dunno. What?”

“They needed another container,” Minato said. “Another really, really strong person. So they asked the Uzumaki in Uzushio to please send someone to help Konoha, to live as a Konoha ninja and protect Konoha by containing the Fox. And so they sent Konoha your mom.”

Naruto gasped again, and then sat up so quickly he dropped Minato’s hand. Minato fought back a laugh as he immediately grabbed it again, cheeks red. 

“No way!” Naruto said. “My mom was that strong? She could hold back a whole demon?”

“Yep,” Minato said, grinning away at Naruto. Maybe this wouldn’t end in tears. “But then, the day you were born, something went really, really wrong. The Fox got out.”

Naruto's awed face dropped immediately. 

“The attack,” he said. “That’s how you and Mom died…”

“That’s right,” Minato said. “When a Tailed Beast gets out of its container, the container dies. You mom fought really hard, and she helped fight back against the Fox. But it killed her.”

“O-oh,” Naruto said, voice tiny. No tears, though. He already knew how Kushina died. 

“And then,” Minato said, fighting to keep his voice level, “we had a problem. The Fox was attacking, and we needed a new container. And, Naruto, this is where it gets really confusing. This Konoha and my Konoha have different containers.”

“Okay,” Naruto said. “Why?”

“Well, in my Konoha, you… also died,” Minato said, voice cracking only a little. Naruto just nodded. He’d heard this before too, and he was too young to have enough concept of his own death for it to bother him. “So with her last breath, your mom helped me seal the Fox into me.”

“No way!” Naruto exclaimed like this was the coolest thing he’d ever heard. He dropped Minato’s hand again, reaching for his face. “Do you have fangs or something cool like that?” 

Naruto attempted to peel his lips back, and Minato snorted with laughter and caught his hands. 

“No, nothing like that,” he said. 

He’d never be able to use the Fox’s chakra or abilities the way Kushina had or Naruto would, because he wasn’t wired that way. Mostly he just had a stupidly complex seal he had to maintain, slightly improved healing, and if he really wanted to, he could blow himself up with it. 

He did not want to do that, though. Especially not now that he had a kid. Being both Hokage and a jinchuriki did make it imperative that he get back to his Konoha. He attempted to explain this to Naruto as Naruto raked his fingers through Minato’s hair in search of fox ears. 

“Okay, here comes the tricky part,” he said, once he’d gotten Naruto to stop yanking at his face. “Who do you think is the container in this timeline, Naruto?”

Naruto stared blankly at him. 

“Remember,” Minato pressed, “in this Konoha, both me and your mom died. Who’s left?” 

Naruto crinkled up his nose. “Old Man Third?”

Minato laughed. 

“No,” he said. “Naruto, lift up your shirt. I’ll show you.”

Naruto did as he was told, exposing his belly to Minato and then giggling when Minato pressed a chakra-warm hand against it. Then, when the seal appeared, Naruto eyes went wide. 

“You are the container,” Minato said. 

“But…” Naruto said, tracing his little fingers over the seal as it slowly faded away again. “How come I didn’t know?”

“It doesn’t really feel like anything, unless you do something to wake up the Fox,” Minato said. “So if no one told you, you wouldn’t know.”

Naruto frowned. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” he asked. “Maybe people would be nicer, if they knew how cool I was, you know!”

Minato bit his lip. 

“Naruto, I think… my understanding is that all the adults know.”

Naruto’s frown deepened. “No way,” he said. “They all hate me.”

“They know,” Minato said, unable to keep his voice from shaking. “And that’s why they treat you differently.”

Naruto blinked very hard several times. Now they were in danger of tears. 

“It’s not fair of them, and they’re wrong,” Minato said. “Being a jinchuriki means you’re brave and strong, like your mother. But a lot of people don’t understand that. Sandaime-sama didn’t want anyone to know, because he knew they’d be cruel. So he made a law that no one can talk about it. That’s why no one told you.”

“But that’s stupid,” Naruto half-yelled. “If they already knew!”

Minato agreed it was stupid, and he was in no mood to defend Sarutobi. He pulled Naruto back into a hug and kissed the top of his head. 

“It’s okay,” Minato said. “Because I know you’re brave and strong and wonderful, Naruto. And when I take you back to my Konoha, they’ll all know that too.”

“And then I’ll be Hokage,” Naruto muttered to himself, determined. 

“After I retire,” Minato agreed. “First you have to get big and strong enough to beat me in a fight.”

Naruto squirmed against him, giggling. “I could beat you in a fight right now, you know!” he said. “Because you’re a nerd, and–– oh shoot, you’re the Yondaime…”

Naruto paused in his squirming and crossed his arms, flummoxed. Minato laughed. And then, suddenly, Minato was the one with tears in his eyes. 

“But you’re the Yondaime,” Naurto protested when he noticed, rubbing at Minato’s eyes with the corner of his blanket. “Why do you keep crying?!”

“I just love you so much,” Minato tried to explain. 

xXx

Naruto attempted to insist on holding Minato's hand while Minato wiped his face clean, and then while Minato prepared dinner. He gave up quickly in favor of sitting at the table and working on one of his drawings. 

With Naruto distracted, Minato took a moment to try and analyze what the fuck had just happened while he chopped vegetables for a curry. 

Why had Sarutobi said those things to Naruto? What was the point? To drive a wedge between them? Did Sarutobi think so poorly of his parenting that Minato wouldn’t move to right this immediately? Surely he didn’t. Minato didn’t have a ton of experience with little kids, but he’d been an excellent sensei right up until… well, he’d been good with his kids emotionally. He was famously well-liked and charismatic. He was good at meeting people on their level and making them feel safe and appreciated, even when he didn’t really care about them, and he cared a lot about Naruto. 

Was the point just to hurt Naruto? That seemed wrong too. Sarutobi cared about him. 

Was the point to piss Minato off? That seemed like something someone might want to do, but it was also a deeply stupid move. And why do it in a way that hurt Naruto?

But then again… back up… why had Naruto gone to Sarutobi, instead of asking Minato? Was he screwing up parenting somewhere? He thought Naruto trusted him. Earlier that evening, Naruto had tried to stick his hand in Minato’s mouth to look for fangs. Naruto was extremely comfortable with him. 

Wasn’t he?

“Naruto,” Minato said, setting a plate of curry down in front of him. “I have a question. Why didn’t you just ask me if I really was the Yondaime?”

“Ummm,” Naruto said, reaching for his chopsticks. “I guess I just thought you wouldn’t tell me.”

“Why not?” Minato pressed. “Of course I would tell you. I only want to help you, Naruto.”

“Well, I mean,” Naruto said, shoving a big piece of potato into his mouth and then talking as he chewed. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Seemed suspicious, you know. Hey, you didn’t put green peppers in this, did you?”

“No, I know you don’t like them,” Minato answered. 

Was he a bad parent? 

Chapter Text

Naruto felt super sleepy after dinner. A lot had happened that day, and it made him feel shaky and kind of sad. But at least his dad had made him feel better. 

His dad shared the sink with him while they both brushed their teeth. Then he tucked Naruto into bed. 

Instead of reading Naruto a story, Minato said, “I have to go talk to Sandaime-sama about what happened.”

“Mkay,” Naruto said. He was too sleepy to have many more thoughts on this. 

His dad, of course, always had a million thoughts on everything. 

“I want to take you with me,” he said. “But I think I might… yell. So you coming too would be a bad idea. But I don’t want to leave you alone.”

Then Minato stepped back from the bed, did some hand signs, and a frog appeared right in the middle of Naruto’s room. Naruto was so surprised that he sat up, sleepiness gone. 

“Whoa!” he said. 

“What’s up, Boss!” the frog said. “The Bigger Boss said you were back!”

“Hey, Gamashita,” Minato greeted. “Long time no see. I’d love to catch up, but could you watch my son for a few hours first? I need to take care of some business.”

“Sure thing!” the frog agreed. “What’s the tadpole’s name?”

“Naruto,” Minato said. Then he turned to Naruto. “This is Gamashita. He’s a friend. He’s going to babysit you for a bit, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” Naruto said, transfixed by the frog. It could talk. His dad bent over and gave him a kiss on the cheek before disappearing. 

The frog hopped onto his bed. 

“Are you going to tell me a bedtime story?” Naruto asked. 

“Nope,” said the frog. 

Naruto felt mildly disappointed. Frog bedtime stories sounded cool. 

“Do you want to watch TV?” Naruto asked. 

“I’ve never done that before,” the frog said. 

Minato didn’t let Naruto put on his TV during bed time. But the frog had never seen TV before, so this was probably totally fine. He was helping the frog out, after all. 

Naruto was starting to doze off to the sound of the TV when suddenly there was a heavy weight on him and a hand was holding his head down. Naruto’s eyes flew open. 

“Get the frog,” a voice said. 

Naruto watched as a knife went right through Gamashita’s head, inches from his face. Blood splashed across his sheets. Naruto opened his mouth to scream, put someone shoved something in his mouth instead, muffling the noise. 

“Flip him over,” another voice said. There were weird noises all around, of things being ripped and broken. The blankets were yanked away and Naruto was turned onto his back, and someone switched on the lights. He yelled again through his gag as he was momentarily blinded. Hands held his legs and arms. As his vision came back, he could see five masked people staring down at him. One of them rolled up his pajama shirt. 

“Jiraiya-sama said…” 

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut. He wished he hadn’t let go of his dad’s hand. 

xXx

Minato went to Sarutobi with the idea that he’d probably end up in an argument, but he would try to prevent an actual fight. Instead of going straight into the office, he teleported to the waiting area outside. Sarutobi’s secretary was gone for the day, but Minato could tell people were inside the office. He opened the door without knocking.

Sarutobi had more ANBU than usual inside. Minato wasn’t surprised by this. Sarutobi had to know that he’d just pissed off Minato. He was slightly surprised by another person inside. 

“Jiraiya,” Minato greeted as he stepped into Sarutobi’s office. 

Jiraiya, who’d been standing facing Sarutobi, turned. He looked completely taken aback to see Minato. 

“Gods almighty,” Jiraiya said. “Sensei explained it, and yet…”

He pulled Minato into a hug, clapping him on the back with one massive hand. 

“It’s good to see you!” he boomed, letting Minato go. “Can’t believe you didn’t look me up yourself. No room in your heart for your old sensei, huh?”

“Uh,” Minato said. He blinked several times, clearing his head. From his point of view, he’d last seen Jiraiya only a few months ago. He could ignore him. 

Minato stepped around Jiraiya, right up to Sarutobi’s desk. The older man raised his eyes to him, looking exhausted and older than ever. 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Minato asked, not bothering to hide the venom in his voice. 

Jiraiya was next to him in an instant, setting a hand on his shoulder. Minato brushed him off. 

“Minato,” Jiraiya started, voice tense. 

“It’s alright,” Sarutobi said. He sighed, and Minato felt a spike of anger flare in him. “I made a misstep with Naruto earlier.”

“A misstep?” Minato repeated. Killing intent was leaking out of his pores. He didn’t care. “I found him alone and crying in the woods.”

And Sarutobi had known about this, because ANBU had been there. The old man did not deny it, although he immediately skirted his own responsibility for it. 

“Forgive me,” Sarutobi said. “I had assumed you’d already had a talk with Naruto about your situation. After all, it would be cruel not to.”

Minato stiffened. “My situation?”

Sarutobi folded his hands on his desk. Minato glanced at Jiraiya from the corner of his eye, but the man wasn’t looking at him, instead staring resolutely ahead. 

“You are planning to leave, are you not?” Sarutobi continued. “You cannot take Naruto with you. He’s our responsibility. It would be cruel to lead him on.”

Minato balled his hands into fists. What was this move? Obviously Sarutobi was lying–– he wasn’t an idiot. He already knew Minato was planning to take Naruto. So, was he attempting to force Minato to admit it himself? 

By hurting Naruto?

“I don’t see why,” Minato said stiffly, focusing on enunciating every word to prevent himself from yelling even as he did nothing about the sting of killing intent in the air, “you could not have addressed this issue in a more sensitive way.” 

“And I don’t see why you are leading Naruto on like this,” Sarutobi countered. “You have pushed to spend time with him against my recommendation, and you have lied to him about your role in this village in favor of fostering his attachment to you. You will leave him soon, and he will be hurt, and it will be your own fault.”

Jiraiya dipped his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Sensei, Minato, this is a stupid game,” he said, although he still refused to look Minato in the eyes. 

“I’m not leaving my son in a village that refuses to care for him,” Minato said. “Is that what you wanted me to say? You could have confronted me directly instead of goading him into a breakdown. Or did you think I’d change my mind, knowing you only think of him as a pawn–”

He was getting heated again, losing control of himself. His words sped up and got louder. The killing intent intensified, and Jiraiya shuffled uncomfortably. 

“Minato,” Sarutobi eventually interrupted, voice hard. His own killing intent cut through the air. “You cannot take Naruto. I am explaining to you why you need to back off.”

“He’s not safe here,” Minato said. 

“He is adequately cared for,” Sarutobi said. “If it will make this easier for you, I have considered taking him in.”

Sarutobi gave Minato a very stale story, one of compromise and too little too late. Sarutobi did not think by himself he could care for a rambunctious child, but his son and daughter-in-law’s baby was big enough they thought they could now take on another one. 

“That’s not what I meant,” Minato replied through gritted teeth. “I did some snooping. I know you know who leaked Naruto’s status as a jinchuriki, and I know you never found the masked man who killed me.”

The atmosphere in the room immediately went cold. 

“You know who unleashed the Fox?” Jiraiya said sharply. 

“I planted a Hiraishin marker on him during our fight,” Minato said, crossing his arms. “In my timeline, I confronted and killed him. I could go to him right now if I wanted to.”

Minato would not casually go and reconfront Obito. That fight, so soon after the loss of his family, had nearly broken him a second time. 

Although certainly Naruto, and all of Konoha, really, were unsafe as long as Obito was still out there. Minato would warn Kakashi before he left, because he owed him that, even in another timeline. But he did not currently feel either the responsibility or generosity to so much as explain Obito’s miraculous survival to this Konoha. 

“Are you threatening us?” Sarutobi asked, voice hard. 

Minato tilted his head to the side. 

“That depends,” he said. “Are you threatening me and my son?”

They argued. Minato wanted Sarutobi’s word that he would not interfere, either in his and Naruto’s relationship, or in Minato’s attempts to get home. His points were that Naruto was his son, that Naruto was unsafe here, and that the Konoha council of elders had intentionally made Naruto a pariah by leaking that he was a jinchuriki and Sarutobi had done nothing to stop this or punished them for it. If Sarutobi cared about Naruto, he’d let Minato take him. Minato had no problem explaining his intel on the masked man, but only if Sarutobi played by his rules. 

Sarutobi’s argument was that Naruto was their jinchuriki and that, if Minato cared about or respected Konoha, he would not remove the Fox’s container. Konoha could deal with the masked man if Minato only supplied the relevant information, but they would not trade Naruto for it. Sarutobi had not approved of the leak, but now that it was done, he had dealt with it the best he could. 

Jiraiya made very little commentary. He stood there, arms crossed, his face sinking into a deeper and deeper frown. 

Then, suddenly, a bunch of Hiraishin markers moved at once.

Minato usually wouldn’t notice something like this, unless he were actively monitoring his network. But tens of them suddenly all took off from the same place, and he noticed. 

They started from Naruto’s apartment.

“What,” Minato said, cutting off Sarutobi mid-sentence, “are you doing?”

He didn’t explain what he meant further or stay for the answer. Movement was the only way he could differentiate Naruto’s marker from others. Something was happening. 

The markers that were moving were from Naruto’s apartment. Minato could tell because there were suddenly only four left in the apartament. None of them had the slight twitch of movement that even a sleeping Naruto would have, which meant Naruto had to be one of the moving ones. 

All the markers had scattered throughout the village. Frowning, Minato blipped between them one by one, searching for his son. 

So this was the plan? Get him emotional and distracted, and then try to move Naruto away from him?

It took him less than a minute to skip between all of the moving markers. They were ANBU agents clutching pieces of uprooted drywall, a chunk of wood from Naruto’s front door, a cabinet drawer. Minato knocked out every agent, not caring to be gentle this time. 

None of them had Naruto. 

He went to the apartment, panic welling in his mind. It was ransacked, with objects tossed around in search of markers, and pieces of the walls and furniture removed. Neither Naruto nor Gamashita were anywhere to be seen. 

There was blood in Naruto’s sheets. 

Breathe, Minato commanded himself. His trust in the village not to hurt Naruto was gone, but they wouldn’t kill him. Naruto was alive somewhere. 

He scanned his Hiraishin network. There were no other markers on living people in the village or the surrounding area. But that was impossible, unless…

Jiraiya, Minato thought, feeling a pang of betrayal. Jiraiya was the only one skilled enough to remove a marker, and definitely the only one capable of messing with the Fox’s seal. He’d had a hand in removing Naruto’s marker. 

Minato returned to the Hokage’s office. Jiraiya appeared to be having an argument with Sarutobi. 

“Where the fuck is Naruto?” Minato demanded. 

“He’s–” Jiraiya started, and he had the gall to look apologetic. 

“Jiraiya,” Sarutobi interrupted. He stood. “Minato, we have tried to reason with you. The incident earlier has proven that this bond is harmful to Naruto, so I am intervening. He will be kept healthy and safe.”

Minato barely heard him, categorizing all the places in Konoha one might hide a jinchuriki, if he or Tobirama had markers there, and how he could break into the places he didn’t. There wasn’t an inch of this village he didn’t know. 

Minato twirled a kunai in his hand. 

“Either you tell me where he is,” he said, deadly calm, “or I will go find him myself, and I will kill anyone who interferes.”

“Minato, we can talk about this,” Jiraiya said. “You’re being irrational.”

Minato shot him a glare. Maybe the Minato Jiraiya had known-- the one who’d died at age twenty-four after only being in office twenty months-- would have taken a moment to hear him out. That version of Minato had still seen Jiraiya as an authority. 

But this Minato was older; he respected Jiraiya as a master of his own craft and Minato’s former teacher, but in his mind, Jiraiya was very firmly under his command. 

Plus, Jiraiya had obviously sided with Sarutobi. It wasn’t hard to sort him into the category of someone other than Minato’s beloved teacher, a strange Jiraiya in a strange Konoha. 

“I left him with Gamashita,” Minato said. “He’s missing too.”

Jiraiya clenched his jaw, then turned away from Minato and swore. 

“Now,” Minato said, turning to Sarutobi. “I’ll try one last time. Where is my son?”

Sarutobi kept eye contact with him, gaze hard. When he finally moved, he didn’t go for a weapon. He signaled for ANBU to attack. The hand sign, Minato noted, was not to detain-- it was to kill. 

Sarutobi was lucky Minato’s priority was finding Naruto, not working out his anger. He didn’t have time to fight the six agents who suddenly jumped for him. Instead, he relocated to Danzo’s new office. 

“Hi,” Minato said. Danzo looked up from his desk, startled. “Do you know where my son is?”

The look Danzo made said he definitely did. Minato reached across the desk and patted his shoulder, planting a Hiraishin marker on his person. 

“Go on,” he said. “Tell me.”

“You’ve taken this too far,” Danzo replied. “This is what’s best for Konoha.”

“Hmm,” MInato said. His hand moved, and he gripped the front of Danzo’s kimono. “You know, I can’t say I care much about that anymore.” 

He teleported the both of them to a cliff out in coastal Water Country. Danzo let out a panicked puff of air as the ground suddenly disappeared from beneath his feet. Minato tensed his arm and planted his feet to the edge of the cliff with chakra as he held Danzo’s weight over the cliff. The moon was bright above them, and the sound of waves violently crashing below them meant he had to yell to be heard. 

“Where is Naruto?” Minato asked. 

A blade appeared in Danzo’s hand, and he made to stab Minato. Minato dropped him. Then he teleported behind him mid-air, grabbed the back of his kimono, and dropped them both on a tiny island off the coast of southern Fire Country. 

Danzo fell to his knees, shaking with nerves. Minato tapped his foot impatiently. 

“This was your plan, wasn’t it?” Minato said. It was just a touch too cruel to be Sarutobi, although Sarutobi had certainly signed off on it. 

Danzo didn’t answer. He got painstakingly to his feet. 

“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Minato said. “Will you tell me where my son is?”

“You will never find him,” Danzo replied. 

“Then you’d better hope someone finds you,” Minato said, and then left him there. 

He went through the new ROOT bunker next. It seemed like this would be too obvious a place to hide Naruto, but it also seemed like logistically the easiest. He swept it, killing several ROOT agents in his wake. There was no sign of Naruto. 

He did find Haruno Sakura in a cell. 

She eyed the two guards he’d killed with evident terror. Oopsies. 

“You don’t happen to know where Naruto is, do you?” Minato asked as he pried open the door to her cell. 

She had no idea, and he hadn’t expected her to, but it was worth it to ask. She mostly just seemed very upset and confused. She cried and could barely get out the syllables to tell him her address. 

He dropped her off at her house without bothering to speak to her parents.

He swept a few more strongholds, T&I and R&D, interrogated a few of the ANBU agents he’d knocked out earlier, and then took a couple minutes to squat on the head of his own statue and consider his options. If he were capturing a child and spiriting them away from their Kage parent, he’d move them out of the village. He had several places he’d go, but he didn’t know if Sarutobi or Jiraiya would know about them, and moving out of the village opened up a bunch of variables he knew less well… 

An alarm went off, signaling an invasion. Minato snorted. Cute, he thought. He’d left people alone who didn’t interfere with him, but he had to have killed at least a hundred people by now. The alarm was a little late. 

Jiraiya approached him, hands up to show he had no weapons. 

“I came to apologize,” Jiraiya said. 

“Not interested,” Minato replied. 

There was an old Uchiha hideout not that far away. That would be an obscure but defensible place to hide a jinchuriki. Should he try there? He didn’t have any markers in the area… 

Jiraiya stopped a few meters away, hands still up. 

“They killed Gamashita,” he said. 

Minato grunted in acknowledgement. That was bad. Minato had a responsibility to not get his summons killed. But so did Jiraiya. 

“Did you not warn them when you were prepping them to kidnap my son?” Minato asked. Jiraiya would have predicted Minato would go for a toad babysitter over a high chakra technique like kagebunshin. Even a clone of Minato was too dangerous for such a plan to work. 

“I made Sarutobi swear to me the kid would be safe,” Jiraiya said. “And then I helped him, because he’s right. This isn’t your Naruto. He’s ours.”

Minato frowned minutely. Then this isn’t my Konoha, and you’re not my Jiraiya, he thought. 

“I didn’t come talk to you first, because I knew the second I saw you, I’d want to side with you,” Jiraiya continued in his overdramatic drawl. “Please, just back down, and I’ll help you get home. You and I both know you’re in the wrong here.”

“Am I?” Minato asked. He stood fully. Below them, the village was coming alive as ninja ran to their posts. 

“Konoha needs its jinchuriki,” Jiraiya said. 

Minato did not particularly care about this Konoha. 

“I need my son,” he said. 

“Naruto died in your timeline, didn’t he?” Jiraiya asked. Minato felt his throat tighten. Jiraiya sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, kid, I get it, but…” 

“If you got it, you’d tell me where he is,” Minato said. 

Jiraiya started to say something else, but Minato’s brain finally shoved all the puzzle pieces together. They would have had to keep Naruto close, because they could only expect so much transfer time before Minato came looking. Danzo and Sarutobi would keep him in village, but in a place they didn’t expect Minato to know about, even with all his knowledge as Hokage. 

A place, perhaps, which had been recorded as destroyed before Minato took office. A place which Minato would have had no reason to look into, because its perpetrator was long gone, except that a whole team of Yamanaka hide pried it out of Danzo’s head in his timeline. 

Minato didn’t have any markers in Orochimaru’s old labs. Most of the labs had been destroyed-- except for one, maintained in secrecy for ROOT. Minato teleported the closest he could get.

A chunin screamed in horror. 

“Hi!” Minato said, shooting the poor teenager a smile. “Didn’t mind me.”

The chunin just stared at him, wide-eyed, and did nothing while Minato pulled up a manhole and disappeared underground. 

The tunnel to the lab was partially collapsed, but it was unguarded. Minato had to hunch over to transverse it, but he didn’t meet anyone until he got to the lab proper. 

Naruto was seated in the middle of the room, looking especially tiny in his pajamas. Some old lab equipment was scattered around, but the creepy remains of human experimentation were long gone. 

Naruto had a total of ten masked guards positioned around the room. Minato tossed kunai into the air before the guards had properly registered he was there. 

He tried to be as bloodless as possible. He didn’t want to freak Naruto out any more than he already was. 

He took down all the guards, pulled Naruto into his arms, and took them to a forest near the Grass Country border. 

“Dad!” Naruto sobbed. Both his little hands went for Minato’s, gripping his hand as tight as they could. 

“Hey, Naruto,” Minato said, sagging in relief. Adrenaline seeped out of his body, leaving him feeling exhausted. He flopped down on the forest floor, tugging Naruto into his lap. “I told you I wouldn’t leave you.”

The night was chilly, and Naruto was only in his pajamas. Naruto refused to let go of Minato’s hand, gripping it as tight as his little fingers possibly could and letting out long, shuddering sobs. Minato pulled off his cloak and ended up turning one sleeve inside out to push it from his arm over Naruto’s without dropping his hand. He wrapped Naruto in it like a blanket. 

“They ripped up our home,” Naruto sniffled. “And your frog friend…”

He cried. Minato patted his back. Fury started to churn in his stomach again. Right now, he just wanted to get Naruto to calm down enough to sleep. But he’d have to talk to Naruto about what happened, and he himself wasn’t even sure. 

He could see the fingerprints of Jiraiya in this… “plan” now. Jiraiya would know how Minato’s sensing of his own markers worked, and how to peel Naruto’s off of him. The thing with sending a bunch of ANBU agents off to confuse him and temporarily cover up that Naruto’s marker had disappeared was the sort of thing Jiraiya would do. 

But the plan overall seemed stupid and desperate in a way that left him thinking worse of Jiraiya’s, Sarutobi’s, and Danzo’s intelligence. Did they really think he wouldn’t retaliate? 

Then again, Danzo had seemed confident he wouldn’t find Naruto, and they had successfully separated them. If Jiraiya had convinced Minato to calm down instead of ripping up Konoha, or if he hadn’t interviewed his own timeline’s Danzo about his various hideouts, they might have bought enough time to move Naruto somewhere where Minato would truly never find him. And they must have felt they had to move fast, because if Minato was famous for one thing, it was acting quicker than anyone else could handle. 

Something must have triggered them to do this now, rather than later and more carefully. But what? Naruto had had an upsetting conversation with Sarutobi, so they could predict Minato would be emotional, distracted, and could be kept busy for long enough to implement this plan… had they just been jumping on the opportunity of Naruto happening to come speak to Sarutobi?

“Naruto,” Minato whispered in his ear before Naruto could doze off. “I have to put a new Hiraishin marker on you.”

He had to re-explain to Naruto what that was, and what it would mean. 

“Okay,” Naruto said. “So you can come get me.”

“Yes,” Minato said. 

“It’s not going to hurt, right?” Naruto said. “Those masked guys, they did something like that to me, and it was scary…”

Minato squeezed him just a little tighter. He wished he’d killed those ANBU. If he ever figured out who had personally hurt his son, those people were dead. 

“No, not scary, and it won’t hurt,” he told Naruto. Naruto nodded. “Where do you want it? It’ll be like a tattoo.”

“A tattoo?” Naruto repeated. “Then it has to be in a cool place…”

Chapter Text

Naruto woke up confused and afraid. He wasn’t in his bed. He wasn’t in his apartment. He wasn’t even inside. 

He remembered hands on him before, remembered some hot and uncomfortable energy being pulled up from his stomach and Gamashita dead on his bed and– and–

“Naruto?” his dad murmured. Naruto felt the rumble of his words, because instead of his bed, he was curled up against his dad’s side, his face pressed into his chest. His dad had wrapped him in his cloak, and it smelled like him. 

“You’re safe,” Minato said. He shifted, rubbing Naruto’s back in little circles. 

His hand! Naruto thought. He reached for it, flipping himself over and pushing aside the fabric of the cloak as it tangled around him. When he grabbed his hand, Minato held his hand back. 

That was good, Naruto thought. Wherever they were, it wasn’t as comfortable as his bed, and the night air was cool against his face. But his dad at his back was warm, and Naruto trusted him to hold his hand all night. 

He can’t leave me like this, Naruto thought. 

xXx

In the morning, Minato took Naruto with him to one of Konoha’s border outposts. Three shinobi were currently manning it. One happened to be Hatake Kakashi, who’d been sequestered away out here for the last several weeks to keep him out of Konoha. 

“Yo!” Minato greeted, Naruto balanced on his hip. The kid had refused to let go of his hand since he woke up, even as Minato had finagled his cloak back onto his body. 

“Yo,” Kakashi replied, eyes wary. 

“Are you kidding me?” Uchiha Shisui said, face pained. So this was ANBU Cat. Interesting; Shisui had never signed up for ANBU in Minato’s timeline. “I signed up for this to get as far away from you as possible.”

“Sorry,” Minato said, grinning cheekily. “Do me a favor and take your third teammate and leave, please.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shisui grumbled. “Uh, I mean– yes, sir?”

Minato eyed Kakashi up and down as Shisui vacated the makeshift room, calling after their third comrade with more authority than a teen would normally have. The outpost was a series of connected platforms in the trees, with thatched roofs to protect ninja from the elements. Hammocks hung from tree branches where the shape of the tree was convenient, rather than where a human might naturally place their bed. A pin board set up behind Kakashi had a schedule of chores and a pin-up of a popular actress. 

This Kakashi looked no different from the one Minato knew, except maybe a little more tired. He gave off an air of existential exhaustion, even as he went out of his way to make his posture lazy and relaxed. He wore his mask and hitai-ate the same way. The sight was comforting to Minato. 

Then again, Jiraiya had looked the same too. 

Kakashi studied him back, face carefully neutral. 

“I hope they told you about me,” Minato started. 

Kakashi’s gaze moved to Naruto next. Naruto was fidgeting, clearly wanting to climb down from Minato and explore this new place. He also still had an iron grip on Minato’s hand. 

Minato would prefer to have this conversation with Kakashi in private. But he also wasn’t going to break his promise to Naruto to hold his hand for as long as he wanted. 

Minato also maybe didn’t want to let Naruto out of his sight ever again. 

“I suspect some details may have been skipped over,” Kakashi drawled. “An oversight, I’m sure.”

Kakashi had been told Minato had agreed to self-isolation, and that Kakashi being assigned to this random outpost way below his pay grade was a mercy to prevent the temptation of him looking Minato up. Kakashi had suspected they just wanted him out of the way, and his suspicions had been confirmed when he’d gotten a hawk that morning saying that Minato had turned on the village and gone rogue. 

“Self-isolation must have been really rough,” Kakashi said, and Minato laughed despite everything. 

Kakashi had not shared the message with either of the other shinobi at this outpost yet. He’d figured Minato's next move would likely be to come here, and he wanted to hear Minato out himself. 

Minato was sure Konoha would also predict this. There were definitely back-up shinobi and more hawks on their way. 

“I need your help,” Minato admitted. 

“Sure,” Kakashi said, easy as that. “Do I get an explanation?”

“Yes,” Minato agreed. “But not here. Got a favorite vacation spot?”

Agreeing to let Minato take you to an unknown secondary location was about the stupidest thing you could do if you expected him to want to hurt you. Kakashi eyed him for a good long moment, and Minato simply smiled back. Minato wouldn’t hold it against a shinobi to trust their village over him, but he also really wanted Kakashi to pick him. It was Kakashi, after all. 

Kakashi reached out and put a firm hand on his shoulder, no hesitation once his decision had been made. 

“If we’re going on vacation, I haven’t been to a hot spring in a while,” he said. 

Minato teleported them into the boonies of Hot Water Country, to a mountain hot spring that sent warm mist into the air around them. It had once been a lazy, unpopular tourist spot– it was much harder to access than some bigger hot springs in the area– and had been completely abandoned during the Third Shinobi War. 

“Whoa!” Naruto cried, shimmying down Minato’s side. He yanked at Minato’s arm, eager to look at the pools of steaming water around them. He immediately slipped on a moss-covered rock, and Minato pulled him up before he could fall properly.

“Naruto, calm down,” Minato told him, grinning down at his son’s baffled face. “The steam makes the rocks slick, okay?”

There were wooden benches and canopies set up for visitors, now abandoned and largely rotting. Minato and Kakasih sat on the least dilapidated bench they could find, and Naruto stood on the bench behind Minato and tugged at his hair and babbled about some movie he’d seen with hot springs. 

“That doesn’t sound very age appropriate,” Kakashi deadpanned at Naruto’s description of… “romance.”

“No,” Minato agreed. “Naruto, when did… actually, we can talk about that later. I want you to meet Kakashi.”

Kakashi gave Naruto a little two fingered wave as Minato explained he was his old student. 

“He looks like a weirdo,” Naruto said very matter-of-factly. 

“Oi,” Kakashi said. “You’re the one wearing PJs at a hot spring, kid.”

Minato started with the easy part of this conversation. He obviously hadn’t agreed to self-isolation. He’d found Naruto, learned he was an orphan, and was therefore caring for him. Minato chose not to delve into how unhappy he was with Naruto’s care at this time. Kakashi had just turned fourteen when Naruto was born, and when Minato had looked up his file to figure out where he’d gone, he’d seen Kakashi had been commanded not to approach Naruto. Minato could not hold it against Kakashi for not advocating for Naruto, although Kakashi was quite good at wallowing in self-blame. Minato didn’t see any point in bringing up a topic that might distress Kakashi when he didn’t need to.

Instead, Minato explained without hesitation that he’d planned to take Naruto back to his timeline, and that Sarutobi had reacted by preemptively kidnapping Naruto.

Kakashi shifted nervously throughout his entire part of the story.  

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say you’re planning to kidnap our… Naruto,” Kakashi said finally. “Too busy bawling my eyes out over our reunion, of course.”

“Of course,” Minato said. He wouldn't demand Kakashi turn traitor for him, although he also wouldn’t lie to him about his intentions. 

Minato did appreciate Kakashi’s willingness to politely look away from the rules for a good cause. It had caused him a headache more than once as a Kage, but as a friend it was certainly an admirable quality. 

“Naruto has to help me with this part of the story,” Minato continued. He pulled him into his lap, and Naruto stretched bonelessly over his legs, dipping his head back to peer up at Kakashi. “Naruto, what happened to you last night?”

Naruto frowned. He squirmed, uncomfortable. 

“I can make Kakashi leave if you want,” Minato said gently. “But you need to tell me.”

“It was scary,” Naruto mumbled. He sat up, squeezing Minato’s hand for reassurance. Minato squeezed back. “I showed your frog friend the TV.”

“Ah, more inappropriate romance movies?” Kakashi asked. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him, but his speech got bolder. 

It had gone about as Minato had guessed. ANBU had suddenly been in Naruto’s apartment, and they’d done something which Naruto described as “awful and too hot and scary” to the seal in his belly. Naruto had passed out during this process, and then woken back up in a “scary dark room, like an extra evil dentist.” They’d given him water but refused to otherwise speak to him. 

Minato had to concentrate very hard on staying calm during this story. Naruto was perfectly fine. He’d gotten him back quickly, and he wanted to keep him feeling safe and relaxed. 

“And then you saved me!” Naruto concluded brightly. Minato ruffled his hair. 

Minato explained, “That bad hot feeling-- I think it was the seal for the Fox.”

Kakashi’s eye widened slightly at the casual admission, but he remained silent. 

“I need to look at it,” Minato told Naruto. 

Naruto frowned, his hand going over his stomach. Kakashi cocked his head to the side. 

“Is that what you need me for?” he asked. 

“Yes,” Minato replied. He could examine and modify the seal on his own, of course, but it was always better to do something so dangerous with back-up. Kakashi was no master, but he was more advanced than a casual fuinjutsu user, and the Sharingan would be useful if something really went wrong and they had to repress Fox chakra. 

“Will it hurt?” Naruto asked. “It felt bad, before…”

Minato carefully raked his hand through Naruto’s hair. 

“I don’t know if it will hurt or not,” he admitted. 

Messing with Minato’s own seal never felt good, but it didn’t hurt. However, he needed to check the seal because he had no idea what had been done to it. Jiraiya may have designed the modifications, but he hadn't been the one to actually modify it, and so mistakes could have been made. 

Minato tried to explain this to Naruto. He promised he would do his best to make it not hurt or be scary. 

“Like getting a shot at the doctor’s,” Kakashi drawled. 

After a few moments, Naruto asked, “My mom did stuff like this?”

A smile tugged at Minato’s lips. 

“Yes,” he said. “We worked together on making the seal the best we could, so we looked at it a lot together. That’s how we designed the one you have now.”

“Okay,” Naruto decided, eyes determined. 

They moved a little further up the mountain, away from the dampness and heat of the hot springs. Minato laid his cloak out like a sheet and had Naruto lie down on his back on it. He and Kakashi squatted on either side of him. 

Naruto wiggled as Minato rolled up his shirt. It was the wiggles of a kid who couldn’t sit still, rather than nerves, which was good. 

One of Naruto's hands was still clinging to Minato’s pinky and ring finger. Kakashi eyed it and how it made Minato’s hand signs awkward, although he didn’t comment. 

“This will feel funny, but it shouldn’t hurt,” Minato warned Naruto. Then he unfolded the Kyuubi’s seal. 

First, the seal on Naruto’s belly lit up under Minato’s fingers. Naruto stopped wiggling, but he didn’t seem distressed. He craned his neck, blinking down at himself with curious eyes. Then Minato pushed more chakra into the seal, and black characters unfolded, marching across Naruto’s skin and then the cloth of Minato’s cloak beneath him in a complicated pattern. Naruto’s face scrunched up. 

“You’re doing good,” Minato assured him. “I know it feels weird.”

Even with the Sharingan now exposed, Kakashi’s expression was unreadable as he watched Minato lean over his son to study the seal. This would be easier if Minato simply went into the seal, but that would undoubtedly be weirder and scarier for Naruto. 

“This was sloppy,” Minato finally diagnosed. 

“Dangerously sloppy?” Kakashi asked, shifting his pose in anticipation. 

“No,” Minato acknowledged. Certainly the Fox was in no danger of escaping. “They removed the Hiraishin marker, and now some of the edges are frayed…”

They must have been banking on Jiraiya being able to fix up any mistakes made. The Fox might now be getting out today, but frayed edges meant the seal could degrade with time. Minato and Kushina had worked very, very hard on modifying her seal into something that could last decades without modifications or repairs. That Naruto could grow up without having to worry about it had been a gift from them. 

(It was meant to be a gift for their great grandchildren, for when Kushina was one hundred and ten and needed to pick a new vessel.)

“Are you going to replace the marker, then?” Kakashi asked. 

Minato hesitated. When Kushina had been pregnant, his idea for Naruto and his Hiraishin markers was that they should be a choice. The markers meant Minato could easily pick Naruto up from school and rush in and save him whenever, but they could also be used to invade Naruto’s privacy or exert extreme parental control over him. Minato wanted Naruto to have a choice in them, because he wanted Naruto to trust him and know that Minato trusted him back. 

Right now, Naruto was too young to make a lot of decisions for himself, including ones involving his personal safety. Minato would let him pick where on his body he wanted a marker, but that he had one was nonnegotiable. This timeline’s Minato must have thought the same when he’d integrated the marker into the seal. 

But the marker currently on Naruto’s bicep would serve just as well as one inside his jinchuriki seal, and it would certainly be easier to remove if, when Naruto was old enough to decide as much, he wanted to. 

“No,” Minato decided finally. “It’ll be easier to fix this up without it.”

He worked as quickly as he could without sacrificing quality. 

Midway through, he had to pause. 

Kushina’s chakra was in here. Not in the damaged part, but in the very core of the seal, the part that held the fox itself. He recognized her chakra like he’d recognize his own. Even in death, she was protecting their son. 

“Sensei?” Kakashi asked, and Minato realized his eyes were watery. He blinked several times. 

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’m almost done.”

“He cries a lot,” Naruto told Kakashi very authoritatively. 

“Is that so?” Kakashi replied, obviously amused.

Minato folded the seal back up and motioned for Naruto to sit up. Naruto had obviously gotten over any fear or anxiety over the seal, because he was now babbling to Kakashi about Minato. 

“Did you know he’s the Yondaime?” Naruto asked. 

“Yes,” Kakashi replied. “I was at his inauguration ceremony.”

“I didn’t know,” Naruto continued. “He doesn’t seem like he should be, you know, ‘cause the Yondaime is the coolest Hokage, so he shouldn’t cry.”

“It does seem a bit off,” Kakashi said, eyeing Minato with a certain sense of mirth. “But I saw them put the hat on him. Can you believe that?”

Minato cleared his throat. “I am right here,” he said. 

Naruto got to his feet and begged Minato to go into the hot springs below. He’d never been, he said, and movies made them look fun. 

“Okay,” Minato agreed. Naruto let out a whoop of joy, and Minato let him drag him down the mountainside. 

Naruto still clung to his hand, making getting both their shirts off complicated. 

“You’re still a pushover,” Kakashi commented cheerfully once they were all in one of the bigger springs. 

“Are you wearing a mask in the bath?” Naruto demanded of Kakashi. 

“It’s not a bath,” Kakashi said helpfully. “It’s a hot spring.”

“Weirdo,” Naruto muttered. Then he turned to Minato and asked, “When are we going home? They kinda wrecked it, you know.”

“I know,” Minato said. “I’m not sure when we can go home.”

One reason he agreed so easily to spending a few hours messing around in a hot spring was that he wasn’t sure what his next move was, but it was highly likely the move would be stressful for Naruto. He wanted to give him something fun. 

“Why’d they do that?” Naruto asked. 

Next to him, Kakashi shifted awkwardly. 

“That’s a good question, Naruto,” Minato said. “I’m not completely sure, honestly. I think they wanted to split us up, because they know I’m going to take you away. And they had to be very extreme about it, because they knew I’d come for you.”

“But you came for me anyway,” Naruto said. His hand squeezed Minato’s under the water. In a less sure tone, he added, “They couldn’t stop you?”

“Nope,” Minato said, reaching over to ruffle Naruto’s hair with his free hand. “And they never will.”

Satisfied with the answer, Naruto pulled their hands out of the water and said, “I can come back to this, right?”

“Sure,” Minato agreed. 

“Because there’s a lizard over there,” Naruto said very seriously, “and I want to go look at it.”

“Go for it,” Minato told him. 

Naruto swam off. Kakashi let out a quiet huff of laughter. 

“Parenthood looks good on you,” Kakashi commented. 

Minato sighed and leaned back against the edge of the pool. 

“I’ve already screwed up a few times,” he admitted. 

He wasn’t going to offload his anxieties on poor Kakashi, but he was extremely frustrated with himself for letting Naruto get kidnapped. Not to mention his screw up with not telling Naruto about being the Yondaime, or all the times Naruto noticed him sneaking out at night, or even just that he’d died and left Naruto in a situation where he’s grown up so unloved that he could barely even make friends. 

Minato turned to Kakashi, still watching Naruto out of the corners of his eyes. He’d also screwed up several major calls with his students over the years. 

“What about you? How have you been holding up?”

“Oh, you know…” Kakashi said. 

Kakashi was as avoidant about his own feelings as ever and mostly just told mildly amusing anecdotes about his rivalry with Maito Gai, but he did seem pleased to have Minato back. No resentment then. That was good. 

We’ll see how long that lasts when I tell him about Obito, Minato thought with a wince. 

“Have you looked up anyone else?” Kakashi asked. 

“No,” Minato admitted. “I… well, I’m planning to leave as soon as possible. I thought it’d be better to maintain distance.”

Perhaps this too had been a mistake. Jiraiya had outright said he wouldn’t have sided with Sarutobi if he’d had face time with Minato first. 

“That’s fair,” Kakashi said. “How close are you to leaving?”

Across the pool, Naruto leapt for his lizard, slipped, and fell back into the water. Minato twitched but didn’t interfere; Naruto needed to be able to play and learn without Mnato holding his hand the whole way. The kid resurfaced, looking unbothered as he shook water from his hair. 

“It’s hard to judge,” Minato said. “I have a theory for how to do it, but I’m not sure how to test it.”

“And it sounds like consulting Jiraiya is off the table,” Kakashi said. 

“Yeah,” Minato agreed. He ran a hand through his hair. “I was going to reach out to R&D next, but…”

But instead Konoha had kidnapped his son, and he’d killed a bunch of them and gone on the run. 

“I’m also telling them you kidnapped me,” Kakashi said. “Hands tied. Yellow Flash versus poor little old me. Nothing I could do.”

Minato snorted. 

“I want to know why they decided to move now, rather than later,” Minato said. If they’d waited, maybe they’d have a better plan. 

Kakashi’s eyes also flickered over to Naruto, making sure he was far enough away to not be eavesdropping. 

“I’ve worked with Danzo a little,” Kakashi said. “He has to be the driving force behind this, right?”

Minato nodded. Sarutobi was a lot of things, but he tended to leave dirty-handed work like this to others. 

“He must know you’re close,” Kakashi said. “Otherwise he’d be more careful. He’s a sneaky bastard.”

“Indeed,” Minato said hollowly. 

Eventually, Naruto waded back over to them, stomach grumbling with hunger. He snatched up Minato’s hand again. 

“I can go into town for food,” Kakashi offered. “Unless Naruto just really loves the taste of ration bars?”

Naruto made a face. 

They faced a second problem as they changed back into their clothes. Naruto only had his pajamas, and no shoes. Whatever they did next, he did at least need shoes. 

“I can also… pick up small children’s clothing…?” Kakashi offered, less certain. 

“I want them to be orange,” Naruto said. 

Minato frowned. He could just pop back into Konoha for a couple minutes and grab them supplies. Except he didn’t want to bring Naruto with him on such an excursion for several reasons. It could be traumatizing for him, and Konoha would undoubtedly have people planted in the apartment, which would mean a fight. 

But he also didn’t want to leave Naruto alone, on account of the fact that the last time he’d done that, Konoha had kidnapped him. He eyed Kakashi, now in a slightly damp uniform, up and down. 

In his own timeline, Minato would trust Kakashi with just about anything. But he would have trusted Jiraiya with almost anything, too. 

He also would have, if you’d asked him a few months ago, said he would trust Sarutobi to care for his child. 

Kakashi turned to him. “What?”

But this was Kakashi. Jiraiya and Sarutobi had been his mentors and saw him as junior to them; they thought they knew better and could order him around. Kakashi was his student. Kakashi was also the most loyal shinobi Minato had ever met. 

“I’m going to put a Hiraishin marker on you,” Minato said. 

“Ah,” Kakashi replied. “Okay.”

This was, if one were Minato’s enemy, basically a death sentence. Kakashi didn’t even flinch as Minato set a chakra-warm hand on his shoulder. 

Minato turned to Naruto next. “Would you mind if I left for five minutes to get your shoes? You can ask Kakashi for embarrassing stories about me.”

Naruto instantly became nervous at the idea, his little hand tightening around Minato’s. This tugged at Minato's heart and made him feel bad. 

I don’t want to leave him ever again. 

“Will you be okay,” Minato heard himself ask, “if you have to see your apartment all messed up?”

“I already saw it?” Naruto said, puzzled by the question. 

“I’ll have to fight,” Minato said. Kakashi’s eyebrows raised. Once again, Minato felt like his brain was on fire. “I might kill people.”

“Okay?” Naruto replied. 

Naruto was not old enough to understand what he was agreeing to. This had to be Minato’s decision. But even if he trusted Kakashi, he did not want to let Naruto go. Barring Sarutobi or Jiraiya showing up, no fight that could conceivably happen would be out of Minato’s complete control, and he could just leave if things turned sour. Naruto would be perfectly safe. 

I promised him.

Naruto had to learn what being a ninja was about soon anyway, right? He was already being trained to kill. It was better to learn under controlled circumstances. Minato could be clean, gentle. 

“You can hold on to me for this as tight as you want,” Minato told Naruto. “But I need both my hands, okay?”

And so against his better judgment, Minato hefted Naruto onto his back and teleported into his apartment. 

There were, of course, several ANBU milling around. Minato had them dead on the floor in seconds. He did it as bloodlessly as possible. 

“Whoa,” Naruto said, little hands tugging at the fabric of Minato’s flak vest. 

“Where’s your jacket?” he asked Naruto. 

Naruto had no idea. Searching for it ate up several minutes, during which more ANBU showed up, but eventually Minato got some spare clothes and a few pieces of camping equipment into storage scrolls and shoes on Naruto's feet. 

“Wait, do we have to get rid of the bodies?” Naruto asked of the piles now strewn around his apartment. 

“Um,” Minato said. “I think the village will take care of it…”

Minato didn’t go back to Kakashi immediately. He had a theory he wanted to check. 

Haruno Mebuki did not look impressed when he showed up in her home. Well, he was lucky in his guess that she’d have the day off, given he was… gone. 

Mebuki wore a full face of make-up even on her day off. Even her housecoat was perfectly pressed and wrinkle free. 

“Did you ever get those Aiuchi files?” he asked with no preamble. “From the capital?”

Mebuki put her hands on her hips. 

“Of course,” she said. “In record time, I might add.”

“And where are they?” he asked, hefting Naruto on his back. 

Mebuki’s lipsticked-covered lips thinned. “Confiscated upon review.”

Minato clicked his tongue. This side trip would get so complicated if he went to hunt those down too. But he also really wanted them. 

“Do you know where they were confiscated to?” he tried. 

“Don’t bother,” Mebuki replied. “That’s obviously a trap. Besides, I arranged for a copy for you.”

She produced a scroll from the sleeve of her housecoat, clearly having been waiting for him. Minato took it hesitantly. 

“And this isn’t a trap?” he asked. 

“Not for you,” Mebuki replied. “Those bastards took my daughter.”

xXx

“This isn’t as good as Ichiraku,” Naruto said of the one ramen stand Kakashi had found in the little mountain town. “But it’s still good, you know.”

He slurped noisily at the broth. He seemed largely unbothered by their excursion, which boded well for whatever the hell Minato ended up doing next. 

“No traps or illusions,” Kakashi reported on the scroll he’d been studying with his Sharingan, letting his own ramen get cold before him. “It’s obviously a copy, and a hastily made one, but otherwise it looks legit to me.” He flipped it over. “There’s a note written here, though… “

He read it out loud. 

Nice, Mebuki, Minato thought. 

Chapter Text

Naruto’s dad took him to a bunch of cool places over the next several days. They went to a forest with tons of mushrooms so big Naruto could stand on them, and a desert that was all thorny bushes and where it was warm even though it was winter. Naruto saw the ocean for the first time, and his dad’s weird friend Kakashi let him bury him in the sand. 

Well, no, Kakashi let him get as far as covering his legs and then disappeared into a cloud of smoke. But Naruto would have definitely gotten him if he couldn’t do that!

“No, it’s not a Hiraishin,” Minato corrected Naruto when he complained Kakashi was cheating with it. “There’s a lot of techniques that look like teleportation, but they’re really— ah, Naruto, no throwing sand—”

It felt strange to not go to the Academy so many days in a row when that was the only routine Naruto knew, but he got to learn a lot about ninja stuff anyway. In Konoha his dad didn’t really do very much except Hiraishin and sometimes mess with storage scrolls, and on the weekends he showed Naruto how to throw kunai and shuriken. But traveling with his dad and Kakashi meant all ninja stuff all the time. 

The first years hadn’t gotten to do this yet, but Naruto knew older Academy students got to go on cool field trips where they learned about living in the woods and tree hopping, because the older students would come back and brag about it. One time the second years had all come back with flint stones and showed off how they could start fires with them now. 

Kakashi could start a fire with his breath. He did real cool-like, too, blinking at Naruto’s gasp of wonder like it hadn’t occurred to him how awesome that was. Then his dad had just casually wandered into the woods, hand still in Naruto’s hand, and just thrown a bunch of kunai at birds and killed them! Preparing the birds to cook them was gross, but they tasted really good! And then they got to sleep in a tent!

They let Naruto do stuff, too. Naruto got to learn how to put a little tablet in water to make it okay to drink, and then they let him be in charge of doing that. His dad let him hold things for setting up their tent and then didn’t get mad or annoyed or anything when Naruto kept dropping things. Kakashi showed him how to clean a fish and then let him try it himself. 

“Er, no,” Kakashi had stuttered out, awkwardly hovering over Naruto. “That’s not how you hold… knives are sharp, Naruto…”

When they weren’t doing fun camping stuff, they just played. His dad, after turning his face skywards like a praying monk, let him practice his kunai throws with real, sharp blades. They looked at cool bugs and mushrooms and plants together. Kakashi caught a jellyfish at the beach and then stung himself trying to show it to Naruto. His dad let Naruto try his ultra cool Naruto-invented taijutsu moves on him.

“Um,” Minato had said, holding Naruto upside down by his ankles after Naruto had tried recreating a mega cool TV ninja flying take-down move. “So, there’s a few moves like this but, uh… maybe we should learn how not to fall on your head first…?”

And then, the best thing they did, was that his dad let him sit on his back and cling to his shoulders while he play-fought Kakashi. They came with some very serious talks about how Naruto needed to practice hanging onto his dad’s back during a fight, but these mostly went over his head because couldn’t his dad just win every fight instantly? Also, Minato called the fights ‘spars,’ but Naruto felt it had too much giggling from both his dad and Kakashi to be as cool as a spar. But— importantly for Naruto— it was still super cool. 

His dad would hop around a ton, which Naruto thought was great fun, and then Kakashi would do super cool jutsu like grow big rocks from the ground and throw it at them, or breathe more fire, or throw kunai with little tags. His dad didn’t do as much jutsu, but he had awesome kunai tricks and then would go zoom and teleport around. 

The spars had rules that maybe got explained during the lecture part but Naruto didn’t quite get. They were supposed to pretend the tags could explode, the way playing ninja in the Academy yard usually meant you pretended whatever papers someone on hand could explode, but even though his dad never let them get that close, sometimes he’d just stop and count one as Kakashi’s win. Sometimes Kakashi would stop a jutsu midway, and that was also a win for Kakashi. Twice when they went hand-to-hand, Kakashi managed to tap Naruto’s leg with a finger, and those also counted as Kakashi’s wins. 

But then, it seemed like Minato could hit Kakashi with all sorts of things, and that wasn’t a win for them. One time Minato had done this super cool thing where he’d substituted out with a log and then kicked it in Kakashi’s face, and Kakashi had just sort of shrugged it off and kept going. His dad had teased Kakashi over it, and how silly of a face Kakashi had made, but it wasn’t a win. This seemed super unfair to Naruto, and he started to complain about the unfairness more than once, but his dad and Kakashi seemed like they were having so much fun that he just didn’t. Maybe nerds like his dad just liked letting people beat them for dumb reasons. 

Then, every night, Naruto would fall asleep in his dad’s lap while his dad and Kakashi had important adult conversations over the fire. Naruto would try his hardest to stay up and listen, because it all felt like his dad was still keeping secrets, and he didn’t like that. 

“No, R&D hasn’t been built up much since you passed,” Kakashi was saying, face lit up all weird by the fire. “There isn’t much of a clan presence there, but if Ino-Shika-Cho is on your side…”

Minato patted Naruto’s back steadily, and Naruto’s eyes slipped closed. Kakashi was saying something about the Yamanaka, and Naruto really, really wanted to say he knew a Yamanaka in his class, and maybe he could help, but his eyelids felt so heavy. 

Naruto woke up later in the tent, curled up right next to his dad. He remembered being anxious about there being secrets, about Naruto being ignored and left out, but also he was warm and comfortable and his dad was right there. He fell back asleep. 

xXx

Minato was starting to have dreams again, about the night he’d lost Kushina and Naruto. He hadn’t had these in years. When they first started six years ago, he’d been told they were happening because he was spending too much waking time obsessing over what had gone wrong, so much so that his brain kept trying to process it even when he was asleep. He’d added meditation to his bedtime routine, and that combined with the passage of time had made the nightmares stop. 

He hadn’t been meditating most nights since he’d timeline hopped. He hadn’t needed to. Naruto was all he needed to occupy all his thoughts. 

(He’d seen Kushina in his dreams a few times, but he could barely remember them in the mornings and didn’t wake up sweaty or anxious. He assumed these were normal, healthy dreams.)

The Aiuchi scroll Mebuki had copied for him had confirmed Minato’s time travel mistake. Aiuchi was an ancient monk who’d supposedly interviewed some sort of spirit on the nature of time, and the scroll was dense and in places inscrutable to a modern reader. But it contained several diagrams of the ancient spiritual arrays that eventually evolved into fuinjutsu such that, when paired with Tobirama’s later writing on his own interpretation of the scroll, Minato could pick out what seal components in his experimental Hiraishin had caused the mishap. 

This was not what gave him nightmares. What gave him nightmares was the implication that also came from this scroll: that a human could only travel to a parallel probability from the most recent branching event for that person in particular. For this timeline, Minato’s most recent major decision that could cause a branching was whatever he’d done to result in his own death. This was the alternative to whatever decision in his own timeline that had gotten Naruto killed. 

What could he have done, to save Naruto? The question had haunted him for six and a half years, and now he knew the outcome, but not the reason. 

When the masked man— when Obito showed up, Minato had taken Naruto and fled, desperate to get his small son away from the enemy. Kushina had fought the best she could, but she’d been exhausted from childbirth, and the Kyuubi had been ripped out of her. The subsequent rampage had resulted in Naruto being injured.

Should Minato have stayed and fought instead? Was there a way he could have grabbed Kushina and teleported both her and Naruto away? He wouldn’t have cared about dying himself, if even one of them could have lived. 

(It would rip him apart, but he would pick Naruto’s life over Kushina’s in a heartbeat if he had to. She’d kill him if he made any other choice. That’s why he’d moved to get Naruto away as quickly as possible. Was that not the right move?)

His conclusion now was that he absolutely should not have allowed them to be separated. Letting his loved ones out of his sphere of control was how he’d lost Obito in the first place, how he’d lost his genin teammates, how he’d lost Rin, how he’d nearly lost Naruto a second time…  

Naruto shifted on the sleeping mat next to him. Minato blinked rapidly into the darkness. Naruto woke easily when Minato wasn’t also asleep, which was good for a ninja in training but also inconvenient as a parent. 

Minato rolled onto his side to study his son. Naruto slept on his stomach, the blanket over his back slowly rising and falling with each breath. Minato carefully racked his fingers through Naruto’s hair. He’d be so sure their baby would be a redhead, but Naruto had his hair right down to the texture. 

Minato patted Naruto’s back a few times to settle him, and a smile tugged at his lips as he remembered the teasing debates he and Kushina had had over if their baby would inherit the Uzumaki red hair or not. He guess that was yet about ‘argument’ Kushina had won… 

Jiraiya suggested it would be orange, Minato remembered, batting away the pang of bitterness that this timeline’s Jiraiya must have made the same joke and then done nothing for his son. You would have liked that, wouldn’t you, kid?

Minato didn’t have time to obsess over his past bad decisions any more. He had his son back, his impossible miracle of a Naruto, and he needed to get him home. So many problems would be solved if Minato were just Hokage again. 

Which, now that Minato thought about it, wasn’t a bad idea. He still needed Konoha resources to get home, because while he knew which seal components could lead to time travel, he still needed to figure out how to control which probability he was aiming for. It would really simplify everything if he just reclaimed his title.

Konoha is still loyal to their fourth Hokage, Mebuki had written on the scroll. Beneath had been a list of names, including several clan leaders. 

So. That was interesting. 

xXx

Minato felt humbled by the note. He had agreed with one thing Sarutobi had told him: he understood that re-introducing himself to people who loved him would only mean that they’d be hurt again when he left. He’d also, selfishly, simply not prioritized reaching out to people when he had just seen everyone recently in his own timeline. It was why he hadn’t fought as hard as he could to see Kakashi, and why he hadn’t just gone and found Jiraiya himself. He hadn’t looked up old friends, even when he’d wanted parenting advice. Those people seemed like they would be strangers to him, different from his own timeline and emotional about a version of him who no longer existed. 

It had not occurred to Minato that he’d had allies all along, if only he’d asked. 

Thank the gods Mebuki is smarter than me, Minato thought not for the first time as he stared at the dying firelight. The Mebuki of his timeline was definitely getting a pay raise. 

In fact, if he went through with this crazy plan he and Kakashi were forming, maybe he’d get to give her a pay raise and a promotion in this timeline. 

“Are you sure this is the way you want to do it, though?” Kakashi asked. His eye dropped meaningfully to Naruto, passed out in the grass next to Minato, his cheek on Minato’s thigh and Minato’s hand on his upper back. 

Naruto was warm and breathing under his hand, his little ribcage expanding and contracting slowly as he breathed. 

“Obviously it’s not… ideal,” Minato said. “But I don’t… I promised Naruto he could stay by my side.”

“He’s just a kid,” Kakashi replied. “He can’t understand what he’s asking for.”

“That doesn’t mean my promises to him don’t matter!” Minato snapped back immediately. 

Kakashi put up his hands defensively. “Of course,” he said. “I’m just… you’re sure?”

Minato’s plan was maybe a little insane. But he only had so much time to make a move before memory of him being back waned, or before his enemies could rally properly against him. He was sure slander against him was already being spread, about how he’d attacked Konoha. That was why he had to do something as dramatic and risky and potentially stupid as this plan. 

He didn’t really want to do this. But the best thing for Naruto was to get him to Minato’s timeline, and to do that, Minato would have to make some major changes. His head spun with a nervous energy. 

“I’m obviously not sure,” Minato admitted. “But I also need Naruto to know he can trust me no matter what. That we keep our promises to each other.”

Kakashi did not argue, but he did stare at Minato for a very long time. Minato knew what he was proposing sounded insane to bring Naruto along for. If someone had made the same pitch to him a couple weeks ago, he would have laughed at them or maybe even been offended. But the Minato of a couple weeks ago hadn’t seen Naruto hurt and crying, and he hadn’t felt what it was like for his small son to lose faith in him. 

Doing it this way could be dangerous for Naruto. But also he needed to do it this way for Naruto. 

Kakashi finally sighed. “Okay,” he said. “When do we move out?”

“Tomorrow,” Minato replied. “But before we do that, I need to tell you something…”

Minato had spent the last several nights quizzing Kakashi on what the political situation in Konoha was like, particularly the clans Mebuki had listed for him. Now, he asked Kakashi to review what was going on with the Uchiha clan again. He needed to confess to Kakashi while they had a quiet moment alone. 

“Maa, like I said, they’ve been in a rough spot since you died,” Kakashi said. “They’ve always had a rocky reputation as a group, but it got worse after the Kyuubi attack. After all, the last attack was by an Uchiha, wasn’t it? People were pretty suspicious.”

“That’s…” Minato’s voice cracked. “Kakashi, I need to tell you who killed me.”

Minato wasn’t sure how this conversation was going to go. He was almost definitely going to cry. If he spun it wrong, there might be an argument and voices raised. He moved Naruto into their tent before he continued, squatting next to Kakashi by the fire. 

Kakashi might feel betrayed, might back out from this plan after he learned. That was fine. Minato had, in this way, failed him as a sensei and as a leader, and this Kakashi hadn’t had him around for the past six and half years to make up for his failures. But Minato owed him this truth before he did anything more for him.

“I’m not sure how much they told you about that night,” Minato said quietly, “but Kushina and I were attacked by a man in a full face mask. He was able to teleport into the place where Kushina was giving birth, dodging all our defenses.”

“Teleport?” Kakashi repeated, eye wide. “Your Hiraishin?”

“No,” Minato replied. “It’s more like…” He took a deep breath. He’d already had this conversation with his own Kakashi, while Minato was significantly more depressed and prone to breaking down. There was no way this one could go worse, even if it would hurt. Even if he hated seeing Kakashi hurt. “More like the inverse of your kamui technique.”

Kakashi's hand went over his covered eye. Minato watched him, waiting to see if he would put the pieces together. 

“Someone… has Obito’s other eye?” Kakashi asked, sounding stunned. “But he was crushed. There wouldn’t have been anything left.”

“Almost,” Minato said. “Kakashi, he…” This is where Minato finally teared up. “He wasn’t completely crushed. Someone found him and healed him, and he—”

“No,” Kakashi interrupted. “Sensei, no. That can't be right. Obito would never betray Konoha, betray you. Someone must have stolen his eye, must have lied—”

Kakashi was getting heated, his voice rising. Minato stood and clapped a hand on his shoulder. He led him away from the fire and the tent where Naruto was still sleeping, making sure to stand facing the tent just in case. 

“During our fight,” Minato said, “I managed to place a marker on the masked man. I thought he was Uchiha Madara, back from the dead somehow, and he agreed that was his name. 

“After he fled, I didn’t do anything about the marker for a while. I’d lost both Kushina and Naruto, and the village was partially destroyed, and I could barely keep it together to sign off on leadership decisions. But then, one day I noticed him move into Fire Country territory and decided to confront him before he could do more harm. And I need you to understand that I am telling you the absolute truth.

“That man was Uchiha Obito.”

“But…” Kakashi’s shoulders heaved, and he let out a shuddering breath. Unlike Minato, Kakashi wasn’t a crybaby. There were no tears, but his face looked devastated. His hands shook. 

Minato slung an arm around his shoulders in a half-hug. 

“I know,” Minato said. “But I want you to know that this wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”

“I could have gone back for the body,” Kakashi said immediately. “Shinobi that leave their comrades behind—”

“No, you couldn’t have,” Minato said, trying to keep his voice firm, even as unshed tears stung at his eyes. “Obito died in enemy territory, and it would have been too dangerous. Even the Uchiha agreed to not attempt a retrieval. Besides, the reason he lived was… someone found him right away. It wouldn’t have mattered even if we’d gone back.”

“Who found him?” Kakashi demanded. “Iwa?”

“I’m not sure,” Minato replied. “He said it was Uchiha Madara and that he was carrying on his will, but that doesn’t make sense. Uchiha Madara would have been ancient, and Obito had several usual body modifications that indicate an unknown player was involved.”

“Body modifications?” Kakashi repeated. 

“We’re not sure,” Minato replied. “I… I took his body back, for confirmation and for a funeral. I thought it could maybe be Orochimaru somehow, but no one could match the modifications to anything known.”

He’d also thought maybe Danzo was involved, but now after years of interrogations, he doubted it. 

“You took the body back to Konoha,” Kakashi repeated. He turned his head, looking broken as he stared Minato in the eye. “You killed him?”

Minato winced. 

“I didn’t want to,” he admitted. “But he… he…”

Minato’s voice cracked again. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his eyes. Kakashi turned to stare at his feet. 

“He killed your family,” Kakashi said darkly. 

Naruto had been so little, Minato thought, his head swimming. He attempted to push the thought aside, to ignore the unbidden memory of holding his dead baby and remind himself that he had Naruto back now, and he never had to let go of him again. 

His brain buzzed. 

“He wasn’t Obito any more,” Minato said, voice wavering. “Nothing he said made sense, and he’d attacked Konoha and was threatening to attack again. I wish I had found another way, that I’d been stronger, but the only thing I could do in the moment was kill him.”

Kakashi stared down at his feet for several more moments in silence, and Minato squeezed his arm around him harder. Kakashi didn’t shrug him off, which was a good sign. 

“What will you do about him in this timeline?” Kakashi eventually asked. 

“Nothing,” Minato said. 

“Nothing?”

“I’m telling you about him,” Minato said, “and I will tell the Uchiha clan. It’ll be up to you what you do about him. I hope you can find a better solution than mine.”

Kakashi mulled that over for a minute or so, then stepped away from Minato. 

“I thought,” Kakashi said, facing him, “that your timeline had to be so much better, with you still around to guide Konoha. But for this one thing, ours can be better. I will bring Obito home, Sensei.”

Minato cracked a grin, and then burst into tears. He flung his arms around Kakashi. 

“I’m so proud of you,” Minato wept. 

“Oi, Sensei—”

xXx

“I look silly,” Naruto said, glaring down at himself. 

“Yep,” Kakashi agreed, leaning casually against a tree to watch them. His ramrod straight posture meant Kakashi was in mission mode, but his uncovered eye crinkled up in amusement anyway. 

Naruto was wearing Kakashi’s white ANBU chest piece. It fit him extremely poorly, coming down almost to his knees and eclipsing his shoulders. 

“Technically you only need the back part,” Minato said, wishing he had a camera with him. Despite the insanity of what he was about to do, Naruto did look really cute. “I just want to cover your back while we go on a mission.”

Naruto was very excited about this mission. Minato was getting increasingly nervous about it himself. He was confident he’d win the fight he was about to enter, but even caught off guard, their opponent would be powerful and clever. No mission would be worth Naruto getting hurt, even if Minato won the fight. 

He remembered baby Naruto, still in his arms. But he also remembered this Naruto curled up and alone in an abandoned lab. 

“If you don’t want to wear it,” Minato said slowly, that familiar buzzing going in his brain, “you can just stay here, Naruto. I’ll be right back.”

Naruto gave him the wettest looking puppy eyes Minato had ever seen. 

“It could be scary,” Minato said, voice cracking. 

“So what!” Naruto replied. “I’m super brave, you know! And you said.”

Naruto squeezed his hand, which he’d grabbed the moment Minato had finished slipping the chestplate on. 

Minato had said, and also: he was even more nervous about leaving Naruto alone. Even with no signs of Konoha-nin in the area, Minato was still terrified that if he let Naruto outside of his immediate control, something would happen again to snatch him away, and then he could…

Minato had to stop thinking about his cold body.  

Minato knew this was unhealthy. He knew for Naruto’s own benefit, he’d have to calm down and let him go eventually. 

But for today? Naruto was coming with him.

“For this mission,” Minato said slowly, “I have to go find a dangerous missing-nin and kill him. Then I have to bring the body back to Konoha. Your Old Man Third is going to be very upset about it.”

Naruto cocked his head. “Why would the Old Man be mad you killed a missing-nin? They taught us in school those are bad guys, you know.”

Minato was pretty sure he was, right now, a missing-nin on a technicality. He decided not to tell Naruto that just now. 

“It’s a missing-nin who Sandaime failed to kill himself,” Minato said. “A shinobi that he used love, back when the missing-nin was still in Konoha. It will be good for the village if I kill him, but Sarutobi will be sad.”

Naruto nodded slowly, and it was unclear if Naruto completely understood this explanation. Minato decided not to explain to his small son that he’d picked this missing-nin in particular to shame Sarutobi, to hurt him back without physically coming to blows, and to humiliate him to the public to gain support for Minato instead. 

“The fight might last longer than with the ANBU in your apartment,” Minato said. “It will be more intense and scarier. But we can leave at any time. We can come back here, where it’s calm and safe, whenever you want.”

Whenever Minato wanted, if he miscalculated and the fight started to look dodgy. This was safe, surely. 

“But you’ll win?” Naruto asked. 

“Yes,” Minato told him. 

“Then I wanna go, you know!”

Minato had to pull off the ANBU armor to let Naruto climb into his back and hold onto him properly. Kakashi snickered as he set the back piece of the chestplate against Naruto’s back then used some spare ties from their camping equipment to tie the chestplate to Naruto and then Naruto to Minato, fastening them securely around Minato’s torso. As before with the “mission” to Naruto’s apartment, and just like in their practice spars with Kakashi, Minato promised Naruto he could hold onto Minato as tight as he wanted, but Minato needed his hands free. 

“And if it gets scary, just close your eyes,” Kakashi suggested. 

“Um, right,” Minato replied. 

That familiar brain-on-fire feeling was back. He knew this was a bad decision, but also he couldn’t bear not to do this. 

Naruto had been fine watching Minato kill ANBU, right?

And Minato really could just leave, if things got out of control. 

Naruto was a ninja in training. These were normal things for him to learn and experience. 

And Minato really did need to do something, to get them both home. That required extreme action, because it turned out he and Naruto had enemies. This meant that Naruto would be safer with him at all times. 

“Ready when you are,” Kakashi said, slipping his ANBU mask in place. He looked oddly naked without his chestplate. 

Minato dropped Kakashi off at the outskirts of Konoha first. He took a moment to watch Kakashi slip into the shadows, off to set the Konoha side of their plan into action. Then Minato stretched his senses out, looking for Tobirama’s Hiraishin markers. 

Orochimaru had not been difficult to find and kill, back in Minato’s timeline. The missing-nin had run off with a large number of jutsu scrolls and notes from Tobirama, including his own writing and others that Tobirama had collected. Tobirama had not been as prolific with the Hiraishin as Minato was, but he had, evidently, set markers on a lot of his personal items. Once Minato had figured out how to use Tobirama’s markers a few years ago, it had been extremely easy to just figure out where a bunch were hoarded together outside of Fire Country. 

It took Minato maybe forty-five seconds to repeat this in this timeline. 

“Hold on tight, Naruto,” he whispered, and then teleported away. 

xXx

“How did you even get in here?” the missing-nin asked, his voice a flat drawl. The missing-nin was a pretty-faced, redheaded…. teenager…?

“Umm,” Minato said. 

He was pretty sure this was Akasuna no Sasori, one of Suna’s most notorious missing-nin. The shinobi’s face didn’t have so much as an extra freckle or laugh line from when he’d first disappeared, perfectly matching the Suna-issued photo Konoha had on file for him. 

Minato had expected the strange dungeon-esque room they’d teleported into, and even the tables of medical tools and carefully organized shelves of jutsu scrolls. He’d warned Naruto about it, about the types of violence Minato could foresee. 

Minato had also definitely expected some surprises with Orochimaru. Although, a whole new S-rank missing-nin looking up from taking apart a man’s chest cavity wasn’t really the genre of surprise he was expecting. 

“Is this the guy?” Naruto asked, and Minato felt Naruto attempt to scoot himself up further on Minato’s back to peer over his shoulder. “Ew, what’s he doing?”

“Maybe you should close your eyes now, Naruto,” Minato said, his voice coming out way higher than he meant it to. He could see that poor guy’s lungs. 

Sasori ignored Naruto, and his eyes did a very obvious one-over of Minato. 

“You’d make a beautiful piece of art,” he commented. 

Was Minato… being hit on…? What.

“Although I don’t particularly like imitations, Yellow Flash impersonator,” Sasori said, a handful of senbon appearing between his fingers, “or children, for that matter.”

Minato had no idea why Sasori was here, and he felt his presence was probably something he should take note of and maybe send some people off to analyze. However, for now, Minato wasn’t stupid enough to just stand around blinking in confusion while one of history’s most formidable poisons masters waved sharp objects at his child. 

Please don’t look at the dead guy’s lungs, Minato thought desperately at Naruto as he grabbed for any marker in the immediate area. There were several in this room itself, attached to the scrolls stored along the back walls of the… autopsy dungeon… but Minato had no interest in confronting Sasori himself. He grabbed for another cluster of Tobirama seals, just a few dozen meters away.

Minato next found himself in a windowless room set up more like an office. Orochimaru was seated at a desk, frowning down at a scroll and dressed in the same black cloak with red clouds that Sasori had been wearing. 

Minato was sure, based on every conversation he’d ever had with Orochimaru, that the man would love to casually lean back in his chair and give them a witty quip before possibly vomiting up a sword or maybe even reaching his tongue across the room to grab a weapon. Minato didn’t give him the chance. He was reaching forward before Orochimaru had properly registered there were two new people suddenly in the room, swiped a hand at him, and then all three of them were in the middle of a lake on the other side of the continent. 

Orochimaru was a formidable opponent, and clever enough he might have had a counterattack for the Hiraishin if he’d anticipated Minato at all. He hadn’t, though. Sasori didn’t even seem to know Minato was back. Orochimaru didn’t stand a chance. 

A lesser ninja probably would have fallen into the lake. Orochimaru’s eyes widened in shock, but he still got his feet under him and his chakra circulating properly to water walk. He even got his arm up to block Minato’s first strike, except Minato had simultaneously slapping a marker on him before teleporting them both, and so he had free range to teleport around Orochimaru as he pleased. His first strike was a feint; he teleported behind him and shoved a kunai as deep as he could into the side of Orochimaru’s neck.

For most people, this would be a killing blow. Minato had fought Orochimaru before and suspected this would not be true for him. He wrenched the kunai back, tearing through the muscle and ligaments of the neck. Blood gushed over his hand, and Orochimaru stumbled forward. 

“Dad, that’s gross,” Naruto whined. His heartbeat was only a little elevated. Not too freaked out, thank the gods. 

“I told you to close your eyes,” Minato replied, his brain swimming. 

He had to kill the dangerous missing-nin. Also, Naruto wasn’t to see anyone’s lungs. 

Even having a chunk of his jugular removed somehow didn’t kill Orochimaru, but Minato was not about to let the man get his wits about him enough to… rip off all his skin to reveal a new body, or whatever Orochimaru liked to do. Minato pounced on him, rasengan flying, making sure to angle the blow so he shielded Naruto from any blood splatter or last minute attack from Orochimaru with his own body. 

Two minutes later, Minato was absolutely positive Orochimaru was dead, because he’d done enough damage to his body to separate his head from his neck. It sank partially into the water and then bobbed away. 

Minato poked the floating, headless corpse with one toe. Well. Naruto definitely didn’t see any lungs, because rasengan had basically obliterated the entire chest… 

“Dad, that wasn’t cool at all,” Naruto said very sternly, his little fists burying themselves in the fabric of Minato’s cloak. “That was just gross and kind of mean, you know. You didn’t even give him a chance.”

“If I gave him a chance,” Minato said, surveying the scene and debating how he wanted to get the body back to Konoha, “then that would mean there’d also be a chance you could get hurt. Obviously I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

“Oh,” Naruto replied, sounding as if his own peril hadn’t even occurred to him. “Well, I guess that’s okay, then.”

“Besides,” Minato said, turning his head to grin at Naruto as best he could. “Orochimaru likes to kidnap little children and eat them.” Naruto gasped. “And a Hokage doesn’t put up with bullies.”

Naruto nodded vigorously. “When I’m Hokage…”

Naruto started a very convoluted explanation of how he’d never let anyone be mean to each other, unless someone was being mean first, and then the person being bullied could beat them up. Minato frowned to himself as he squatted to rinse his bloody hands off in the clear water of the lake. He was pretty sure he’d told Naruto multiple times that hitting your bully was only okay if he had no other option.

Naruto started talking about free ramen for reformed bullies, as a bribe. Ah, well. They could talk about it more once Naruto was back in school. 

Minato stuck Orochimaru’s corpse in a black scroll and then turned to his head. Black hair pooled around it in the water like spilled ink. Naruto must have started pantomiming something having to do with his free ramen (and now free cinema popcorn?) program, because his hands clumsily hit the back of Minato’s head and shoulders a few times. Clearly Naruto was unbothered now, but…

“Naruto,” Minato said, voice serious. “I’m going to take the missing-nin back to your Old Man Third, and he’s going to be upset. He’ll be sad. You don’t have to see it. I can take you to Kakashi first, and we’ll only be apart for a little bit.”

Violence was one thing. Naruto was already getting lessons in school of where to hit someone to incapacitate or kill them. But Sarutobi had been Naruto’s only close interpersonal relationship until recently, and that lack of connection combined with Naruto’s young age meant he’d probably never seen someone he cared about truly upset or hurt. It would be a harsh lesson. 

“Um, but,” Naruto said. “I want to stay with you…”

“I know,” Minato said. “Here, we need to talk about some things first.”

They sat on the grass of the bank around the lake. The water was still enough that, when shinobi weren’t fighting over it, it reflected the mountains off in the distance back at them along with every cloud in the sky. Naruto sat with his legs stretched out in front of him, knocking his sandals together for his own amusement as Minato tried to explain what was about to happen. It was a complicated, adult thing, but Naruto deserved to know. 

“Like how I took Ami’s pencil case to give Chouji back his pencil,” Naruto decided at the end of Minato’s explanation. 

“Well…” Minato started. He knew he’d told Naruto that had been a bad thing to do. But also the metaphor worked. “A little like that. It’s more like if you took it, and you let the rest of the class decide what to do about it, because she’d been taking pencils from everyone.”

Minato was definitely making the metaphor worse. Sarutobi had not been actively sabotaging anyone himself. But Sarutobi was old and letting things slip, letting other people dig their claws further into things than he should have, and Kakashi had also been confident most of the village wanted a new leader. 

“So Old Man Third will be sad,” Naruto started, brow furrowing as he tried to piece together the complicated thing Minato was trying to tell him, “but it’s okay, because we’ll make everything better?”

“Something like that,” Minato agreed. 

He tied Naruto onto his back again before walking back over the lake and scooping up Orochimaru’s head. Then he teleported back to the Hokage’s office. 

“Hi!” Minato greeted cheerfully as Sarutobi dropped his pipe. Nara Shikaku, who’d been bent over the desk and glaring at something that no doubt had to do with Konoha’s most lethal ninja being loose in the countryside, made a sound like he’d choked on his own spit. A chuunin woman that Minato recognized as one of Sarutobi’s secretaries went deathly pale. 

This was good, actually. Minato wanted witnesses. 

No one made a move to attack, although Minato could feel the hidden ANBU in the room tense up at once. 

“Here,” Minato said, and dumped Orochimaru’s head on Sarutobi’s desk. 

Minato watched as Sarutobi’s eyes dropped to the desk in confusion, lit up in horror, and then melted into absolute sadness. Minato wasn’t one to be cruel out of spite, and he took no personal satisfaction from the hurt on Sarutobi’s face. But he had picked this move knowing that the psychological attack would benefit him. 

Sarutobi’s eyes rose to meet Minato’s. Minato stared back, grim faced. 

“What is this?” he asked, voice hollow. 

“How many Konoha shinobi died, because you failed to deal with him?” Minato asked. 

“What point are you trying to make?” Sarutobi asked. “You have already proven yourself a traitor. Nothing you do will fix that, barring surrendering Naruto back to us and submitting yourself to—”

“You’re misunderstanding,” Minato said. 

He concentrated on his Hiraishin network, picking out Kakashi and calculating how long he needed to stall with his dramatic speech. Minato didn’t really like doing this sort of thing, but he’d learned the art of stall-via-dramatics from Jiraiya himself. A few more ANBU had crawled into the room, buzzing with anticipation for orders, but both Shikaku and the secretary stared at him in some sort of morbid fascination. Sarutobi also just watched him, looking tired and older than ever. 

“I am not asking for your forgiveness,” Minato continued. “I’m making a point.”

The presence of shinobi flooded the outer walls of the office, people positioning themselves outside at the windows, the ANBU outside suddenly disappearing. Shikaku’s eyes darted around. The secretary, likely oblivious to what was happening, shuffled nervously in place. Naruto’s heart rate was elevated again, and his little fingers dug into Minato’s shoulders, but he was holding it together well. 

Minato had an audience now, so he needed to actually make a point: “Under your leadership, you have failed to reign in a dangerous missing-nin out of your own weakness and sentimentality. More of ANBU defers to one of your advisors than you, and children have gone missing within the village—” Shikaku’s shoulders jerked, good— “and you have not even investigated.”

“What is your point?” Sarutobi asked. He’d picked his pipe back up, but had not relit it or brought it to his lips. His face was exhausted and resigned. He made no hand signal for his remaining ANBU. “This does not change what you have done, Minato. It does not change that what you are attempting to do is wrong.”

Their audience outside was vibrating in anticipation. Minato could feel Kakashi’s Hiraishin marker meters away. 

Minato turned to Shikaku. “What would you do,” he said, “if Shikamaru was taken from you?”

Shikaku stared at him for a beat, his eyes sliding back over to Sarutobi, and then flicking over to a window. 

“For my son?” he said slowly. “Anything.” 

Minato smiled at him as brightly as he could. “Good. Then you’ll understand why I’m taking back my title as Hokage.”

Chapter Text

Naruto’s understanding of his dad’s super awesome ninja plan went like this. 

First of all, it was okay his dad was kicking out Old Man Third, because Minato was Hokage anyway. Four came after three, after all. His dad had talked for a very long time about things that Naruto didn’t get, like about the Jounin council and clan leaders having problems or something, but Naruto did understand that the Old Man was old. He probably wanted a break or something. His dad wasn’t going to arrest him or be super mean or anything, so Old Man Third could just go home and watch TV. 

And, watching Old Man Third talk from over Minato’s shoulder, Naruto did feel bad for him. He looked really, really tired and extra wrinkly. Sarutobi was Naruto’s friend, who’d played with Naruto and brought him treats. Naruto didn’t want anything bad to happen to him, and he squirmed against Minato’s back. 

But! His dad was really cool, when he was doing ninja stuff and not tearing up over the idea of a cat and a dog being friends. Naruto sometimes found it hard to believe that his nerdy dad was actually the awesome Yondaime Hokage who’d fought the Nine-Tailed Fox, but he’d beaten that missing-nin guy like it was nothing and then given Old Man Third a cool speech. 

The other part of his dad’s plan that Naruto understood was that Sakura’s mom had promised him other people would show up for it, and Kakashi had gone off to find them. So now there were a bunch of people in the Hokage’s office. Some of them were the mask guys and a lot of them were just random adults who crawled in through the windows like crabs, which looked kind of funny, but Naruto supposed TV ninja were funny too sometimes. Kakashi appeared right at Naruto’s back with his dog mask on, and Minato hefted Naruto’s weight. 

“You okay back there, Naruto?” Minato whispered. 

“I’m fine, you know!” Naruto replied, loud as he could. 

The office was a big room, but it felt tiny with so many people in it. It was also tense, with all the adults staring at each other like they expected something to happen, and Naruto almost regretted shouting. He didn’t completely regret it, because wasn’t it good if everyone saw him and how his dad was so cool?

Minato turned his head towards one of the mask guys. 

“Captain?” Minato said. “Are you going to attack me?”

The mask guy, who had something cool like a jaguar or a leopard on his mask, didn’t say anything. Minato bounced on his toes, which Naruto thought was a bit fun. 

“Because it doesn’t matter to me either way,” Minato continued. “The difference will be if you walk out of here under your own power or not.”

Old Man Third raised his hand and the jaguar guy stepped back. The old man sighed and turned to the guy who looked like a big Shikamaru with a cool scar. 

“Is this really what you all want?” he asked. 

“Well, I’d certainly like to at least hear his pitch,” the big Shikamaru said. He jerked his chin at a guy who looked like a big Choji and said in an accusing voice, “You didn’t tell me this was happening today.”

“Ah,” Old Man Third said. “I see.”

What followed was that all the adults talked for a very long time, and it was the most boring thing Naruto had ever sat through. It was even worse than Mako-sensei’s legendary all-day lecture on the first fifty shinobi rules, during which even Sakura had dozed off. 

He fidgeted, reaching up and tugging at the back of his dad’s hair. Minato waved a hand in his face but kept talking to the boring other adults. Hmph!

More than once, Naruto opened his mouth to inform everyone in the room that he was super bored and they should just decide to fight it out or not and get it over with. Every time he did this, Kakashi would poke him in the side and then hold a finger up to his mask where his mouth was. 

“HEY!” Naruto yelled the third or fourth time it happened. It wasn’t fair that everyone else got to say the most boring things in the world— so boring Naruto felt like he might burst at any second— and he couldn’t even say his part! 

“Naruto, you need to be quiet right now,” Minato said very firmly, with a sort of authority Naruto had never heard him use on Naruto before, like a teacher but worse. It made Naruto snap his mouth shut. Minato went back to his horrible boring adult conversation, and Naruto pressed his forehead against the back of his neck and suddenly felt the urge to cry.

He didn’t though, because he wasn’t a baby. He was just— just frustrated!

Naruto wanted to yell again. But that voice had been… scary wasn’t the right word. His dad was never scary, not to him. But it was new, and it made him feel bad he’d yelled and bad that he wanted to yell some more, and he didn’t like it. He yanked on Minato’s hair some more, harder this time. 

He stopped when Old Man Third stood up from his desk and offered the seat to Minato. Naruto straightened up again, craning his neck to see. The room had gotten really tense, and Naruto’s insides squirmed the way he did when he got in Big Trouble. He wasn’t really sure why he felt that way, since his dad was totally just doing what he should be doing, but the way everyone watched him and his dad felt the same. 

Minato approached the desk like every step was very important, and Kakashi was glued to their back like a shadow as they moved. Then Naruto was being tugged off Minato’s back and plopped into his lap as he sat, and everything felt better. The feeling of being in Big Trouble was still there, and Naruto was still mad he was here and not doing something less terrible, but his dad was awesome and cool and loved him, and Naruto felt perfectly safe and comfortable in his lap. 

Also, Naruto had been in trouble plenty of times before. The unease of being yelled at wasn’t as bad as the pain of no one ever looking at him, never acknowledging him. He got over it quickly. 

“To reiterate once more before you vote,” Minato said, resting a hand on Naruto’s head even as Naruto squirmed with some unnameable energy. “This will not be a long-term position. I will not pretend to be from your world, or that I completely understand this version of Konoha. But to that end, I can promise to lead to the best of my ability, to lend my knowledge from the other timeline to fix problems, and then to guide whoever you decide will be my replacement into as easy a transition as possible.”

Naruto was barely paying attention. He had never seen this side of the desk before. Old Man Third used a bunch of brushes instead of pencils or pens, and not even just for fuinjutsu like his dad did, but for regular writing too, like old fashioned nerds in movies about daimyo and princesses and ninja clans and stuff. Naruto immediately grabbed for a brush, turning it over in his hands and not giving a single thought to what Minato was telling everyone. Naruto had thought before they might be going somewhere else to live, but now it seemed like Minato was just going to be Hokage now, and so command everyone to clean up Naruto’s apartment so they could live there together forever, right? 

As long as he could stay with his dad, Naruto didn’t really care… unless his dad was going to force him into more ultra boring meetings. Then he was going to go ask Iruka-sensei where the textbook chapters on torture were. Naruto only knew about torture from comics and TV and things, but he was sure there had to be a book to explain it to his dad. Minato loved reading, and he didn’t seem to know that what he was doing to poor Naruto was definitely torture, so probably Minato should read a book about it and learn. 

A man with dark hair and frown lines stepped forward. “You keep saying that, but you have yet to address the matter of… your child.”

At the first mention of him, Naruto froze in the middle of picking at the bristles of the brush. He felt his father lean back in the chair just a little.

“Fugaku-san, you have a little boy Naruto’s age, don’t you?” Minato said. “If you found him the way I found mine, unloved and living alone, what would you do? I do not intend to leave this Konoha a place that abandons its children, and so I will not abandon mine.”

The man’s face looked super grumpy as he stared down at Naruto, but then he stepped back. Maybe his face just looked like that. 

“Our clan joined with the Senju to found this village in order to protect our children,” this grumpy Fugaku guy said, pitching his voice loud and clear. “The Uchiha will support this answer.”

He said some more things about how Old Man Third had let down other kids, and Naruto craned his head to peer over at Old Man Third at the back of the room. He was just sort of standing there, staring at Naruto and looking very sad, his unlit pipe in his hand. 

Naruto waved. Old Man Third’s lips tipped upward slightly, but he didn’t wave back. 

The big Shikamaru then led the room in some sort of vote. Everyone lifted their hands and yelled Ay! at once. All the mask guys then bowed to his dad, and Old Man Third stepped forward to set his hat on the desk. 

“Ox, Rabbit,” his dad called. “Please escort Sandaime-sama to his home. Make sure no one harrasses him. This will be a peaceful transition.”

xXx

Make sure Mebuki gets moved up two payscales, Minato mentally added to his list of things to do. Whatever she’d done to organize this on her end, their little coup had just enough members of the Jounin council to make quorum. There would still be a few more steps for Minato to officially be Hokage, including a re-vote at a formal meeting and approval by the Daimyo, but given Sarutobi had willingly stepped down, it seemed like smooth sailing from here. Or at least, it should be smooth enough that he could get what he wanted done and then flee, promises about helping his successor be damned. 

Of course, now that he was unofficially in the seat, everyone immediately wanted things from him. After Sarutobi took his leave, only half the room emptied out, and multiple big clan names stepped up to start making suggestions or else demanding clarifications on some of his promises. 

Didn’t all these people have families? It was way past Naruto’s bedtime, and Minato could tell the poor kid had been slowly losing it over the course of the whole evening, as he started fidgeting more and more aggressively. Naruto had calmed down a bit once he was in Minato’s lap, but he hadn’t passed out the way Minato had hoped, and he was clearly getting fussy again. 

No one had been enforcing a bedtime in any real way since Naruto had moved into his apartment, and many nights Naruto had fought Minato with great indignation at the idea that he might have one. But Naruto pretty reliably fell asleep by nine o’clock most nights, and Minato gathered that before he’d found Naruto, Naruto would often simply fall asleep wherever he’d happen to be and in the middle of whatever he happened to be doing, whether or not he happened to be in bed at the time. This usually happened while watching age-inappropriate television shows in bed (the best case scenario), but sometimes happened while playing or (to Minato’s horror) in the bath. He was a light sleeper, but he fell asleep easily, and Minato had been hoping that he’d be out by now.

This had been a miscalculation, it seemed. Naruto was overstimulated and exhausted. The fussiness finally hit its climax, as Minato had to catch Naruto’s hands when he suddenly lunged forward to grab at Orochimaru’s hair still spilled across the desk. 

“Maybe someone should move that,” Kakashi said.

“Inoichi,” Minato said. “One of yours should see what you can do with the memories in his brain. When I found him, he seemed to be colluding with another missing-nin.” And I’d like you to find that he was colluding with Danzo as well. 

“Right,” Inoichi said, stepping forward. His eyes flicked down to Naruto and back up to Minato with evident amusement even as he picked up the head by its hair. Inoichi had a daughter Naruto’s age. At least in Minato’s timeline, Ino-chan’s temper tantrums were the stuff of legends. “So are we done here, or…?”

“I have more questions,” Hyuuga Hiashi said, despite having both a six year old and a toddler at home who definitely needed to be put to bed. 

“We should let our new Hokage rest and care for his child,” Fugaku said. 

“Thank you, Fugaku-san,” Minato said, trying not to let annoyance bleed into his voice. He appreciated the support and didn’t want to alienate it by shutting him down, but he’d learned from his own mistakes that letting a subordinate seem to make your decisions for you often ended poorly. “I think it would benefit us all to get some rest, and then revisit any questions or concerns in a more organized fashion in the morning.”

Kakashi had to sign the name for Sarutobi’s poor secretary behind his back for Minato, a move that Minato was sure most of the present company noticed but Himari herself seemed oblivious to. She looked surprised when he called her name. 

“Himari-san, what time do you come in in the mornings?” he asked. 

He told her to come in an hour earlier to schedule anyone wanting to speak to him, and then promised her breakfast on him with a wink. Her face turned pink and she nodded. 

When he’d finally successfully gotten everyone but Kakashi and a few ANBU out of the room, Naruto very dramatically slid out of his lap and then intentionally and dramatically banged his head against the inside of the desk. 

“Naruto,” Minato scolded. He’d really worn him out. Poor kid. 

“Are we going home yet?” Naruto demanded, flopped across Minato’s feet on the floor. 

This wasn’t Naruto’s normal reaction to being bored, and Minato had to assume his poor son was just exhausted and too young to be able to deal with that. His kid was a bit of a mouthy brat (in the most adorable way possible), but he wasn’t often this grumpy or intentionally disrespectful. Minato had really pushed the poor kid to his limit. 

“Hold on a few more minutes,” Minato replied, and Naruto rolled over to kick him, glowering up at him fiercely. 

Okay, so Minato was really going to need a way to keep his kid entertained… or invest in a cot for naps. He had no idea what impression “Hokage’s child keeps kicking him” gave to the ANBU still in the room. He could only hope it came off as “gentle and considerate of innocent children, but firm and leader-like with adults.”

Minato gave the command to add a 24-hour guard for Sarutobi, to protect him from potential harassment, but also to report on anything he did. Minato did not suspect Sarutobi would move against him, but he also refused to take the risk. Sarutobi would absolutely notice Minato did this and might be annoyed, but Minato thought he was being quite lax all things considered. He was sure Sarutobi would understand. 

His final command that he absolutely had to give before taking Naruto home required a question first. 

“Shimura Danzo went missing,” he said to the two ANBU loaming across his desk. “Does Konoha know where he went?”

The two ANBU exchanged glances. They didn’t react to Naruto howling as if Minato had kicked him back. 

“If it was discovered,” one replied, “it was not told to us. He… permission to speak freely, sir?”

Minato nodded. Naruto kicked him again, going in a steady rhythm. Minato did his best to ignore it. It wasn’t like keeping his kid up this late meant he didn’t deserve to have his shins kicked. 

“Even if we weren’t told,” the agent said, “we’d notice others being scheduled for his… guard… if he were found, or to deal with… whatever made him disappear.”

Minato cocked his head to the side at the wording. Danzo “disappeared” from Konoha in the middle of Minato’s own rampage. He wouldn’t be surprised if this agent assumed Minato had killed him, and that “finding” Danzo meant finding a body. The agent’s point that ANBU would be mobilized if Danzo were located was a sound one, however. 

The tricky part would be figuring out which agents were deep enough into Danzo’s pocket that they might disobey Minato. That had been a whole mess that had taken years to untangle, in his timeline. Kakashi had a list of agents who would likely be loyal to the Hokage over Danzo, including these two, but nothing was a guarantee. 

“I’ll look for Danzo tomorrow,” Minato said, because Naruto had started chanting Bored! at him with each kick. “Have T&I prepare a cell for debriefing.”

He finally gave a command for two ANBU to watch his poor secretary in the morning and step in if crowd control was necessary. Ideally he would have instead figured out who Sarutobi already had on his team of public-facing desk-nin to give Himari as back-up, but Naruto was still kicking him. 

“Okay, kid,” he said, pushing his chair back as he gave the hand signal for the last of his ANBU to disperse. “We can go home now.”

He picked Naruto up under his arms and stood, settling Naruto against his hip. Naruto was a bit big to be carried around like this, but he didn’t complain, smushing his face against Minato’s flak vest and letting out a wordless whine. 

“Do you think they got the dead bodies yet?” Naruto mumbled. “I wanna go home.”

Oh shit, Minato thought. They definitely couldn’t use Naruto’s apartment anymore. He’d realized this while making his plans, of course, but he’d also just sort of assumed that arranging temporary accommodation would be a snap once he had the hat again. And getting temporary housing would be a simple task… tomorrow, when he had people on-hand to send off to do that. 

He certainly hadn’t sat Naruto down to talk to him in-depth about how he’d probably never live in that apartment again, because he’d had to talk to Naruto about a ton of other things. Oops. 

Minato turned to Kakashi, the only one left besides the standard Hokage’s guard. 

“Sandaime-sama wasn’t using the Hokage’s residence, was he?” Minato asked. 

There was a decent sized apartment, attached to Hokage Tower, added by Tobirama so he could live closer to work, and where Minato had been camping out in his own timeline. Sarutobi had used it on and off during his tenure, although he’d moved in with his extended family when Minato had become Hokage. Minato had no idea if he’d moved back in or not once he’d had to take up the hat again.

“I don’t think the residence is… liveable at the moment,” Kakashi replied slowly. “Not by, ah, family-friendly standards.”

So they’d probably turned off power and water, Minato thought. It might not even have a bed for Naruto. If it were just him, he’d just deal with the lack of amenities for the night. But he was already putting Naruto through so much…

Kakashi made a big deal of sighing and rubbing the back of his neck, the strict posture of his ANBU persona melting away. 

“You can stay with me tonight, I guess,” he said. 

Minato felt a grin crack over his face. “We owe you,” he said. “Don’t we, Naruto…?”

Naruto had fallen asleep, slumped against Minato’s side. Minato was extra careful not to wake him up as he followed Kakashi back to his apartment. 

xXx

Kakashi lived in the exact same apartment as he had in Minato’s timeline, which Minato found simultaneously unsurprising but, for whatever reason, not what he’d expected. 

Kakashi had moved into this apartment at around age thirteen, after he’d mentioned thinking about what to do with his new Jounin salary and hearing that buying property was a good investment. Kushina had gotten very excited about the whole thing and started asking around about agents, but Kakashi had quickly become overwhelmed by the prospect and ended up simply moving to this place, which was a slightly better rental than the village-subsidized studio he’d had before. 

Minato’s Kakashi had then never bothered to move again. It simply wasn’t in his nature. He took tons of missions, and he didn’t like spending time in his home or having to deal with maintaining an apartment himself like he would with something he owned. He spent most of his mandatory leave at Minato’s and had once moved in with him for two weeks rather than contact anyone about his electricity being shut off. 

It therefore made sense that this Kakashi would also not want to move. But something pulled at Minato’s heart. His Kakashi had never needed to learn to exist in his own home because Minato’s guest room was always available to him. This Kakashi… didn’t seem to be doing much better, and he didn’t have a Minato to rely on. 

I let him down and left him alone too, Minato thought guiltily. 

Minato wondered if he should do anything about Kakashi’s sad apartment, or if this was something one just let adults figure out for themselves. He wasn’t even sure what he could do that wouldn’t upset Kakashi or be out of line, especially when they both knew he needed to get back to his own timeline as quickly as possible. Minato could tell Gai he needed to challenge Kakashi to making a better home, maybe, but that was about it. 

Not that these thoughts weren’t a tad hypocritical. The only reason Minato hadn’t been living in a similar basic one bedroom with modest furnishings was because he had the Hokage’s residence and all the furniture Kushina had lovingly picked out for them. 

I can’t believe she’s still taking care of me, Minato thought dimly as Kakashi changed the sheets on his bed. What would she think of all this? Probably she’d tell me off for making Naruto stay up so late, and then think the coup was funny.

“I feel bad about kicking you out of bed,” Minato murmured as Kakashi tossed his blanket back over the fresh set off sheets.

Kakashi turned to him, raising his eyebrows. 

“No, you don’t,” he said. “Six years isn’t long enough to make me forget you always insisting that you get a bed to yourself when our missions allowed hotels.”

Minato’s jaw clicked shut. He didn’t remember being that bad! He remembered missing a bed sometimes during the war, and thinking it was a bit luxurious that genin teams sometimes got cushier missions that let them stop at hotels, but he liked camping. Surely he wasn’t like that often enough for it to be a pattern…?

“‘Captain’s privilege,’ you said,” Kakashi said, pulling the covers back. Minato stepped forward to settle Naruto down. The kid fluttered his eyelids a bit but fell right back asleep as Minato pulled the blanket up over him. “And I guess small children’s privilege now too.”

Minato had initially offered to put Naruto to bed on Kakashi’s couch and then sleep on the floor. Kakashi had pointed out it would be more comfortable for him to share the bed with Naruto, while Kakashi took the couch. Minato hadn’t put up much argument because… well, he’d really missed having a proper bed. He’d figured out the best position to not ruin his 30 year old back, but it had still been uncomfortable. 

Kushina would make fun of me for sure, Minato thought dully as he followed Kakashi out of the bedroom. Although she’d demand the bed too…

Kakashi dug two beers out of the back of his fridge and they both sat down on the couch together. Minato slumped back into the couch cushions, suddenly feeling exhausted himself. 

“I honestly can’t believe that worked,” Kakashi said, staring down at his own beer. His hand was shaking just slightly. A combination of adrenaline fading and feeling safe enough to let his guard down a little, Minato assumed. 

“You didn’t trust me?” Minato asked, a teasing lilt to his voice. 

“I will always trust you,” Kakashi replied. “That’s why I followed you, even when it sounded insane.”

That’s fair, Minato thought. He took a big swig of the beer. It was disgusting. He’d never been much for drinking. 

“Thank you,” Minato replied quietly. “I mean it. I really owe you. You and Mebuki.”

Kakashi didn’t so much as nod. That was fine. That was just how Kakashi was. 

They sat in silence for a while, during which Minato took two more sips of beer and then abandoned it on Kakashi’s coffee table. Kakashi didn’t take a single sip himself, although he stared thoughtfully down at the label. 

“Did you mean all those things you said?” Kakashi asked. 

“What do you mean?” Minato asked. 

“About finding a successor and training them…”

“Oh,” Minato said. He did give a brief consideration to simply lying for the sake of convenience, but he’d let down Kakashi enough that he owed him the truth. Besides, the guy would figure it out with a few minutes of thought anyway. “I will if the timing of everything works out that way.”

Minato was, quite frankly, planning to return to his timeline the moment he was confident he could do it safely. If that was tomorrow and he had to leave this Konoha in chaos, then so be it. This place wasn’t his responsibility; Naruto and his own Konoha were. 

“Ah…” Kakashi said, rolling the beer bottle slowly in his hands. 

“Are you disappointed?” Minato asked curiously. He wouldn’t be mad if Kakashi said yes. It was a pretty disappointing answer. 

“Not really,” Kakashi eventually replied. “I sort of knew, from the moment they sent me out of the village rather than let me talk to you, that something like this would happen. Honestly, this is better than what I was afraid would happen.”

Minato set a hand on Kakashi’s shoulder and squeezed. 

“Do you…” Minato started tentatively. He really couldn’t just be handing out this offer left and right. But it was Kakashi. “Do you want to come with us?”

Kakashi just laughed humorlessly. 

“Sensei, I told you,” he said. “I’m going to find Obito and save him. Just you watch.”

Minato grinned. “Then do you want to be my successor?”

“Pretend I just spat out my drink,” Kakashi drawled. “No, politics aren’t for me. I wanted to join Naruto kicking and screaming on the floor last night. Give it to someone who wants it.”

“Like who?” Minato asked. 

“Fugaku seemed like he really wanted it.”

Minato groaned and considered finishing his beer right there and then. 

“That guy…” Minato blinked up at the ceiling, turning his gut instinct of rejection over in his head. He personally felt that Fugaku was too traditionalist for Minato’s vision of Konoha, but he didn’t really have anything wrong with him besides some weird rumors about the Uchiha clan, and what did Minato’s vision even matter in this situation? “Well, if Konoha wants him, why not? Maybe he’ll help you with Obito.”

“Oh wow, Sensei,” Kakashi replied, raising his eyebrows. “You really are just going to hand over the hat.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” Minato said. He sat up, leaning forward to pick his disgusting beer back up. “I’m going to talk it over with some members of the Jounin council first, but I don’t think I want the public to know that I’m planning to leave. Might hurt morale.”

He hadn’t just gone into the coup with this lie because anyone close to the situation who also had half a brain wouldn’t fall for it. But it did seem like a good idea on a village-wide scale, to mitigate chaos. They’d say his rampage was only because Danzo had ordered ANBU after him or something like that, and emphasize he’d only killed shinobi actively interfering with him. Then, when Minato revealed evidence of Danzo’s various acts of treason, it would paint the picture that Minato had simply been thwarting a traitor and relieving Sarutobi of a stressful role he’d grown too old for all along. 

“Ever the calculating strategist,” Kakshi replied. “My lips are sealed.”

xXx

Minato woke up early and still felt exhausted. He pushed the feeling aside. Sometimes when you were Hokage, you simply didn’t get to sleep. He was lucky he managed to get in a few hours, honestly. 

He got dressed, kissed a still sleeping Naruto’s temple, and then went to follow through on his promise to Himari the secretary that he’d bring her breakfast. 

She seemed surprised he’d come in person to deliver her a warm bowl of to-go food and a hot coffee. Minato went in person, rather than sending someone else, to really cement himself as a likeable and dependable leader. But, at the same time, when you could teleport, it only added about two minutes to him getting take-out breakfast for himself, Naruto and Kakashi. 

He of course did not tell his secretary that. “I’m counting you!” he said instead, and then teleported back to Kakashi’s. 

Naruto was sitting at Kakashi’s dining table, hair mussed, and scowling brutally at Kakashi. 

Still tired? Minato wondered. He’d been planning to send Naruto to school, but maybe he should let him rest… 

“Maa, your kid can hold a grudge, Sensei,” Kakashi said casually. “What a scary little face…”

“O-oh,” Minato replied. “Hey, Naruto, I brought you breakfast.”

It wasn’t ramen, but Minato knew omurice was Naruto’s favorite thing that the Academy lunchroom served. The gloom on Naruto’s face did fade slightly when he was presented with it and a glass of orange juice, but he still looked a bit angry. 

It was… well, Naruto's chubby cheeks made his angry face look really cute. Minato had to fight the urge to pinch said cheeks. His son was upset! He needed to do something about that. 

Minato handed Kakashi over his own breakfast and then sat down gingerly next to Naruto. 

“Hey,” he said, soft as he could. “What’s wrong?”

Kakashi immediately turned his back on them, mumbling something about finding milk in his fridge. 

“You were mean to me,” Naruto said, glaring at Minato over his orange juice. 

Minato blinked down at him. Kakashi suddenly became very interested in inspecting every item in his refrigerator, as if any one of them could be hiding milk.  “When was I mean to you? I promise I didn’t mean it.” 

“Nuh-uh. You’re always saying…” Naruto said, then paused to take a large gulp of juice. “You’re always saying that when I do bad things at school, that it’s still mean even if I don’t wanna be mean.”

Minato felt relieved Naruto had started to internalize that lesson. If the cost of that was Naruto now being able to point out Minato being a hypocrite, then so be it. 

“That’s a good point,” Minato said diplomatically. “What I meant to say is, I will never, ever be mean to you on purpose, so I’m not sure what I did that was mean. Why don’t you tell me about it?”

“You told me not to talk,” Naruto said, puffing up his chubby little cheeks. Cute!

“I tell you not to talk pretty often,” Minato replied slowly. Naruto knew there were many circumstances where announcing things at the top of his lungs was inappropriate, he just needed a lot of reminders and explanations about when those times were. 

“It was the way you said it,” Naruto said, eyes accusing as he poked at his omurice. “Mean-like. And then you made me sit through the most boring thing in the entire history of the world—”

Behind him, Minato heard Kakashi snicker. 

“You used your Hokage voice on him, Sensei,” Kakashi said. “If you excuse me, I’m going to go eat on the roof while you, ah, unpack that.”

“R-right,” Minato agreed, and then had to fight the urge to bury his face in his hands. He had done the best he could to talk Naruto through all the changes that were about to happen, but there were so many and he’d only known Naruto for so long. The Your Dad Is Hokage talk was one he’d known he’d have to have eventually and had given some thought to, but he was hoping he’d be able to put it off just a little bit so he could give Naruto more structure and priming for it. 

I really need to up my game, Minato said as he watched Naruto blow needlessly on his breakfast. Every time Minato thought he was getting a handle on things, he’d realized he’d slacked off on some other thing he really, really needed to work on with Naruto. 

For the millionth time, he missed Kushina. He missed having a partner, and he missed having support, and he wished she and Naruto had gotten to meet. She would have been so good at explaining things like this to Naruto. Minato had no problem explaining things a dozen or a hundred or however many times Naruto needed it explained, but he knew he tended to get overly wordy and confusing in his explanations, and this was one reason he often needed to re-explain things. Kushina had always been better at getting right to the point while still being empathetic. When Minato got right to the point and was blunt, he…

Well, he just sounded like he was passing out Hokage’s orders. It wasn’t exactly how he wanted to be talking to his own kid. Still, this was a side of him that Naruto had to get used to. 

Naruto was squinting at him suspiciously. “What’s a ‘Hokage voice’?”

“Well,” Minato said. “Believe it or not, but sometimes I do act tough.”

Naruto looked like he flat out did not believe him. 

“Naruto,” Minato tried, searching for a similar situation that Naruto could understand. “Do you imagine Mako-sensei talks to his family the way he talks to your class?”

Naruto looked less disbelieving, but he did answer in a mystified voice, “Do teachers have families? I thought he just lived at the school and graded things all night, like a vampire but boring.”

Oh, wow, Minato thought. The imagination of a child is truly impressive. 

“Forget I said that, then,” Minato said. “Basically, Naruto, being Hokage means sometimes I have to do Hokage things, like give orders.” Naruto nodded slowly. “Sometimes, when really important stuff is happening, I might even have to give orders to you, and that’s going to sound different from when we’re just talking at home. But that doesn’t mean I’m being mean to you. I’m just being Hokage. Do you understand?”

“I guess,” Naruto said in a tone that made Minato think he did not really understand. 

That was okay for now, Minato supposed. All he really wanted to hammer home right now, was that he would never be intentionally unkind to Naruto and that Naruto was allowed to talk to him about anything, because Minato loved him. They’d probably have to go over this again and again as Naruto got older anyway, to prepare him for transitioning to being a genin and taking shinobi missions. 

I get to watch Naruto grow up…! Minato thought with excitement. 

“You can ask me as many questions as you want, whenever you want,” Minato told him. “I just want you to know that, even though I’m Hokage, I’m also still your dad. I’ll always love you.”

Naruto looked confused for a half a second, but Minato could see exactly when Naruto’s brain puzzled through the meaning of his words, because his face lit up. A smile finally cracked over it. 

“I love you too, you know!”

“I know,” Minato said, reaching over to ruffle Naruto’s hair. “Now eat up. I’m going to take you into school.”

“No…!”