Chapter 11: The Horrific Truth

Naruto waited patiently in the Uchiha section of the village as he waited for one Sasuke Uchiha to arrive home. He had given the young man the deadline of the end of the Chunin exams to deliver him his payment for the return of his testicles and the exams had officially ended. So here he waited for him to return. But he had not been idle this entire time since he had sent crows to deliver two packages, with one being sent to Choji while the other had been sent to Shino. They had been a part of the group that bullied him in his youth so they were part of his vendetta as well and he had not forgotten about them. He smirked as he thought on how he got back at them since the manner he did so was so… perfect as it was tailored for each person to ruin their lives as they had ruined his childhood without remorse.

For Shino, he had a rigged box pull of a chemical he concocted that was poisonous to bugs alone while leaving the humans alive. He had made it for a man with a serious bug infestation within his house. It had taken quite a bit to get the batch perfectly fine tuned for actual use but it would be worth it in the end. Now the kicker to this poison that he whipped up was that it soaked into a person's skin down to the bone and stayed there so any attempts to implant more bugs would be met with failure since they would die being on him alone and even more so if they were inside him. Shino would be outed from his clan for sure after that happened since their clan used bug related jutsu and not having the ability to do so would just make him the black sheep of the family to the point of being disowned.

With Choji he had something else planned for him that would more than likely have the same end result. It was a cursed pie that Naruto had bought from a very strange old woman who liked to curse people for just about any damn reason. The only reason she didn't curse Naruto who was there in the first place seeking a certain herb for some research was that he cured her blindness and gave her new eyes so to see once more. In hind sight he had no idea whether that was a good thing or a bad thing given her actions, but it saved his ass from being cursed so he wouldn't really think about the repercussions. He had actually contemplated killing her to spare others in the future, but to be honest he thought about it from a different perspective and realized she only ever cursed people who trespassed onto her land so it wasn't she was hunting people down to curse so it wasn't really fair to kill her for doing that.

So as a means of payment since she had nothing of monetary value given her state of living like a hermit, he asked for a curse that he could give to another instead. She had cackled like a typical evil witch from stories and told him that such a thing was easily made. So he asked for a pie that cursed whoever ate it to lose weight too fast that they had to eat so much to not starve from it. The woman had made him such a pie, which he then froze for later use, which he had heated up and delivered to Choji in the hospital along with a 'Get Well' card so he didn't get suspicious. The boy was in the hospital recovering from having a puppet explode in his face so it was common to see people wishing him well on his road to recovery. His crow had watched as the boy ate the whole pie by himself, and flew off to relay the information to Naruto, who simply laughed since the boy was an idiot as well as a glutton.

Thankfully he didn't have to wait there for too long since Sasuke eventually showed up at his house. Naruto mentally chuckled since he had actually guessed which one Sasuke had lived in since he had no idea where he lived exactly in this area. The place was large with many houses that were now empty since the Uchiha that once lived in them had been killed by the man he himself had killed before he harvested his eyes. He wondered if the spirits of the Uchiha could sense this, and if they did he wondered how they felt on the situation. Would they be happy that he had avenged them personally or would they be pissed that Sasuke hadn't done it himself given it was his duty as the sole survivor of the clan to avenge them. Either way, it didn't matter to him since he didn't really care.

"Hello there Sasuke," said Naruto as he stood there leaning against the wall next to the front door. Sasuke dropped the groceries he had in his hand since Naruto being here meant he had come for the money Sasuke owed him. "I have come to collect what you owe me. So I will ask you if you have my money."

"I... I… I'm sorry," stuttered Sasuke since the memory of Naruto's threat came flashing back to his mind all of a sudden, and dear Kami it horrified him to picture it alone. "I have been so busy I haven't had the chance to get it all collected. Please just give me a bit more time and I will get it for you. It was an honest mistake I swear!"

"Oh," said Naruto with a smile as he opened his pocket watch and looked at the time for a bit before he closed the thing and put it back into his pocket, "well if it was an honest mistake, then no harm or foul. Just pay me in the next day or so and everything will be fine." Naruto then walked by Sasuke, but not before slightly slapping his cheek a couple of times as he walked by.

Sasuke finally took a deep breath as Naruto walked past since he was truly scared that Naruto would do something painful to him for not having the money that was owed as agreed.

"Wait a sec," said Naruto as he stopped a few yards from where Sasuke was still standing in an attempt to calm himself down, "before I go, I have a quick question for you…"

Sasuke then felt pain like he had never felt before as his leg bent in a way that it was not supposed to go, thus breaking it with the bone inside being visible the way it was bent. Naruto had put some blood in his palm as he had slapped Sasuke like he had, thus being able to do this to the fucker without realizing it.

"Does that hurt?" said Naruto with a sinister smirk on his face as he turned fully around to talk to him.

"Yes!" shouted Sasuke in pain as he wanted to do something, anything really to put his leg back in place, but his body would not listen to him for some reason. "Why are you doing this?! I will pay you your money!"

"Oh I believe that you will," said Naruto in a calm, yet still chilling voice, "and usually I have more lenience for payment with people since things happen. But I gave you a very clear time of payment, and I have no patience for you of all people."

"What have I done to you!?" Sasuke screamed, but his screams only amplified as Naruto repeated the process with his other leg this time.

"What did you do?" asked Naruto with a raised eyebrow, "Sasuke… did you think I would forget what you did to me after all these years? Look what I have done to everyone in your old group. I cut Kiba's limbs off with no means to be healed; Naruko is poisoned in a way she will never recover, and so on. Then there is you… the person I hated third of all out of all of them. Kiba was my fourth hated person, and you saw how that worked out for him clear as day!"

Sasuke audibly gulped as Naruto got closer to him. It wasn't like he could crawl away with his legs being fucked up like they were and his body stiff due to Naruto controlling his blood.

"You remember that day I'm talking about right Sasuke," said Naruto with a glare, "the day when you unlocked your fucking Sharingan? You were so proud about it, but you just had to see with your own eyes just how powerful they were and used me for a test subject. You so happily used them on me with the order to take a sharp broken piece of glass to slit my own throat. But for reasons even I don't understand, most likely being a strong will to live, I broke free of your hypnosis and lived past that day. You tried to end my life for a test, and that alone is enough to solidify my hatred for you. But oh no… it only gets worse from there!"

At this point, Sasuke had literally pissed himself in fear since he could feel the rage coming off of Naruto as he was so close to him. If Naruto wanted, he could strangle him he was so close.

"After nine long years away from this hellhole I was born into," said Naruto as he held out his hands to emphasize the point that he was speaking about the village as a whole, "which I grew stronger and became as I am, by pure chance I met you again. It was not planned, but pure coincidence that we met again that day in Wave. But out of all the horrible things I could have heard from you, you just had to state the worst of the worst." It was at this point that Naruto's eyes changed into the Mangekyo Sharingan as he picked Sasuke up by the throat and began to squeeze hard enough to the point that Sasuke could breath, if only barely if his gasps were anything to go on.

"You had the audacity to threaten my girlfriend with rape!" said Naruto with eyes filled with hatred beyond measure. He had very few people he could call true friends, and he would defend them to the end if need be, with his massacre of the Shinobi of Kiri being a clear indication of that. "But oh no… you also had to state that you would drag her back here, where you would have a member of the Yamanaka alter her memories, and then forcibly impregnate her so as to carry your bastard children! Is there any low you will not sink to? And you have the nerve to claim to be an elite clan member when you have attempted such atrocities before you even reached the age of eighteen!"

Naruto then threw Sasuke, and when I say throw, it was with enough power in the throw so that he not only soared through the air, but went through several of the walls in his house before he came to a halt as he hit the last one too soft to break through. Sasuke was coughing lots of blood at this point, and his heart was beating so fast out of fear of what was going to happen to him now. Naruto simply appeared in front of him with his glare still there, but he was sitting cross-legged in front of Sasuke, who was too weak to move as the blood pooled from his head downwards.

"But you see," said Naruto as he took a deep breath, "Against all odds, I have the tiniest shred of patience with you still. So here is how this going to play out Mr. Elite."

Naruto pulled out a bottle containing an orange liquid of sorts. This was a concoction he made that drastically sped up the production of blood when dangerously low. His bloodline made him reach that point a few times, so it was always a good thing to be prepared for such an event. Naruto could clearly see that Sasuke was bleeding too much and would not really live long if he didn't drink this.

"First thing you are going to do is drink this," said Naruto as he pointed at the bottle, "it's not poison but medicine to replenish the blood you lost. Then I will heal your legs, not out of friendship or kindness of any sort since you are the last person on this planet I would call a friend. You can't collect the money you owe me if you can't walk."

Naruto then pulled out his pocket watch and saw that it was about noon. He then closed it and put it back into his pocket.

"It is noon now," said Naruto as he stood up and clenched his fingers inward. Sasuke groaned in pain as he felt the wires that Naruto used pick him up off the ground. He then screamed as the wired pulled his legs back into place before Naruto used his blood inside Sasuke to heal the things back to the way they were. But there was a clear scar there to show what had happened, and Naruto made no attempt to get rid of the scar since he wanted Sasuke to remember what happened here for years to come. Naruto then picked up the bottle and pinched Sasuke's nose so he was forced to open wide. He then poured the medicine down his throat, which Sasuke had to admit was not as bad tasting as he had thought it would be like medicine usually was. The reason behind that was the multiple citrus fruits he put into it since it naturally helped heal from blood loss. "So you have till five to get the money you owe me. And if you fail to do so this time, I won't do as I said before with the horrifically painful sex change, no… I'll do far worse Sasuke. I'll kill you. But it won't be quick. I'll peel you apart layer by layer in a manner you won't die yet you will still feel everything. I'll make you watch via a mirror as I do it, and the last thing you will see before your end will be me holding your still beating heart as I crush the tainted thing in my hand after ripping it out through your exposed ribcage."

Sasuke was terrified to the point of having a near heart attack as he heard this. The visions in his head were horrific enough, and he didn't even want to know what actually experiencing it would be like.

"So my advice to you Uchiha…" said Naruto as he whipped his hand around a bit, thus releasing Sasuke from the wires he was bound by a second ago.

"Run…"

Sasuke heeded his single word of advice and took off in a full on sprint towards the bank as Naruto could only chuckle. Sasuke might talk a big game, but he sorely lacked the skills to pay said bills. And now that he was done here finally, albeit he did have to return to get his money, he left through his door to finish up two other things he needed to be done.

The first place he went to was Ame itself, where he met with a bit of hostility. It wasn't Nagato or Konan who showed it, but the Shinobi that made up the place. Nagato was their leader and thus had a duty to protect him as was their duty. It was only by Nagato's intervention via the use of one of his Paths that they stood down since they finally accepted that he was not here to attack their leader.

Naruto followed the Path to where Nagato was and told him that his body was done. It surprised him that it was done sooner than expected, but the research he did in the genetics of the Uzumaki he took from him showed that they healed faster than most people. He wasn't sure how that helped in the process of cloning, but to be honest he had nothing else to go on and he would have to spend months if not years researching to see if that was the case and he had so much on his plate as it was.

So Naruto waved for the two of them to follow him through the door into his operating room, none of them noticing the glare of a masked man in the shadows who had overheard all that was transpiring right now…

The process was simple enough, with Nagato's new body strapped down since it was better to be certain it didn't wiggle around too much than not be prepared for it. So with a quick Room and Shambles, Nagato was now in a body that he once had when he was in his prime without the need for the life support device he had been in for years. Konan was utterly speechless, since even though she had seen his power first hand when he demonstrated it the first time; it was still hard to believe that he was able to heal Nagato as he had. With their business now concluded, Nagato shook Naruto's hand in thanks before he left with Konan out the door back to their hideout. Naruto did warn him one final time as he left that if he continued down the path he had initially planned, then his advanced healing process would be for nothing since even he could not cure death, nor would he ever attempt to since he was neither a god or some sort of necromancer. He had no delusions of playing god and he would remain that way.

Whether Nagato headed his words though… only time would tell…

But Naruto honestly hoped he stopped his plan, since otherwise he would have to kill the man who would come after not only himself since he was the container of the Kyubi now, albeit temporarily, but two of his friends with one of them being his girlfriend meant he would kill the man if he dared to try and extract the beast from her since the process was fatal.

Once Naruto was done with his business with Nagato, he took a little while to brew some tea, which helped him to relax as well as lit a cigarette since he needed to be as calm as ever for what was going to happen next. Once the tea had been drunk and the smoke enjoyed fully, he made another door to retrieve one of two people he needed to talk to.

Naruto had felt angry with himself as well as stupid over the fact he had been so oblivious to the love of Kurosutchi of all people had for him. But his mind was usually filled with medicine and surgery so he was oblivious to nearly everything else at the most random of times. Even with what brainpower that wasn't used to develop new methods of healing, his desire for revenge had taken up the rest. But with most of those he wanted revenge against having suffered just that, he was now capable of thinking more clearly since he was not currently doing research.

It was the fact that Kurosutchi had made a bet of all things with Haku over the rights of his love that solidified this knowledge. He truly did not know what to do here since as a doctor he loved to help people as well as heal, and the emotional pain of a broken heart was something he was all too familiar with. Sure his version of it wasn't due to the loss of a lover, but his only living solace which hurt just as bad to the extremes of contemplating suicide in his youth. He overcame such emotions and lived on, but he had at one point reached that sort of low in his willpower.

So he met Kurosutchi, who had read his note which basically stated he wanted to sit both girls and talk this through. So he used his door to take her to his home in Spring, where Haku was waiting for them. To say the anger between them was thick would be a severe understatement. The two girls argued back and forth for about an hour alone before Naruto even opened his mouth to say the first thing he would say in this conversation. He basically came out and stated he loved both of them, since Kurosutchi was the first true friend he had, and Haku was his first girlfriend. He admitted to being oblivion, with Haku's obvious advances being a key point in how severe it was, and as they were now with the rivalry going into the extremes to the point they were betting him like some sort of fucking prize made him demand they cease or he would simply cut ties with both of them.

After he said his piece, he left the house to go and check up on Yuna. The silence that followed his departure was long as well as awkward since they were now both smacked with the reality of their selfishness. It was true they had bet Naruto in their fight without consulting him, and both women could understand where he was coming from since he did not like to make people sad. Well unless it was out of revenge, but you would have to really piss him off to get to that point. So with the awkwardness done and out of the way, they started over and talked like adults instead of fighting like children.

Naruto had returned outside his house after dropping off money for Yuna and checking his log book to see what future appointments he had. He remained outside since he had no idea as to what was going to happen. He wondered if he had made a mistake doing this, but he wanted the bickering to end, mainly due to people in this world killed for such reasons like jealousy and he didn't need one or the other murdering since it would only cause him grief to hear they had died.

Imagine his surprise when he walked inside the house and the two to them hugged him deeply with tears in their eyes and constant apologies coming out of their mouths. Naruto was honestly not expecting this, but he would take it and hugged them back since he was just happy that they weren't killing one another as he feared…

But as Naruto had been busy doing the few errands he had leading up to this heartfelt moment, another person was about to suffer big time as a complete contrast of what Naruto was experiencing…

(Konoha – earlier that day)

Kushina had sat at home in deep thought as she looked at the scroll Naruto had left her to deliver to Minato. Time seemed like it was passing by so slowly as she just sat there and stared at the thing. So many conflicting feelings were going through her mind and she honestly did not know how to cope with it. On one hand she had a message from the man who basically poisoned her daughter with no hope of recovery. This side of her mind was screaming out to destroy the note since she owed the man nothing. But on the other side was the more curious side of her mind, the side that recognized a genetic blood seal of all things. This was the side that wanted answers to the main question of the relationship between Naruto and Minato. But the more her mind tipped towards the latter, the more fear that began to set in since it opened up a whole new slew of questions she honestly didn't know if she even wanted to ask…

But in the end, it was the more curious portion of her mind that won out. So she picked up the note, took a long deep breath and made her way to her husband's office to speak with him on the matter…

Minato was busy doing his normal amount of paperwork as Kushina entered the office. He was too engrossed in the damned process to notice that Kushina set up a silencing seal on the door so that their conversation could not be heard by outsiders of any sort. No sense of things being heard and rumors being spread in the village that blew it far out of proportion.

"Hello dear," said Minato as he signed off on the current scroll he had before he looked up at his wife. He saw her standing there, but he couldn't quite make out her emotions since for lack of a better word it was just blank. "Is something wrong?"

"I was given this note to deliver to you," said Kushina emotionlessly as she stepped forward and handed to him. He took it from her hands and looked at it before he said anything. He just wanted to make sure it wasn't booby-trapped or something like that, but there was nothing there but a simple wax seal. He didn't pay too much attention to the wax seal though otherwise he would have seen the actual seal engraved into the thing.

"Who sent this message," said Minato since there was no indication as to who sent it.

"Naruto did," said Kushina in the same emotionless tone she had before. "Said it was important and you needed to see it right away."

Minato's eyes opened wide as he heard this and easily tore the seal off the scroll to get at the message within, oblivious to Kushina shaking in place. She was gritting her teeth as she suppressed her rage of his one single action that seemed like nothing to many, but she knew better. The fact that Minato was able to open the scroll after breaking the seal meant that he was related to Naruto, and now her fears of the truth were flooding outwards to the point she was near tears.

But Minato was too interested in what message Naruto could have possibly sent him to notice her reactions right now. He was expecting some sort of gloating or threat of some sort, but all he saw was one line words with a seal underneath it for storing something. This caused Minato's eyebrow to rise as he read what was written:

The family that spurned me, since I was not the spawn of the monster they wished me to be…

Minato looked at that first line and saw the seal that was below it. He wondered what he meant by that, since the statement was not only out of context since there was no buildup to it or anything else to explain it, but was hard to grasp since it was so out of place the way it was written. But seeing that there was a seal below the written text, he placed his finger on it and activated the thing. Out of the seal came a simple napkin, yet one that made Minato's eyes widen in shock so much.

It was a well-known fact within Fire Country that the former Kaen family was as vain as they were greedy. Pretty much everything they owned had their family crest on it somewhere, and from the rumors he heard, even their employees had it as well as a brand of some sort. So to see a napkin with their well-known crest on it spoke volumes, but not as much as a napkin that was blood soaked as this was.

Minato had wondered what had happened exactly to the Kaen family, as did many people. They knew that there was a vast mob of people who robbed and slaughtered them all, but besides that there was nothing to point the blame to any specific person since the evidence was too… well there was just too much of it really to single people out. Now Minato saw this napkin and understood that Naruto himself had somehow been the person to orchestrate such a thing. He most likely learned of his family and took vengeance against the ones who cared not for him and wanted him to simply waste away.

This did not bode well for Minato since if Naruto was willing to do such a thing against one of the most powerful of families in the Fire Country, he would have no qualms about coming for him personally…

But the funny thing that Minato didn't know about that napkin was that while Naruto had taken it as a souvenir of his plan going off without a hitch, the blood on it was not from the Kaen family at all. It was his own, given the fact he had left the room as his former family was being killed and only grabbed the napkin on the way out the door. He had dipped the thing in his blood to add shock value to the message it would send to Minato like it was now.

But with the understanding of what the napkin symbolized out of the way, Minato saw that there was more to the message since the way it was designed was to show one part at a time so that he understood what each line truly meant in full.

The madman who tried so hard to control death itself as a weapon to use against everyone from the shadows like the coward he was…

The seal this time ejected a cracked ROOT mask, something that made Minato feel his rage boil up more than it already was with his daughter in the hospital like she was. Minato had done extensive investigating as to what had happened to his hidden ROOT forces, and with this single written sentence he now knew Naruto was to blame.

He was not sure how that was, but given the fact that the boy had been able to eliminate every last squad of them he had ordered Danzo to send out to capture him and bring him to Konoha to begin his reeducation, it was not too much of a stretch to accept that he was capable of eliminating ROOT like he did.

He had seen Danzo's body in a glass cage of all things, with his arm blown off and the cause of death being a bit of a confusing guess. Minato was unable to tell if it was due to the lack of blood from his lost limb, or the lack of air, since the machine meant to pump it in was broken. He had gotten the information from another ROOT member as to what had happened since the reason the glass box was constructed was to contain Naruto in a manner he could not escape, but he knew nothing about the events that took place that specific day since the only ones to survive what Naruto had done were those not there that day entirely.

The psycho who nearly took that which I cared for the most in this world…

This seal ejected a single bloody, bent hiate…

One that bore the mark of the now liquidated Kiri. This caused Minato to fill in the gaps of what had happened since the pieces were all there for him to see with his own eyes, he was just missing confirmation like this. The fact that the ice user Haku had the power of the Three Tailed Biju, the very same one that the former Mizukage Yagura himself used only hit the nail on the head there. But the revelation only caused more questions than answers since if Naruto had fought for the Rebels like killing Yagura would state, why had they not won the war in the end? The battlefield showed the bodies of both sides, but there was obviously no clear winner since the end result was the end of Kiri as a major village.

These people all paid the price for angering me in one way or another, but you have gone beyond that. You forsook me, tried to erase me from existence to bury your secret, and then had the gall to forbid me from actually succeeding in life by denying me the chance to do it. Yet look at me now. I have become something that all who hear of me wish to have me settle down within their villages. You included. I find humor in the fact that you tried so hard to hinder my life and then tried so hard to control it when it became worth a damn…

I warned you that day you came to me, so sure that your plan to use a Yamanaka to force my loyalty to the village had succeeded, that I would see to it that all that you cared for was taken from you. That the world would know the truth of the monster you really were, and so far I am succeeding in my plan far better than you have…

I have already taken your daughter from you in a way she will never recover from, since the poison I injected her with was specifically made so that she would never heal from it. She will suffer for every second of every minute of every day for the rest of her life, and there is no cure for it. This is how she made my life until the day I left this accursed place, and I returned the pain with sixteen years' worth of interest included.

I have taken one out of the three things you care for the most from you, and I assure you that the second is not far behind…

And soon enough, the third will be gone as well….

Signed,

Your forsaken son,

Naruto

P.S: just wanted you to know, when you are gone… when you die by my hands… your clan name will die with you since I never was, nor will I ever be a Namikaze. I'm better than that…

Minato growled in rage as he finished reading the message. How dare this brat threaten him like this? Insulting the very Namikaze Clan name, the same one that instilled fear and most people who heard it due to what he himself had done to earn it such infamy in the last Shinobi War. Did he have any inkling as to who exactly he was challenging like this? It was only then that he looked up and saw Kushina standing there with her hands clenched into fists and glaring at him with so much hate as the tears poured out.

"When…" was all she was able to manage to say in the end. Her rage prevented her from saying more than that one single word, yet it spoke volumes.

"What are you talking about Kushina," asked Minato, who honestly didn't understand why she was like this.

"When did you go behind my back and cheat on me you bastard," demanded Kushina, this time her rage making her hair seem more alive to express herself better.

"I don't know what you are talking about," said Minato as he broke out with a bit of a cold sweat. He never thought that Kushina of all people would learn the truth, and he feared her anger since she was not one to pull punches when she was angry.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" shouted Kushina in rage, unable to contain it anymore.

"I swear I have no idea what you are talking about!"

"That scroll," said Kushina as she pointed at the scroll he had just finished reading. "The wax seal you tore off to open it? It was engraved with a seal. A very specific one that can only be opened by those with Naruto's genetics, and given the fact you are the older of the two of you paints a very clear picture."

Minato's face lost all his color as he heard this since he had not paid attention to the seal close enough to see it. To think that Naruto did something like that for a message… but then the line came back to his from the message:

I have taken one out of the three things you care for the most from you, and I assure you that the second is not far behind…

Now it made sense, since he sent Kushina with a scroll that proved he had been unfaithful given she was an Uzumaki and easily recognized various seals. That fucking brat had set him up!

"And now I will ask again," said Kushina as she literally threw the desk in front of her towards the wall, shattering it to splinters with the papers that had been on it flying just about everywhere. "When did you cheat on me?"

"Kushina," started Minato as he was trying to find a way out of this whole uncomfortable situation, "look it was a fling I had before we dated. I didn't cheat on you."

"Do I look like an idiot!?" demanded Kushina as she used her chakra chains to bind Minato in place, "That boy is the same age as our daughter! So that meant you slept with another woman while we were still dating! You cheating bastard!"

Kushina then balled up her hand into a fist to slug her husband, but she stopped short of actually hitting him by a few inches. Minato was understandably flinching with his eyes closed since Kushina hit hard, but she never hit him. Right now her mind was essentially frozen as the truth dawned on her about Naruto.

She had outright hated the boy for what he had done to Naruko, but now in this moment where her body was going overboard with rage, a moment of clarity was coming over her. She remembered what he had told her about his past during the Chunin Exams, about how he had been abandoned by his father and the fact he had no name to speak of so that if he had died no one would even remember him since his mother had passed before him.

She could understand his rage towards those who had everything trying to take absolutely everything from one who had nothing. The pain he must have gone through to be hurt by his own half-sister, a constant reminder of the fact he was not wanted by the man who spoke so much praises towards his daughter, but nothing about his own son. In that brief moment of clarity, she not only fully understood his reasons for doing as he did perfectly, but actually agreed with him fully. This caused her brain to stop as she had been about to hit Minato, but now she couldn't even bring herself to do that. So she let him go from his bindings and began to walk away from him as she wiped the tears from her eyes. To think she loved a man and had a family with one who was cold enough to forsake his own son of all people he had with another. It's bad enough to cheat on someone, but you must take responsibility for your actions, and Minato had not and left his own child to die out in the shadows. She would hate the man and everything about him too if she had lived that way.

"Kushina," said Minato, all the while scared about what was going to happen now. He had expected her to slug him hard, but she didn't and that must at least be some sort of positive sign right?

"I'm done Minato," said Kushina plainly, "I'm going home, packing my things and moving out. I'm leaving you. So I hope the sex was worth it back then you fucking asshole, since it not only cost you your daughter, but your wife as well." She then ripped the seal off the door and slammed it behind her as she left the room fully leaving Minato there alone.

Usually in a case like this, after a man had lost so much in such a small amount of time they would self- reflect on their choices and question just how they got to this point, but Minato was too vain and proud to do that. So you know what was going on in his head right now?

Hatred for Naruto…

Right now he was blaming Naruto for just about everything that was going bad in his life right now and it was showing in his eyes that were easily being seen becoming clouded with madness. Things were going so well before that brat had undone everything! Why hadn't he done as he wanted and either killed him or sent Danzo after him to make him a member of ROOT sooner. But now the boy had taken too much from him as it were, and Minato was damned well sure he was going to make Naruto suffer for this.

In the end, Naruto would know his place as one of his Shinobi, even if he had to destroy everything the boy cared about down to the very last thing to instill the deepest of fears into the brat…

(2 weeks later)

Naruto was in a good mood today. He had helped out two different people change their lives recently in a positive way. The first being Neji himself, who was finally able to be placed into his new body and get out in the world once more. Neji had taken a bit to get used to his new look, though it wasn't all that different then what he was like before, just his eyes had changed. No longer were they ones with the clear signs of a Byakugan being grey and pupiless. Now they were normal looking, yet still had all the normal abilities of the Byakugan.

He had helped the man by asking him what he wanted to do with his life now. Surprisingly enough, Neji wanted to be a chef of all things, which made him chuckle a bit since Fu had dreamed of being the same thing. So Naruto introduced him to the same man who owned a restaurant that he had shown Fu a while back. The man who ran the place was a great teacher, and showed Neji the ropes. While he still had plenty to learn, he was a natural at it and took to the lessons fast enough.

But while Neji worked hard to achieve his newfound dream free from the shackles of servitude like he had been forced to endure most of his life, he surprisingly got closer to Fu on a more personal level. Naruto wasn't sure how it happened, mainly since Neji himself would lose his tongue on the fact that a girl was interested in him in the first place. He had always been a strict, no nonsense kind of person, but now that he was no longer a Branch member and therefore not being judged constantly, he could act better.

Naruto was happy that Neji had found someone, and that his friend Fu was happy with Neji. But their relationship was their own business, and right now he had business elsewhere. It had been a while since he had visited any of the orphanages he had been funding, and he would love nothing more than to see the smiling faces of the little ones as he spent time with them. So he made a trip to town and bought sweets for the children since they loved it so much, and once he had his it all packed up for transport he made a door to head into before he made another to walk out next to one of the orphanages. He always appeared outside of it and never inside since he never wanted to frighten someone inside with a randomly appearing door. There was already one older boy spreading rumors of the place being haunted in one of the orphanages, and he was not going to throw fuel into that fire.

But then he made a door to walk out and greet the children of the orphanage he picked, and it was in that moment that his good day was shattered beyond repair…

The first thing he noticed as he opened the door was the smell of smoke, but it was laced with something else he couldn't quite place yet. But the second he opened the door fully he began to understand what that smell was. What he saw was the entire building burnt to the ground, with nothing more than embers still there showing that the fires had been done recently, but enough time had made the flames themselves die down.

Naruto ran forward to see what had happened, hoping beyond hope that the children and the matriarch of the place were okay and that it had been a simple fire with little to no casualties. But as he got closer, his fears on the matter only increased since he now recognized the smell that was laced with the smoke…

Burnt flesh…

He had treated the wounds of many people who had suffered burns of all sorts before, so he was familiar with the smell. That wasn't a positive thing right now since it only painted a more gruesome picture in his mind. As he made his way through the rubble, he began to feel the tears well up in his eyes since he saw the charred bodies of the children who were always so happy when he came to visit.

He saw the burnt remains of a teddy bear and picked it up. This bear he remembered he gave a little girl who was sad that her parents had been killed by bandits and feared just about everyone in life. Naruto had bought her this toy so as to help her feel a measure of safety in the world, and it worked since she was happier as time went on, but now her life had been snuffed out like her own parents and it caused a tear to fall from his eyes.

He searched the remains of the place, but all he found were the remains of the people within. There were too many to count, thus showing that next to no one had escaped if any had at all. But the worst scene had yet to be discovered by him, since that happened when he had made it to the back of the place where the playground was located. It was here that Naruto fell to his knees in despair since the image was horrific to witness.

There in the back were the corpses of the children who had made it out of the building. But these ones were not burned like the others…

They all had one or multiple kunai and/or shuriken in their backs. Whatever monster had done this had slaughtered these kids as they were running for their lives…

Naruto cried heavily as he fell to his knees. The scene was too much to bear. But then a horrible thought came to his mind. If this was the fate that had befallen this orphanage, did the others suffer the same fate as well? Wasting no time, Naruto summoned a door to his operating room to go check. Right now he prayed to Kami herself that his fears were wrong…

(Spring Country – later that day)

Yuna was on her way back to her place with her books on medical study in hand and a smile on her face. Life seemed good to her since she went from being an orphan on the streets to the assistant to a man who paid for her to not only survive, but had saved her life once more when she was kidnapped as well as paid for her schooling and was giving her a better future than she was expecting years ago. So yeah… She was in a happy mood.

But that happy mood stopped as she was down the street from her place and saw two men wearing the dark clothes of a Shinobi lockpicking the front door. She simply stood there since she had no idea as to what she was supposed to do here. But one of the men saw her standing there and pulled out a kunai to end her since their orders were clear and there was to be no witnesses to what they were going to do. Yuna screamed and turned to run, but the man threw the kunai towards her. His aim had been accurate and would have hit its intended target… if it weren't for one thing happening right then…

"Shambles," said Naruto as he used the power of his Room to switch places with Yuna. The kunai pierced his chest deep, but he felt no pain nor did it go through any vital organs so he would easily heal from this. He pulled the kunai out and then charged forward towards the man, who unsheathed his sword to defend himself, but Naruto threw the kunai he pulled out of him, still covered in his blood, and threw it into the man's leg. The man stopped out of pain for a brief second, and that second was all Naruto needed to grab the man by the face while he glared deep into his masked face. "Counter shock!"

The area was lit up as the electrical power he conjured up to hurt this man sparked to life. Naruto wanted to kill this man, truly he did since no one hurt Yuna or even attempted to and got away Scott free. But he needed the man alive to answer his questions. His partner tried to run away, but not before attempting to kill the other man with a kunai to silence him permanently. Yet Naruto saw this and stopped the kunai from hitting by switching the places of the man and the weapon with another 'Shambles'. When within grabbing range, he repeated the process of shocking the man into unconsciousness and told Yuna to head to his house now and to stay there until he said otherwise. Yuna trusted him fully and ran as fast as her young legs could carry her towards his house.

Naruto dragged the two men into his office and then dropped them once inside. He opened their mouths and pulled out their tongues to see if these men had seals on their tongues as all ROOT members did, and to his anger they did. He sat there and pondered on just what to do now. He could torture these men all he liked for information, but they would not give anything up due to that fucking seal. He needed answers, since whoever had burned down the orphanages would pay in full. And when he got his hands on said person, he would not make their death quick. He would continue to torture and then heal before repeating the process over and over again. He knew Danzo would be the kind of person to kill innocent people since he was a monster, yet he was dead since Naruto had killed him. Well, put him in a position that he could not escape as he bled/suffocated to death, but that was semantics really.

He thought hard on how to get the answers he sought, but what he needed more than anything else was a seal master the likes of the Uzumaki of old…

Naruto groaned as he thought about that since he knew of one Uzumaki who was proficient with seals, and after poisoning her daughter like he did, he highly doubted she would help him in any sense of the word. But he owed it to the orphans to try.

So he summoned up a door and walked into it so as to go find the woman who would no doubt hate to see him now more than ever…

(Forest of Death – 1 hour later)

Naruto was inside the forest, but not too far in since he was waiting for someone to arrive hopefully. He had sent a crow with a message for said person to meet with him, and he only hoped that she would come as he asked since this was very important. And luckily for him, soon enough Kushina arrived as requested, albeit with a pissed look on her face.

"You have some nerve not only coming here," said Kushina with a huff since she was pissed. When she had seen the name on the scroll that had been delivered to her, she was at first inclined to rip it up. But something in the back of her mind told her to not do so and in the end it was that section of her mind that won the internal conflict. The message had been brief and asked for her to meet him in the Forest of Death since he needed her help with something. The message did not say what that something was, but if the same young man who knew she was pissed at him was asking for her aid by name, it must be important. She had been in the middle of packing all her stuff up since she could no longer live in this house since she planned to divorce Minato, so she had time on her hands. "But asking to meet with me of all people is crossing the line."

"I know," said Naruto sadly, which Kushina picked up on easily enough. Her motherly instincts kicked in for some reason and made her question just what had the young man in such a mood. He seemed so… broken right now and it was a stark contrast to the confident yet sadistic man she saw not too long ago during the exams. "And normally I would not ask for your help like this since given the history between us. Yet you are the only Seal master I know of and I need your help with a seal that I can't break."

"And just why would I help you break a seal when you refused to heal my daughter?"

"That is a separate issue that I don't want to get into," said Naruto with a sigh. He knew she would bring that up at some point. "But this aid is not for me, but for the near thousand orphan children that have been slaughtered that I seek to avenge."

"What?" asked Kushina in shock since that was not what she was expecting to hear.

"I have been funding multiple orphanages all over the Elemental Continent," said Naruto simply, "and recently I have learned that they had all been attacked with the children inside slaughtered with the building burning in around them. I wasn't able to save any of them since they were all already gone, but the same group responsible for doing the deed tried to kill a little girl I have been putting through school. I was able to save here alone, but the issue I am dealing with right now is the fact they have a fucking seal on their tongues that prevent them from saying who sent them!"

"Seals on their tongues," said Kushina in thought as she heard about Shinobi with them in the past. "Like Danzo's ROOT Shinobi?"

"Not like his ROOT Shinobi," corrected Naruto with a bit of a snarl. It wasn't aimed at her in the slightest, but at the fact that a shadowy organization that literally did so many horrific things to get their way was that he was so sure he had eliminated entirely was still around to do such horrific things still. "They are ROOT Shinobi."

"If that is the case," said Kushina since in her mind it made sense who sent them since she knew Danzo was a monster and wouldn't be affected by such atrocities. "Then you should already know who sent them."

"It's not that simple," pointed out Naruto, "since I killed Danzo a while back. So now I need to know who sent these men when their leader has been dead for a while."

"Danzo is dead," asked Kushina is surprise. She always knew that the elderly man would die from his actions, but to hear it had actually happened was still shocking.

"Yes," said Naruto with a simple nod of his head, "the same girl who I just saved? He had her kidnapped in a vain attempt to try and blackmail me into serving him. Basically threatening to kill her unless I did what he asked. His plan didn't work as expected though since I flipped the script on him and ended not only his life but what I assumed was his entire army. But apparently I missed some."

"Hmmm…" said Kushina in thought since like Naruto, she was stumped as to who was running their group now that Danzo was dead. The man was stubborn as well as greedy so he was not one to share power or just about anything at all now that she thought about it. He was the kind of person who would make it so his organization would not function without him so there was no possibility of betrayal, so how is someone running his organization in his stead?

"So I am asking you to help me with this one thing only," said Naruto with a passive wave of his hand, "not for me, but the children."

"I'll help you," said Kushina, but Naruto saw she was going to make stipulations to their agreement. Naruto knew exactly what she would ask, and so he cut her off before she could utter a single syllable of her stipulation.

"No," said Naruto harshly, but firmly.

"No what?" asked Kushina in confusion.

"I know you were going to demand that I healed Naruko in payment for your help, so I simply said no since I won't do it."

"Then I won't help you with the seals," said Kushina with authority in her voice. In her mind she had what Naruto needed most of all right now, and she would use this information as leverage to get him to heal her.

"Fine then," said Naruto as he summoned up a door and began to walk towards it, "I'll just have to find another Seal Master that will."

"Wait!" shouted Kushina in shock that Naruto had basically forgone any sort of negotiations towards healing Naruko even though she had the skills he needed to the point he sought her out. "Is your hatred for my daughter just so great that you would not bargain the thing you need the most for her health?"

"Yes," said Naruto plain and simply as he stopped a few feet from his door.

"Why won't you heal her!?" demanded Kushina, who was literally losing it at this point. As a mother she wanted her daughter healed so she could learn the mistakes of her past and become a better person for it. "Why are you so stubborn!?"

"Stubborn?" asked Naruto with a raised eyebrow as he turned his head to look at Kushina from the side. "Alright Kushina, you convinced me. I'll heal Naruko…"

"Oh tha…" started Kushina before Naruto held up his hand to silence her gratitude towards him.

"I'll heal her if, and only if, you can tell me one time she genuinely showed kindness to anyone her own age that wasn't her group of Clan heirs. And I'll know if you are lying, so go ahead and tell me. I'm all ears…"

Kushina was utterly speechless as she thought hard on what he had asked her to think about. She went years back to think of a moment where Naruko had been kind to someone, but it only just now dawned on her that she only hung around the other clan heirs. Hell, she even treated her own Squad-mate Sakura poorly now that she thought about it.

"And that is my point," said Naruto, "You want me to heal a monster wearing human skin basically."

"But…" said Kushina, but she was still too stumped to say much more.

"Your daughter got enjoyment from the suffering of others," said Naruto, "with me being the first one she did it to. When I left she did the same to others like me in the sense that people had no idea they even existed in the first place."

"How do you know this?" asked Kushina in genuine concern.

"My hated towards her became a bit obsessional over the years," said Naruto as an explanation, "and so I learned enough about her over the years. She hurt four others who the village would not miss along with her friends. She felt no remorse for what she had done, and three of them committed suicide due to the pain. The fourth one they killed by injuring him so severely and leaving him there. His parents were too poor to afford the proper care for his injuries, so he died from internal bleeding in that alley. But she didn't care since they were nobodies in the eyes of the people."

Kushina at this point was crying since she had no clue that her daughter was such a monster like Naruto said. While there was still a part of her mind that said that he was lying to her, the logical portion of her mind was telling her that he wasn't. He had basically told her about her own husband's faithlessness, so she was inclined to believe that his words rang true about her daughter. Apparently whatever monstrous tendencies he had were passed down to their daughter and it hurt to see the truth.

"So I don't care what you offer," said Naruto with a snarl, "be it money, power, or some rare material the likes I have never seen before. I will never heal such a monster to continue her sick ways on another. So now that you know the truth on the matter, I will take my leave and seek help from another proficient enough in seals."

"Wait!" shouted Kushina once more as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"What is it now?" said Naruto with a roll of his eyes, "time is a bit of a factor here and I need to find a seal master ASAP."

"I'll help you," said Kushina calmly.

"Really?" said Naruto with a raised eyebrow since he genuinely did not expect this. He thought that Kushina would be in a bit of a funk when faced with the truth of just how monstrous her family really was. He had told her the truth about Naruko so she would move past this given her daughter was a terrible person and not worth all the tears when she caused an equal amount of pain to those who didn't deserve it. It had taken plenty of detective work, as well as the aid of his crows to find the files and such, but he was able to piece the puzzle together since he himself had suffered like their victims had so he knew their methods as well as their tactics.

"Yes," said Kushina as she walked towards the door, "but I'm not doing this for you. You basically killed my daughter, and I will never forgive you for that. I just want to make sure that whoever is responsible for the death of so many innocent children is not able to do it again."

"That is all I wanted, "said Naruto as he opened the door for her, "and for what it's worth, I'm sorry things played out the way they did. No parent should suffer like this, but when you make a habit of enjoying the misery of another, it never ends well."

Kushina simply nodded since he spoke the truth on the matter, and then entered the door towards their destination…

(The Next Day)

Naruto was sitting at his desk with a fat stack of scrolls piled on it. He was sitting there contemplating on what exactly to right as a message to the world. He was trying to compose himself, but it was hard with the things he had learned, with the rage behind it literally keeping him awake all night long. Haku had picked up on this easily and left him alone since she was afraid of what he would do to her if he directed that amount of concentrated rage towards her.

Kushina had been a massive help by making a counter to the seal on the ROOT shinobi's tongues, and once it was off Naruto had gone to work to make them spill their secrets. The good thing about his abilities was he could hurt people past the realms of fatally and keep them alive as he did it. So after a few hours of breaking those men apart both metaphorically as well as literally, he got the answers he sought.

But the answers he got only increased his rage far more than he thought it would, and he made it known as he burned them alive slowly inside out as he roared in rage. Kushina was just as enraged as well as appalled by the truth, yet Naruto asked her to remain silent on the matter for a bit. He told her he had a plan to solve this problem, and Kushina agreed to it since she didn't want to deny him his revenge against the monster that sent the ROOT Shinobi.

So now here he was staring at the open scroll with the right words coming to him as to what to write. He felt as though he was slowly losing himself to his rage, and yet when he almost completely lost himself to it in his mind, the memory of his mother appeared before him and held out a hand to pull him out. Naruto had cried but a single tear as her memory had saved him from losing himself to the anger, and with that his mind was clear and he began to write the first of many message scrolls that would be sent out:

To whoever ends up reading this scroll and I say that on the account I have written many with the same message in full word for word and sent them throughout the Elemental Nation to let the truth be heard. My name is Naruto, or as many who have heard of me know me as the Surgeon of Death, the doctor with the ability to heal many a disease deemed incurable as well as the skills to defend myself from those who try and force me to submit in various ways.

As many know, since my name became well known, most if not all villages have been trying to recruit me within their ranks as one of their own and I can see why since having someone with my ability to heal things would be a valuable asset. But I have turned down all offers for such a thing since I am in firm belief that medicine is a universal thing and all people are worth healing. Sure I charge for it, but materials to heal others costs money and I myself have to eat so I do what I need to do.

I am sending these scrolls to tell of an event that has happened that is horrendous to speak of, but the truth must be heard so the party involved does not get away with what they have done…

I have been privately funding fourteen separate orphanages all over the Elemental Countries, not out of some personal gain of any sort, but only because I myself am an orphan and know how it feels to have no one there and wish to aid the children so their lives were better than mine at that age. But now… now that is no longer a concern that I can help with…

I recently went to one of the orphanages I fund to check up on the children and to aid the sick if they need it as I do from time to time, but when I got there… the orphanage was nothing more than chard wood that was still smoking as the fires had just died down. I grieved since in the rubble was the burnt corpses of the children who I have helped. But what I quickly learned only made my grief turn to rage.

In the backyard of the building were the bodies of children and a few adults who were the caretakers of the place. They did not die from the fire… they were murdered… with the kunai still in their backs or the few unfortunate souls with cuts that bled out or the one I saw that was decapitated fully…

In fear, I quickly went to the other orphanages and saw again and again the same exact scene…

Who could do such a thing to children? What monster orders the death of innocent civilians who have no allegiance to anyone since they are simply trying to survive?

I got my answer a day later, and it only made the situation far worse…

I have taken it upon myself to aid one orphan personally in a manner that she has her own place and is currently in school as the top of her class. She wants to be a doctor as I am and is trying her hardest to achieve that goal. Two men, bearing the insignia of the organization known as ROOT came to her place with the orders to end her life, but not because she was a threat of any sort. No, they were ordered to kill her as the rest had been ordered to slaughter those orphan children to send a message to me. Luckily I was there to save her life, but they had a seal on their tongues so as to not spill their mission orders or the identity of who sent them to do the deed. And while some of you may know the original ROOT leader known as Danzo Shimura, he has been dead for some time and I can confirm this since I was the one who ended him when he tried to enslave me by threatening the life of a hostage.

With the aid of a seal master, I was able to break the seal on them and get them to talk. The seal on the bottom of this scroll contains copies of the video of their confessions in full as well as the pictures of the dead orphans to show you just what I had to see with my own eyes…

But before I announce the man who ordered such horrific things be done, allow me to explain why he did so…

My name is Naruto, and that is how I wish to remain since my last name is cursed now more than ever. But for the sake of the truth my last name is Namikaze. I am the bastard son of Minato Namikaze, one he never attempted to claim until I made a name for myself in full as I am now.

My mother was named Moka, and she herself was the disowned daughter of the Kaen family from Fire Country. She left her home and family to be with Minato out of love, but he had done so out of greed since he wanted access to some of her family's immense wealth. But when the truth of her disownment became known to him, he abandoned her little less than a month before I myself was born. My mother had known no other life than that of a noble, and so she struggled to make ends meet as she supported me. I was all she had left in the world and she loved me with all her heart, as I did her in full. But time whittled her resolve down and she needed help. So she went to beg the man who sired their child for aid, but he not only hurt her to send a message, he threatened my life along with her own if she ever came back.

My mother never recovered from that day and fell into a depression she could not break free of. Two weeks passed and she herself passed away, leaving me alone in the world with no parents. It was only by finding her journal that I learned these truths for myself, and I set out to become strong so as to one day face the man who refused to acknowledge my existence. But he tried to ruin my future by signing paperwork that forever forbid me from entering the Shinobi academy out of fear that I would be discovered by those he did not want to know about me, namely his own family that he started elsewhere, one that any who know of him know about since it is public knowledge.

So I left the village and set out to become as I am now…

And soon after my name became known, there have been countless attempts by Konoha forces to force me into their service. Yet no matter what they sent I did not submit. Multiple ROOT ambushes, multiple Yamanaka clan member attempts to bend my mind to force subservience, and now this…

The man who ordered this tragedy was none other than Minato Namikaze himself. I swore vengeance years ago for making my life a living hell by not aiding me and sabotaging my attempts to become something, and I let him know this personally as he tried in vain to get me to join Konoha in the belief that the Yamanaka he had delve into my mind had succeeded in his task. But when he learned it failed he got violent and nearly tried to use force once more, but stayed his hand given the numerous connections I have all over would only be a major hindrance to the village if angered.

Minato is a monster who does not like when things do not go as he wishes them, and since I refused to join his forces time and time again, he thought to show me what he was capable of as a means of scaring me into submission. But I will not submit as he wanted… I have decided to let the world know of his crimes to not only myself, but the other children he ordered to be slaughtered in some twisted attempt to force me into submitting. So I ask all who see the truth, will you not allow me to avenge them all? To seek the justice that we so rightly deserve?

I await your replies…

The Surgeon of Death,

Naruto Law… Founder of the newly formed Law Clan

With the letter written fully, he took the pictures he mentioned in the letter as well as one of many copies of the video and sealed it at the bottom before he rolled up the scroll and summoned a crow. He showed him the list of places he was sending these messages, with all the recipients being higher ups in their countries such as Daimyo's as well as noble men and women. The crow read off the first name and flew off to deliver the first of many messages that Naruto was having written. Luckily he had Shadow Clones to aid him otherwise this would take forever to finish.

Minato had done as he had to scare him and force him to join Konoha, but Naruto was going to turn this on the man and show the world just what kind of monster he truly was. He warned the man when he was in Konoha for the Chunin exams that he was friends with many influential people, but apparently the man had gone literally mad in the head and forgotten that bit of information as he ordered his Shinobi to commit such atrocities.

And when the world saw just what Minato would do to win in the end so as to get his way… no one would mourn him in death…

But as this was all happening with his letters being sent to any and all who could get the word out of the atrocities that had been committed, there was a large funeral taking place in Konoha for the once proud kunoichi Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze. Multiple doctors had tried time and time again to heal her from the poison that she was injected with, but Naruto had done his job too well so it was impossible to make a cure.

Eventually, Minato knew that he couldn't let his daughter suffer like this, and was the one to give her a lethal dose of adrenaline so that she finally could rest in peace. All her friends who were still alive and able to as well as friends of the family had turned up for the funeral and right now it was nearing its end with the body being laid to rest. Minato was furious that Naruto had done this to him, and he could only inwardly smirk since his retaliation strike would do even worse to Naruto in the end. The brat had not submitted by force or even my mental conversion, so he would instill fear so deep into the brat, the fear that he had the power to kill off anyone he cared for, until the boy was begging him to stop. And even then Minato would not. He wanted Naruto to be a broken mess so that he would be in the perfect state to mold into a subservient member of their village.

But as Minato's mind was going deeper into his insane logistical thought process, one person there was thinking on other things entirely…

Jiraiya was a sage, one who had been told by his summons years ago about a prophesy that involved a student of his becoming the key to either the survival or the destruction of the Shinobi way itself. It mentioned an Uzumaki who contained the Kyubi would be trained by him, but now that Naruko was dead, it seemed like the prophesy was dead along with her and would never come to fruition. He had not told anyone about this since he feared what others would do with this information since people could be greedy and try to warp it for their own gain, but he was not like that.

Sure he peeped on women and was a massive pervert, yet that was honestly the worst thing about him. He thought big picture here and wanted to see what the future held with the prophesy itself being fulfilled, yet now that would no longer be possible…

But the thing about Destiny… is that many people assume they know the full picture, but never realize there is more to it than meets the eye. It never went as people thought it would…

Case in point…

In the entire history of the Uzumaki clan itself, there had only ever been one person who was exiled from the clan itself. The reasons for why this came to be were lost to time, as was the name of the man himself. But that man was stripped down to nothing, had numerous seals that stripped him of his strength as well as all knowledge gifted to him by his now former family so he would remember nothing about them nor would his descendants benefit from their genetics. They would still have them, but there would be no benefits for it.

That man would travel about until one day he found his passion as a merchant, who would then meet the woman who would bear his child, and it was that son of his that would go on to start the Kaen family of Fire Country. A family so powerful politically, that no one would dare to oppose them other than the Fire Daimyo himself. And for generations this remained true…

At least… until the now last surviving member of the family orchestrated their utter destruction so now only he remained with their genetics in his makeup. And wouldn't you know it, but the boy, who did what many deemed impossible had found a means to acquire the Kyubi within himself, and to top it off, had been taught by Jiraiya. Sure it was only one jutsu, but it was still taught to him by the man…

Like I said before…

Destiny…

It never goes as people think it will…