As shocks go, I've had worse…but still…
"My father?"
"That I am, boy."
"Uh huh. Pull the other one." Naruto stood between the Fourth Hokage and the edge of the cliff, unsure what, if anything, he was going to do. The late Leaf Village leader looked resigned.
"Hey, take it for what it's worth. Ask the Third Hokage, he knows."
"If you really are my father, then why am I such a freaking outcast? You'd think people would respect me and stuff, being your son." The Fourth shook his head slowly.
"Flying off the handle again. And you were doing so well.
"There are precious few people who even know your real story, and I asked most of them to keep quiet about it long ago. You and I don't even have the same last name." Naruto wasn't impressed with the explanation. More of the runaround.
"Save me the secrecy! You think you can just show up and claim me as your kid? Where the hell were you when everyone was looking down on me? When they neglected me, or made me feel like I was some curse on the village? You could have stopped it. If they'd known I was your son, none of them would have dared to mess with me." The Fourth's eyes narrowed; his voice was little more than a whisper, but it cut the air like a blade.
"And then where would you be? Waiting to have the robes handed to you on a silver platter, or acting the fool like Konohamaru? Don't just assume things, Naruto. You have a duty to this village to become strong. Not to yourself, not to me, Kakashi, Sasuke or Sakura. The Leaf Village may one day depend on how good a shinobi you become." He pointed at the black dome that pulsed under the cliff.
"There. That's where the Ninetails lives, where I put it." Naruto shrugged.
"Big deal. If it could get out as easily as you imply, why didn't it come out all the way when I was fighting Haku or Orochimaru?" The Fourth Hokage took out a kunai of his own and tossed it at the dome. The metal throwing knife bounced off harmlessly, clattering to the ground.
"That seal is stronger than anything that was ever done to any demon before. I should know; I came up with it. The Ninetails may be able to get part of itself out from under it, and infect your chakra, but it'll be a while yet before it can get totally free. Orochimaru, whether he intended to or not, set it back a few steps when he put his own seal on you. He's locked the Ninetails away, so that neither of you can get to the other's chakra.
"But as I said, that was his mistake. It allows you to get stronger while the Ninetails stagnates, and it may even let you get strong enough to beat that thing for good." Naruto looked down at the dome for a moment, then back at the Fourth's expressionless face.
"Let me get this straight, Dad. All the Jounin and most of the remaining ninjas in the Leaf Village got their heads handed to them by this thing, you had to seal it away because you couldn't kill it, and you think I can beat it all by my lonesome?"
"It's…complicated." The Fourth sat down heavily, still gazing at his handiwork. "It wasn't that I couldn't kill it, just that I only saw one way to do it. Seal it away inside someone, and train that person to become so strong that they could defeat the Ninetails, and eventually absorb its chakra. In doing so, they would kill the demon for good."
"And you chose me." Naruto muttered.
"When you have children, you may understand better, Naruto. I couldn't have sealed it in an adult; their chakra pathways are already set and would only clash with the demon's chakra. Only a child, a strong child who could accept this extra burden, would do. But who would I ask? How could I ask anyone to make a sacrifice that I wouldn't make myself? I was the leader of the entire Leaf Village, not just my own house."
"Okay, stop! You're making less and less sense the more you talk." Naruto waved a hand at the Fourth, sitting down in front of his supposed father. "Just give it to me straight.
"If you're my father, why don't we have the same last name? Where's my mother? And if you're supposed to be dead, what in the blue blazes are you doing inside me?" Naruto watched as the scenery shifted all around him; the trees and forest vanishing, to be replaced by the familiar confines of the Hidden Leaf Village. Well, mostly familiar. The monument above the village only held three faces, and many of the people and places he was used to didn't grace the streets. The Fourth Hokage stood, and pointed down to one street in particular.
"You want answers? Come with me." He leapt down from the cliff, towards the village, Naruto at his heels.
* * *
"Don't look so surprised, boy. This is Konohagakure from 13 years ago, well before you were born." The Fourth smirked, relishing his connection to Naruto's thoughts. He stopped them in an alley, behind a row of normal, cookie-cutter apartment buildings.
"And here comes that handsome devil now." Another Fourth Hokage strolled down the street, dressed in the robes of his office, turning his head every so often, as if looking for something. He stopped as a young woman dressed in a plain gray kimono stepped out of one of the buildings.
"Uzumaki Haruka. One of the youngest Anbu members in Leaf Village history; she had her own squad commander position by the time she was 14. If I remember right, she'd just gotten back from another mission when she sprung the news on me."
"What news?" Naruto didn't bother looking at "his" Fourth Hokage; he was too busy drinking in every detail about this woman he'd never known until now. Everything from the shoulder-length raven hair, drawn back in a ponytail, to the sharp, perceptive brown eyes and well-hidden kunai strapped to her wrists and ankles. This was a lady who personified both beauty and deadliness.
"Just listen to her."
The younger Fourth reached out a hand and snagged Haruka as she passed. The Anbu member gazed on the village leader with a cool expression.
"Man, did I miss you. Another mission gone by and you still aren't ready to settle down with me?" Haruka sniffed.
"The high-and-mighty Fourth Hokage, Kazama Arashi, begging an Anbu member to leave the ranks? If I didn't know you better, I'd say you just want one less competitor for glory.
"Well, you'll get your wish, even if it's not the way you wanted it. We need to talk." Arashi stepped back a bit, scratching the back of his neck.
"This isn't one of those 'buy me stuff or I walk,' or 'let's go and meet my folks' talks, is it?" Haruka shook her head briefly, a look of repressed violence in her eyes.
"No, but before I'm done, you'll probably wish it was." The young kunoichi sighed, and sat down on a nearby bench. "I'm pregnant, Arashi. Given that you warned off every male ninja over 14 in the village when we started dating, I'm pretty sure the child is yours." Hokage or not, trained killing machine or not, Kazama Arashi took the news like any red-blooded man in the universe would – he fainted.
"And you call me a wuss," snickered Naruto.
The scenery blurred again, this time coalescing into a room much like the one Naruto lived in. Arashi and Haruka sat at a small table, Haruka nursing a cup of tea.
"Okay, I'm still not getting it, Haruka-chan. You're pregnant. The kid's mine. The doctors have pulled you off active Anbu duty. So why haven't we gone to Sarutobi-sensei and asked him to marry us yet?"
"As I've explained to you already, Hokage-sama, you can order me into battle at your pleasure, but last I checked you don't have the authority to go around making life decisions for me. Who said I was even going to bear the child?"
"WHAT!?" Haruka ignored the Fourth Hokage's roar and sipped her tea.
"It's not like I'd be the first or last kunoichi to put off having a family until later."
"I don't believe I'm hearing this." Arashi gazed up at the ceiling, as if trying to summon a god (or three) to help his cause. "This is a child we're talking about, not some kind of pet you can buy now or later. And let's not forget that this is my flesh and blood too, not just yours." Haruka's eyes flashed a dangerous gaze upon her leader-turned-boyfriend.
"I see. So you're volunteering me to go through nine months of carrying a child, being unable to work, and then a delivery lasting who knows how long?"
"NO, dammit! I just want you to think about more than the one bloody option! There's nothing that says you can't take nine months off, have the baby and then go back to Anbu duty! I have to stay in the village half the time anyway; I can take care of the kid. Or you could give it up for adoption, whatever." Haruka set the teacup down and took his hand.
"Now who's being unreasonable, love? You say you want a family? A child of our own? Very well. There's your pros. But have you thought about the cons?
"You just became Hokage a few years ago. Between your duties to everyone here, and my being away with the Anbu, who would really take care of the child every day?" She ticked off the first point on her finger.
"Our enemies would like nothing more than to find out what your weaknesses are, so they can ruin you and this village. Whoever watches our child could be an enemy plant, sent to take the child and then blackmail you into doing what they wanted. Could you decide between this child you seem to want so much and the safety of the entire village?" Another point ticked off.
"You want certain things out of life, Arashi, but you can't or you won't think about the consequences of all of those different desires. That's no way to raise a child. Can you imagine what our child would go through if he or she couldn't meet your expectations someday? Not everyone is born a genius, Mr. Became-Hokage-On-Wits-and-Determination-Alone."
The Fourth sat in silence for a while, content to look at the woman who carried his child. When he spoke, it was with the same soft edge to his voice that Naruto had quickly learned to dread.
"Maybe I'm a little overeager, but I'm not the one who's afraid of change here." Haruka bristled.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Do I want things out of my life, newer and better all the time? Yeah, sure, I'll admit to that. You, on the other hand, seem to be perfectly happy stuck in a comfortable little rut. You're the darling of the assassination squads, the young prodigy making a name for herself.
"You really want me to believe that's all you want out of life? To wind up like those dried-up mummies on the Elders' Council, who never married or took the time to have a real relationship? I don't want to have a kid like it's some kind of knick-knack that looks good around the house. I want to leave a legacy behind; not just of me, but of both of us, something that represents the best of us, put together." He grinned. "Don't tell me you haven't thought what your butt-kicking talents and my brains put together could accomplish."
Haruka laughed softly. "That's the ticket, appeal to my vanity."
Looking at her, the pain tore through Kazama Arashi's heart anew, even in his son's mind. Twelve years had done nothing for the emptiness he still felt without Haruka. He's seen enough. Well, I've seen enough, anyway.
"Time to go." Arashi tapped his son on the shoulder. Naruto slapped his father's hand away, unwilling to leave the memory behind, half-afraid he'd see no more of this woman who felt so familiar, yet stirred no memories in him. Arashi sighed, regret warring with resignation.
"Now you know exactly why I did what I did, after the Ninetails took her away from us." This time, Naruto did turn around, clenching his fist.
"No, damn it. I don't have those memories. I wasn't there. You want to help me stronger, Dad? Then make me understand! Tell me why I'm the one who's borne all the burdens!" Arashi's voice was a pained growl now, half-fighting back tears.
"Don't you get it? That was our revenge, Haruka and I. We'd let our child, the combination of our powers and talents, be the one to kill what had taken her life. And maybe, just maybe, by doing so, our child could wind up surpassing us both." He laughed, but it was a bitter echo of mirth.
"There's a lot of the best of her that I see in you, Naruto. When Uzumaki Haruka believed in something, she never let go of it, never stopped believing. She hated the idea of settling down at first; it was Anbu or nothing. But when she started to come around, suddenly she couldn't get enough of talking about what she was going to teach you first when you could walk, or how fast you were gonna become a Chuunin, maybe even faster than that crazy pupil of mine."
"Pupil?"
"Hatake Kakashi, born genius, who made Chuunin at the tender age of six years old with yours truly's help." Naruto gaped, trying to match the Kakashi-sensei he knew with a little kid training under Kazama Arashi.
"You never wondered why he's always trying to help you learn, to improve? I doubt the Third Hokage's ever told him the truth about who you are, but knowing Kakashi, he's probably got it figured out, and he's returning the favor."
Naruto didn't really know what he knew anymore. Between a dead Hokage claiming him as a son, finally seeing his mother, and generally being confused out of his skull, it was all he could do to keep from going crazy. He turned away to look at Haruka – could he even call her Mother? – and then at least some of the mess in his head became clear.
"Teach me." The Fourth crooked an eyebrow upwards as his son turned to face him.
"Come again, son?"
"You say you want your revenge? Want me to become strong enough to defeat a demon? Then do the job you've ducked for twelve years.
"Teach me how to kill the Ninetails."
Kazama Arashi, Fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf style, grinned. And it was a terrible sight to behold.
"Now that, you got from me."
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