Naruto and Tobirama

Chapter 1

5 years later.

Naruto found himself in the forest of death once again, hiding from the cruelty of the villagers and shinobi who hated his very existence. He didn't know why, but they would beat him in alleys and once a year on his birthday they would start the fox hunt... Naruto hated his birthday. It was the worst day of the year and it was coming up in a few days.

He had tried telling his parents about the abuse but they were too busy spoiling his younger twin brother Menma to care about Naruto. He had tried everything to get their attention: being good, being bad, pranking, constantly bothering them, never bothering them but Kushina and Minato never seemed to care. Naruto didn't care either. They weren't his parents. He had disowned them.

Naruto slowly lowered himself to the ground and lent back against one of the many abnormally huge trees in the forest of death. He had heard rumors about this place many times, about how there were dangerous monsters hiding in the woods. But Naruto didn't care anymore. They called him a monster too so why should he fear other monsters? They were the same after all. He gently cradled his broken arm to his chest and closed his eyes with a sigh. He was hungry. He was always hungry. Always hungry, always in pain, always lonely, always hurting, always bullied, always tortured always... he just wanted it to end.

When nobody had paid attention to Naruto, he had decided to just disappear. He no longer spoke unless it was to scream as the villagers carved words into his skin. He no longer smiled, he hadn't laughed in joy for years and nobody had noticed.

A demon indeed.

A painful cramp cut into his empty belly and he cringed and curled in around himself, fighting the pain but that set his broken arm off so he had to uncurl himself again. It was four days ago now that the villagers had broken his arm. They had found him in the park on his favorite swing and dragged him into a back alley where they beat him for hours, carving monster and demon into his skin, kicking him, stabbing him with kunai before stomping on his fragile arm and leaving him to wallow in agony. His brother healed in a few hours. Naruto did not.

Groaning in pain, Naruto flopped on his side with his broken arm cradled to his chest and slowly let sleep consume him.

---

Tobirama woke to find himself standing in a grey void. There was nothing but grey and he was nothing but a blue ghost, weightless in the expanse of nothingness. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes to think of what he last remembered.

He had been fighting in the First Shinobi War and he and his students had been surrounded by enemies with no chance of survival should they all flee. He had sacrificed himself to let his student live and chosen Sarutobi, who had offered to be a decoy, to be his successor and the third Hokage of the hidden leaf village. He had fought and died there and now he was... somewhere.

A breath of wind in the previously still air alerted Tobirama to the presence of the Shinigami who had just appeared before him. He uncrossed his arms and bowed in respect towards the god.

"Shinigami" he stated respectfully as he received a nod in return.

"I am sending you back to your lands, Tobirama Senju." She said in a raspy voice, as Tobirama's eyes widened in shock

"A contract was broken by your descendant and has driven a child key to your world's future to the brink of death. Your job is to find your descendant by the name of Minato Namikaze, and fix what he has broken. Ordinarily I would simply take his life, but his time is not yet come and Death forbids me reap his soul prematurely. For disturbing your rest I apologize, but the child cannot be allowed to live as he is now. Find the child, son of Minato, and protect him from others and himself. Do you accept?"

Tobirama was silent for some time, thinking over the task he was given. To think a descendant of his would mistreat a child! Unforgivable. He made up his mind.

"Shinigami, if I were to return how many years have passed since my death and what would be the state of myself?" He asked

"It has been 50 years since your death and Konohagakure is currently on it's fourth Hokage. Should you return, you would have your youth returned to you along with all the power of your former life. You would also be completely alive in both body and soul."

Tobirama nodded and thought it over

"so what you want me to do, is come back to life 50 years after my death, find this Minato Namikaze person in Konoha, find his neglected son and look after him until... when?"

"until your natural death in this second life, or until you fail your mission. Should you succeed you may choose to return to the afterlife, or live out your days as you wish."

"I see... then I will accept. No child, no matter who he is or his importance to the world, should be left neglected. I thank you Shinigami for this opportunity, I will not let you down"

"Good."

The Shinigami raised her hands and a bright light fell upon Tobirama as he felt himself fading from this strange void.

"good luck, Tobirama Senju" were the parting words of the great Shinigami.

---

Naruto jolted awake when something thudded loudly to the ground a few meters away. Fearing that the villagers had come to hurt him again, he lurched to his feet and looked around wildly, fear clouding his eyes and driving the sleep away as quickly as possible before his eyes landed on the person responsible for his scare. Naruto creeped forward, cautiously scanning the man.

He was a large man, tall and full of muscle. His hair was spiky white and his pale face had red markings on his cheeks and chin. A metal face guard with the Konoha symbol on the forehead marked the man as a Konoha shinobi and this made Naruto take a further step back. Konoha shinobi's did not like him. He wore blue armour over a black shinobi suit with an odd looking white fur collar, and shinobi sandals with bandages wrapped around his lower legs. Overall Naruto was absolutely sure he had never seen the man before, as he certainly made an impression even unconscious, but he still had the vague feeling that he was familiar. Naruto shrugged and wrote it off as him being anxious. But what was he to do?

He could always just leave and pretend he had never seen the man, but what if he were to wake up and find that he had been there? He would certainly get a beating since that was what all the shinobi do, but even then he didn't think the man was bad. He had the strangest feeling to trust the stranger, though Naruto had no idea why, and now he wanted to know why he didn't feel threatened by the man. Naruto always felt threatened by shinobi and for good cause. What made this particular shinobi different?

So while making sure he was ready to escape at a moments notice, Naruto carefully stretched his arm out as far as possible and gently poked the man's cheek. Blood red eyes opened and locked onto Naruto with a fierce gaze.