Inheritance

CHAPTER 2

"I'm...the son of the Yondaime?" Naruto's eyes widened slowly as the news sunk in.

Minato grinned even wider when he saw his son's reaction. He had been afraid that Naruto would have been angry with him, or even rejected him all together. But there was too much Kushina in him. Of course, he had been watching over Naruto all this time. And even though it infuriated him, he could do nothing aside from watch his son endure treatment that would have broken any normal child. Naruto was never beaten, or abused. Even verbally. But some would argue that what Naruto endured was even worse. He was quite simply, ignored. As far as the rest of the village was concerned, he never existed. No-one made eye contact, no-one would talk to him. For years, the closest thing to attention Naruto got - occasional visits from the Sandaime aside - were hushed comments made when the villagers thought he was out of earshot.

The tall blonde haired shinobi's image started to fade, and his demenour became serious as he realised he was nearly out of chakra.

"Naruto, I'm almost out of chakra. I need to reseal the Kyuubi's chakra before I run out." His fingertips glowed blue with sealing chakra as he re-applyed the seal to Naruto's stomach.

"Your Mother and I are proud of you Naruto, and we always will be. We'll be watching you when you make Hokage, I love you son."

Naruto, rushed at the fast dissapearing figure of his father; his arms outstretched, as if he was going to try ang grab him to prevent him fro leaving.

"Wait, I-" But his father had already gone, and the formerly white room begain to fade to black as if he had been knocked unconscious."

The Sandaime looked at the receding chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Naruto had almost given over to the beast, and Sarutobi had mobilised the full force of his ANBU to ensure that the tragedy of twelve years ago would not repeat itself. He himself had led the force, dressed in his full battle gear, with his powerful summon Enma at the ready. He had spent the entire journey going over the seals to the Shiki Fuin in his mind, and an ANBU had been dispatched to find an appropriate vessel for the summon.

But his thorough preparations had been for naught. He arrived with his ANBU to find that only residual chakra remained around Naruto, a sure-fire sign that the Kyuubi had been resealed. Of course, that was entirely impossible - only himself and Jiraiya had the knowledge to perform the Shiki Fuin.

"Hokage-sama, what is going on?" The ANBU captain directly to his right asked. The Scarecrow-like man was donned in an Inu mask and was, despite his ANBU status, unable to keep the concern out of his voice.

"There are two possible explanations. One is that the Kyuubi has been resealed, by a seal master. However, the seal would have to be the Shiki Fuin; and therefore only myself and Jiraiya could have been the ones to do it."

"Well that's impossible. Jiraiya-sama isn't here, and it definately was not yourself."

"Indeed." Replied Sarutobi, "That would leave one more explanation. And that would be that Naruto himself managed to resist the Kyuubi's power and is forcing the chakra back through willpower alone. Which I'm sure you'll agree is-"

The two were interrupted by the sound of Naruto collapsing to the ground. Sarutobi and the ANBU captain were there in a flash, to assess the condition of the boy, but were further surprised when the blonde jinchuuriki began to pull himself to his feet.

"Man, I feel like I just fell off the Hokage Mountain. Everything hurts!" Grumbled the blonde, whilst rubbing the top of his head and staring accusedly at the ground, apparently not noticing his audience. "Hang on, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto for the first time looked up, coming eye to eye with Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Hokage-jiji! Iruka-sensei he-" Naruto began frantically.

"You don't need to worry Naruto. Iruka will be okay, he is on his way to the hospital. Now do you mind if I look at your stomach? I just need to check something."

"You wanna see my new seal?" a relieved looking Naruto asked.

Sarutobi was forced to stop to think about his next move. He knew from an awakened Iruka that Mizuki had told the boy that he had been transformed into the Kyuubi, not that the Kyuubi had been sealed. He also said that the seal was 'new'; that made no sense. There was no evidence that anyone had placed a new seal on him, there wasn't even evidence that anyone but Naruto and the two chuunin instructors had been here. Regardless, he needed to check the safety of the seal anyway.

"Yes Naruto, I need to check it to ensure it is secure."

Naruto simply lifted his shirt, revealing the Shiki Fuin; still glowing a deep red. Sarutobi was taken aback, the seal was freshly sealed. Not only that, but it was exactly as it was the night of the sealing, when Jiraiya and himself had checked over it. There were no signs of the usual seal decay that should have been there, and the decay that had already been there. He needed to exactly what had happened.

"ANBU you are dismissed, and shall return to your normal duties. Everything you have seen here is an S-ranked secret, the punishment for revealing it is, as a result, death. Naruto is exempt from this." And with that he turned to Naruto. "Unfortunately we need to talk in my office before you do anything else. I know you want to go see Iruka, but it will have to wait. I am certain you understand how serious this situation was, and still is." Sarutobi looked over the boy's tattered clothing, before adding, "You have half an hour to get a change of clothes if you wish."

"Sure, jiji."