Chapter 4

Minato and Kushina we're hell bent on bringing Naruto back after they found the note. But, when they started searching they couldn't find any signs of him, not a clue, in or out of the village, for a whole week. It was like he disappeared out of nowhere.

At the Uzumaki-Namikaze compound;

"Minato-koi where could he be?" asked a frantic Kushina as she paced back and forth.

"I don't know Kushina-chan, Jiraiya and all the ninjas available had already been dispatched. But none of them found any clue of Naruto" the old blond said.

Then Mito and Naoko, came in the dashing through the door.

"TOU-CHAN!! KAA-CHAN!!" they said as they lept towards both parents. Both Minato and Kushina caught them in a hug, then they asked them "Did you find him" "Did you find Naruto-nii?" they said with a hopeful glint on their face.

Kushina couldn't look at them straight and averted her gaze, while Minato broke the bad news to them "I'm sorry girls, we still don't have a clue"

Noticing the solemn look on their parents faces, Naoko got teary eyed as she remembered what she did to her brother. However, before she could sob, Mito reassured her by placing a hand on her shoulder.

They looked up to their parents with determination clear on their face as they said "Don't worry, Tou-chan, Kaa-chan, well find Naruto-nii even if we have to search the entire world for him" Mito "Mhm-hmm" Naoko trying to keep her tears at bay.

Taken a back by their daughters determination, both parents looked at each other and finally smiled. They thought 'you see Naruto/Naruto-nii everyone here loves you. Please come back'

Suddenly, Tsunade Senju along with his apprentice Shizune, came in the door a bit panicky.

"Minato!" she said "You have to look at this"

"Did you find Naruto-nii?" asked Naoko as Mito was eyeing her hopefully as well.

"N-no, I'm sorry Naoko-chan, Mito-chan. But could you give your us some privacy" said Tsunade.

"Why? what is it about, Tsunade-baa-chan" asked Kushina

Tsunade looked at both Mito and Naoko before turning to Minato and Kushina "Let's move to somewhere private first"

"It's very important, please listen to Tsunade-sensei" pleaded Shizune as Tonton let out a serious "Buhi~"

Minato and Kushina looked at each other before telling the girls to go frolicking. Then Minato grabbed both Tsunade and Shizune's shoulder, while Kushina hugged him from behind and they teleported to his study. Once there Kushina performed a few hand signs before finishing with a "Fuin"

"Alright, I've activated the privacy seals. What is this about Baa-chan?" asked Kushina

Tsunade sighed before she said "It's about Naruto's Medical Record. I told Shizune to dig his files in case we may get a lead to where that brat went. What we found surprised me" said Tsunade

"What do you mean?" asked Minato narrowing his eyes.

"Hokage-sama we found out that Naruto had visited the hospital and was confined many times" said Shizune which earned the gasp of both parents.

"Shizune-chan, what do you mean?" asked Kushina who was starting to panic.

"Before we came here we investigated a little bit and found out that Naruto had been beaten up by the villagers multiple times for 'claiming' he was your child" said Tsunade pointing at Minato.

"They did what!" asked an infuriated Kushina.

"They beat up your son for claiming he was your 'son'" she said once more pointing at Minato.

"Why would they do that?" asked an unbelieving Minato

"I'll kill them all!!" said and enraged Kushina as he reached for her sword and was about to slaughter the ignorant lot.

But she was stopped by a glare from Tsunade.

"Calm down Kushina-chan" said Minato as he hugged his wife from behind.

When she was finally calm Tsunade continued.

"They did it, because the General public only knows that you have 2 daughters, how they got to that conclusion was actually quite easy." said Tsunade.

"What do you mean Baa-chan, how would they conclude that we only have 2 children?" asked Kushina

"Yeah, it doesn't make sense" added Minato as he questioned the intelligence of his village.

Tsunade on the other hand massage the bridge of her nose and said "Ask yourselves this. When was the last time you took Naruto out with you when you ate at Ichiraku's or any place for that matter? When was the last time you mentioned Naruto to any of your friends?" said Tsunade as she paused and observed their reaction "Nothing? can't think of anything? then here's a simpler question, when was the last time you said I love you to Naruto?" asked Tsunade.

They both thought about it for a few minutes, and then slowly realization struck them hard and they both paled.

Kushina had the most drastic reaction as she deactivated the seals and dashed to take their family album. Minato, Tsunade and Shizune were not far behind.

They all looked for any pictures of Naruto, but they never saw any. Christmas Eve, New year's, etc.. all of it was about the girls, even in every family outing he wasn't there, on their birthdays which were supposed to be the same day only Mito and Naoko were being congratulated and only two cakes were made. But for Naruto, there was nothing they couldn't find anything.

In her desperation, Kushina went into Naruto's room and looked for any picture frame. Low and behold there was one, she sighed in relief as she saw it, but froze once more when she saw what was inside. On his desk was a simple picture frame that had a few cracks on one side. She remembered throwing the frame out a few years ago since it was old, but that wasn't important now.

Inside said frame was no picture but instead a clumsy drawing of their family. Minato, Kushina, Mito, and Naoko all hugging a smiling Naruto who was holding his hand up in a V/peace sign. In the lower right corner of the picture was it's title: "My Family" with a smiley face.

She couldn't take it anymore and broke down crying "No, this isn't true. Naruto what have we done? My sochi please please please return to us. Mommy is sorry please, just return, please." she pleaded towards his smiling drawing.

Minato saw the picture and hurriedly hugged Kushina and started crying.

"Minato-koi what are we gonna do? What if we never find him? or worse what if we did find him and he doesn't want to come back? I'm scared. I can't take it. We never told him how much we loved him. We only ever scolded him and now he hates us for it. Our Naruto, our sochi, our little bundle of joy who always seemed to fight off depression. He said he hates us. Minato he said hates us, he hates us" said Kushina then she finally fainted from the stress.

Minato who heard what she said couldn't take it in as well and cried like a new born, he cursed himself for not tagging Naruto with his Hiraishin seal. Kushina and both Mito and Naoko had his mark on their ring finger wrapped around it like it was an actual ring. He made that seal to make sure that if something where to ever happen to them he could get to them in no time.

Sure he was tired when he finished tagging the three girls, but that wasn't an excuse to simply forget about Naruto. I mean he freaking gave them their tags when they were two years old. And he forgot about giving him the tags for 5 years. What a stupid father he was, he thought.

And those villagers who were involved in hurting his son. I'll execute them all publicly for raising their hands on the son of the Yondaime, he will charge them all for the act of treason and slaughter them.

Tsunade saw Minato's sad expression slowly morphing into a crazed look, she had a bad feeling about it so she knocked him out.

"Tsunade-sensei why did you do that to Hokage-sama?" ask the brunette.

"Didn't you see the look on his face? He is currently mentally unstable and is prone to make hasty decisions, that he might regret in the long run, so before he did anything stupid. I knocked him out" said Tsunade while shrugging.

"Then what are we gonna do now?" asked Shizune.

"I don't know, this is also partially our fault as well. If only I paid more attention to him" said Tsunade.

"You can't blame yourself Tsunade-sensei, it wasn't your fault" said Shizune.

"Yeah I know that Shizune-chan, but if we can't blame ourselves for his neglect, then who can we blame?" asked Tsunade as she picked up Kushina and Minato and headed towards the Hospital. Shizune followed after thinking about what her sensei said.