10 10 Pein

"Dead? . . . That's not. . . how?" Past Naruto stumbled out. All of the people from the memory were giving him various looks of sympathy, except Kakashi who looked instead with understanding.

The toad sage explained about Jiraiya's infiltration mission to the Rain and about his fight with Pein, and finally about his death.

"If you don't mind Lord Fukasaku, we would like you to give a statement to the Intelligence Division. Tell them all you can about the six Peins." Tsunade requested. Lord Fukasaku opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted.

"You knew about his plans to go to the Rain didn't you?" Past Naruto fixed her with a look of anguish and misery. "Didn't you?!" He shouted.

"Yes, I did." The Fifth responded simply, offering no excuses.

"And you still let him go! You knew how dangerous it was but you didn't do anything to stop him! You could have told me and I could've gone with him! The Pervy Sage would never have let you go alone, he cared at least that much!" By now the blonde was in tears.

"That is enough Naruto! I know you're hurting but that is no excuse to place blame! Now Lord Fukasaku has requested that you go to Mount Myoboku to train in the sage arts." Younger Naruto just glared at his Hokage before walking out.

The memory shifted and they were outside of the Village hospital. Naruto was with a Nara who looked exactly like Shikaku, but younger and without scars marring his features.

Older Naruto had a nostalgic smile on his face. "That's Shikamaru Nara, the smartest in his clan - even smarter than his father Shikaku." Naruto boasted like a proud mother.

The Nara was speaking to the depressed blonde of the past. "I heard about Master Jiraiya. Having lost my teacher just like you did, I understand exactly what you're going through right now." The Nara expressed. "But whining and sulking won't make things better. Face it, both of us are way past that point in out lives."

"Well that's a little harsh." Commented Inoichi.

"Maybe.

Spoke Naruto. "Shikamaru is smart and he's not one for beating around the bush. Besides, he was right. The village was short on shinobi and they needed me, I couldn't afford to sulk around like I was."

"What do you mean?" Asked Past Naruto.

"Asuma-Sensei imparted many things to me, some lessons were important, some not so much. It didn't matter. Same for you right? An infinite number of priceless things. So I think it's time tostep up."

"How so?"

We need to become teachers. Soon it will be your turn to pay for the ramen, and some day there will be someone calling you Sensei. We can't stay brats forever, not if we want to become awesome shinobi like Asuma and Jiraiya were."

A small but genuine smile crept onto the sixteen year-old blonde's face. "You're right Shikamaru. Thank you."

The memory slowly faded.

"Asuma. . . died?" Sarutobi asked.

"Yeah, but Jiraiya always told me, 'It's not how you live that matters, but rather how you die.' Asuma was always a brave man but at his death he was more so. I wasn't there, but his students were, his death was as honorable as his father's." Naruto gave Sarutobi a small smile. "But this time around he won't have to die. He can live to be an old man like you and possibly raise a few children before he goes." Sarutobi nodded but nothing else.

In the next memory he was on a giant toad. He was wearing a sage cloak with a giant scroll on his back. He had a golden color surrounding his yellow eyes that had toad-like pupils.

"Minato." Inoichi whispered. Naruto smiled proudly at the fact that the man thought he looked like his father.

The memory Naruto looked around a little confused. "Say Gramps Sage, I thought you said this was the Leaf. Where are we?" Indeed there was only dirt as far as they could see past the summoning frog. An older female toad hopped on the boys shoulder.

"Thank goodness you're here. Pein attacked the Leaf looking for you." She croaked.

"Pein attacked the village? Then why are we here? I have to go to the Leaf!" Naruto was slightly panicking.

"Naruto. . . this is the Hidden Leaf." She replied solemnly. Finally the smoke cleared to reveal they were in a giant crater ringed with debris.

"No way. What did they do?" He murmured mostly to himself.

Then a new voice spoke. "Are you Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails?" The voice belonged to a man with bright orange hair and an absurd amount of face piercings. There were five others with him all with similar piercings and hair.

"Pein. You did this!" Past Naruto shouted as he leapt into the air and took one out with a single blow.

The three men and the fox watched as the fighting continued and one by one each Pein fell at Naruto's hand until only one remained. The way Naruto fought was surprisingly clever, however the last Pein was quite a deal stronger than the others. He got Naruto pinned to the ground with several metal poled run though his body. Just as it looked as if the orange-haired man was going to deliver a final blow a figure shot in front of him as if to protect him. The Past Naruto looked on, horrified as the one protecting him was tossed about like a doll. Then the man reached for a long metal rod like the ones in Naruto and ran them though.

There was silence. . . then a shout, "Hinata!!". . . then a malicious chakra filled the air and it all went black.

When color and light returned to them they were in front of the Kyuubi's cage. "Break the seal little one. Let me out and I promise you will no longer know pain. Break it and you can have the power you so desire." It prompted. Naruto seemed to be in a trance as the water around him lifted him to the paper seal that was on the gate. His fingers slid under the paper his arm tensed - preparing to rip it away. . . a figure grabbed the boy and returned him to the ground. Naruto fell and a hand reached to help him up. He accepted, but once he saw who it was he froze. His eyes widened.

"Lord Fourth Hokage." He whispered. The man looked at him kindly.

"Naruto." He said fondly. "I worked it into the seal that I would appear in your psyche if it ever happened that the seal unraveled to the point where you had sprouted the eighth tail. Truth be told I had hoped it never got this far since I never wanted to see you again, Nine-Tails." The Fourth glared at the snarling beast. "But then again I was looking forward to seeing the young man my son had now become. I guess it evens out."

The Nine-Tails roared. "Fourth Hokage. Come here - I'll rip you shreds!"

"Well if that's the case then I think I'll just stay over here. Wouldn't you agree Naruto?" He said looking over to the boy who was still frozen in place.

"Wait. You called me Naruto. You know who I am! But why? Why in the world does the Fourth Hokage know my name?"

"Simple. I know because I named you. Because the truth is, you are my son." Revealed the man.

"Did you say. . . son? Seriously?" He seemed to be having troubles processing this.

"That's right. Like I said before - you are my son." The Fourth repeated gently. Naruto was shook and didn't respond for a few moments, then he started to laugh.

"Fourth Hokage!!" The Nine-Tails interrupted the touching scene with his loud thundering voice.

"He's aloud mouth don't you think?" Asked Minato jabbing a thumb at the tailed beast locked behind him. "So lets go somewhere quieter okay?" He snapped his fingers and the depressing room around them was replaced by a blank scape of white and yellow and no Nine-Tails.

Naruto laughed though there were now tears in his eyes.

"Lord Third Hokage didn't really tell you much of anything, huh? Guess he wanted to suppress as much information about the Nine-Tails as he could. If people would have found out you were my son you would've been in danger." Minato said.

Naruto wiped the tears that fell down his face. "Dad." He whispered quietly.

"Huh?" Minato got out just before Naruto punched him in the gut a little harder than necessary.

"Why would you ever want to seal the Nine-Tails inside your own son?! Do you have any idea what I went through because you did that?! All the adults looked at me with contempt or fear and I couldn't make any friends! I just wanted people to accept me, or at least not hate me, so I trained really hard to become as strong as I could. Then I met Iruka-Sensei, Kakashi-Sensei and Pervy Sage and I was happy because they helped make me stronger! But just when things were looking up a group called the Akatsuki came after me so I had to train even harder than I did before! And I became even stronger but that didn't stop the Akatsuki from killing my friends! And I just- I mean- I- I- I don't know what I'm saying anymore! Damn it!!! Am I supposed to be happy or mad?! I don't even know."

Minato remained silent for a time. Then he asked, "Naruto, how old are you now?"

"Naruto sniffled and wiped his tears. "Sixteen."

"I see. Sixteen already. It must have been hard for you Naruto. I'm sorry, I really am. Though I suppose it's little consolation if I apologize now, after putting you through all that difficulty."

"No, it's okay."

Kurama swiped his tails and the memory disappeared. "You don't need to see anymore. Though I assume you have questions?" He said.

"Yeah. Minato is going to be the fourth Hokage? And you're his son!?" The Third burst.

Kurama responded before Naruto could. "It shouldn't surprise you old man, you're already considering him if I'm not mistaken. And the kid looks just like the brat."

"Um. . . okay." The fox sounded harsh and almost defensive of Naruto. Naruto placed a hand on the fox's head.

"It's alright Kurama. It wasn't you're fault. You didn't ask to be sealed in me any more than I did. And the villages treatment was its own doing, not yours." He reassured the fox. By now he could easily read Kurama. The fox though didn't seem to share his way of thinking, however he let it go.