Meeting

How dangerous it is, to have something worth losing.

*Mindscape*

Within the recesses of a newborn's consciousness, 3 alien presences manifested.

One was so powerful it warped its surroundings in a haze of overwhelming energy, seemingly in an attempt to tear the whole place apart.

"NAMIKAZE!" It roared as it took the shape of a colossal red fox, its red eyes brimming with hatred, unwillingness and malice.

As though in defense, the surroundings shifted, and wrapped the giant fox, manifesting into a prison, with a seemingly fragile paper in place of the lock, as the only thing keeping the gates closed, continuously suppressing the malevolent presence, until it fell into slumber.

The other two were less dramatic, manifesting into a redhead woman in her green dress, and blonde man with a white cloak, "Fourth Hokage" inscribed at the back of it. Unlike their fellow intruder, these two did not suffer the fate of perpetual suppression.

Kushina's eyes fluttered open as she took in her surrounding, a massive barren corridor, leading to the Kyubi's new prison.

The surroundings were dark, and beside her, she noticed Minato flashing through hand seals before their surroundings changed again. Kushina watched in amazement as they were now in an open golden field with a golden sky

Her husband was methodical, with an impassive face, but she could notice subtle cues that she understood was his anxiousness.

"What is it?"

"I'm trying to link both our chakra with Naruto's and syphon some of it" He said, getting one knee to the ground, while making handseals. "It will bolster our own chakra, giving us a bit of a time more than we should have."

"Is that possible," She asked, voice tinged with excitement at the possibility of having more time with her son, "Wouldn't our chakra be corrupted and diluted by his?"

"That would be the case in other situations, but he is our son," Minato smiled briefly before schooling his features once more, "Our chakra are more compatible to his, and we could siphon them overtime to accumulate enough. But once his chakra is imprinted with too much of his own memories and experience, we won't be able to."

"So, our chakra imprints can't last forever with him." It wasn't a question as she knew very well that being able to meet him in the future was lucky enough. She let out a sad and resigned sigh.

"No, but you'll get to be with him for a few years at least." Minato said as he stood up and dusted his hands off of illusory dust. "Your chakra is more potent than mine, and can withstand most of the chakra siphoning. You should be able to last…" He paused as he thought for a while, "10 times longer than me."

What Minato didn't tell her was, he could have lasted longer, but chose to give most of his share to her, affording the Mother and Son more time together.

After being born, every child possessed pure chakra, untainted by knowledge, emotions, memories, experience and everything. It stays so for a long time before they start being conscious of their surroundings and they develop their own imprints. Since both he and Kushina were only made from portion of their own chakra, they would risk being overwritten by Naruto's memories if they took his chakra after the boy grew up.

And with some part of Naruto's chakra keeping the Kyubi sealed in place, this meant not only was there a limit to how much chakra they could take from him daily, but there was also a deadline to how long they can keep doing it.

'A boy needs his mother's love more than anything.' He thought, as grief gripped his heart. He had chosen to sacrifice himself and his son for the safety of the village. Though he did not have much of a choice, but it still stained his heart just thinking about it.

"We should be able to form a connection and start talking and spending time with him once he unlocks his chakra pathways." Given Naruto's status as a jinchuriki and the events around them, Minato speculated that it should be till the boy is 4 as Hiruzen would be keeping an eye on him. Most children in the village had shinobi parents, who would teach them some shinobi arts earlier than the Academy time. Some who are orphans or talented seedling taken outside from the village are only able to learn during the Academy. He himself had been one of the latter, an orphan from a civilian family.

"It's not enough, but it's better than nothing I guess." She sniffed as tears brimmed in her eyes, "I'll teach him about everything, and I'll even coach him in his studies, and what food he should eat, and what…"

Minato smiled at her rambling about all the stifling things Naruto would be subjected to. He did not voice out the danger of the masked man that still lurked. Hoping that Jiraiya and Hiruzen would take extra precautions to keep Naruto safe.

He truly did not have much of a choice when he chose to seal Kyubi inside Naruto. No seal was good enough to seal the whole Kyubi into a newborn, and he couldn't just teleport it away as the masked man held the ability to also teleport it anywhere.

Not to mention, Kushina was the only in the village who could restrain the bijuu long enough to seal it. He only had just that bit of time to make a decision, before she died.

His death had left Konoha weakened and with a powerful enemy around, but considering other options, it was by far the least damning one. And should they still find Naruto and extract the Kyubi, there was a back up he had prepared in advanced to keep Naruto alive, well, so long as his own corpse isn't placed in too much scrutiny.

"We're gonna have to go into stasis and preserve our accumulated energy until then." He said cutting off her ramblings.

"Okay." She replied more meekly than he's ever seen her.

And with that, both closed their eyes as their forms faded, as though wiped off by an eraser. Waiting till the next time they saw their son again.

*7 years later, Konoha academy*

"Today, we will talk about chakra." Naruto stopped dozing off at hearing those words as a he focused for the first time since he came to the academy.

He had seen others bragged about how they can already use their chakra before entering the Academy.

To access their chakra was something that was taught in their last semester of their first year, after they have gotten used to everything else. And it all just boring stuff like revising their elementary knowledge.

Using chakra belonged to their Ninjutsu class, which was the only class he knew he would enjoy aside from the Taijutsu one. The other classes that taught normal things like Math, Science, History and other boring things just weren't worth his time.

"There are two ways to unlock your chakra." Their instructor was an old woman, not as old as the Hokage he had seen during their entrance ceremony, but Teuchi old. Apparently, she was stuck as a chunin and chose to resign from active missions to be a teacher at the academy.

Naruto's face scrunched up at the thought of how much this instructor hated him, 'Just like all the others.' He thought angrily but still chose to listen.

"The first method is to have someone else use their chakra to push it into your body to unlock your chakra pathways. This can only be done by those with excellent chakra control and experience." She was not worried that they would try themselves as not only do they lack the necessary control, and the amount to make a difference, but chakra transfer itself was an exceedingly complex process for most Chunin let alone newly minted students. "Am I clear?"

"Yes Tanaka-Sensei." The group of 7 year old children echoed, though some had eyes glinting with mischief, bidding their time to go behind their promise.

"The other is for a person to force his chakra pathways open themselves. You need to perform the Ram handseal." She said, demonstrating the complete seal needed to help them focus on summoning their chakra, "And Meditate." She heard a few groans from that, "It will feel like you're drawing energy from every single part of your body, and then you make it all go to your stomach, right here…" she said pointing to her own dantian.

She smile as she could already see some trying in a futile attempt. This smile though, faltered as her eyes fell on the Kyubi boy. Gritting her teeth as images of her husband's broken body and her daughter who didn't have anything left save for her bloody imprint on the floor. She turned away.

"This will be your assignment through the rest of the year." She spoke. In their first year, they didn't have any part in their curriculum that required them to use chakra, making the earlier introduction a means to give them time to familiarize themselves with the new feeling of manipulation their chakra till it felt like second nature.

Naruto, as with most of the others who had yet to unlock their chakra were stuck forming seals and scrunching their faces in exertion, ignoring the lady's words that it may take weeks before they can succeed on their own.

0000

"It's still not enough," Naruto said in exasperation, pain and exhaustion as he flopped on the floor. It felt like trying to move a boulder with a straw.

It's been 4 days since Naruto had been taught how to unlock chakra. He had gone to the academy the day after before realizing that their ninjutsu class didn't teach any more about how to unlock chakra and mainly focused on boring explanations.

He didn't go to the academy anymore after that, and focused on unlocking his chakra. No one would bother reprimanding him for skipping class, 'They even seem happy when I'm not around.' He thought sourly.

Suddenly, he slapped himself with both hands, sandwiching his face and forced a smile.

"Doesn't matter, getting chakra is one way to show them that I, Uzumaki Naruto am the greatest shinobi ever." He cheered himself pumping his fist into the air.

Exhaustion more forgotten than actually gone, Naruto got up trying again.

With his newfound confidence, Naruto ignored the exhaustion and pain as he closed his eyes and focused on pushing open his own chakra reserve. Slowly but surely, he felt the metaphorical boulder giving away minutely, before, nothing.

"Nooooo!" he whined miserably as he felt the feeling slip past him. As he flopped back, Naruto felt something soft hit his back unlike the hard floor of his own apartment.

Blinking his eyes open, Naruto was shocked and mesmerized at the golden sky he saw. It felt familiar to him, no, it felt like it was a part of him.

He abruptly sat up only to feel something warm envelop him, he tensed at the unfamiliar touch and squirmed to get out but the hold was impossibly viselike.

The uncomfortable feeling intensified as a woman's voice reached his ears, muttering over and over again thing like "My poor child" and "I'm so sorry" and whatever else he couldn't quite catch.

It took a suffocating while before another voice broke through, this time male. "I think Naruto needs to breathe." said in jest.

"Oh! Right!" His assailant said as the moved away from him, removing the sea of green from his vision, allowing Naruto to fully take in his surroundings.

In the expanse of gold, two people stood in front of him.

The man had blonde hair similar to his own, with eyes a shade lighter than his own blue ones, and his face was familiar, as though he had seen it somewhere, and not just once at that. He wore the same cloth he saw some shinobi in the village wear, and had a white cloak on top. "Badass" was what Naruto thought of as he looked at this man.

The woman had bright red hair, she was pretty, with a green dress. Her deep purple eyes glistened with tears. Naruto felt the infectious warmth from this unknown woman, an alien feeling, and while warry of her forwardness, he wouldn't say no to being hugged again. It was warm.

Naruto felt self-conscious at the attention of these two seemingly very beautiful people, looking at him as though he meant so much to them. He could see even more expressions on their faces that he had no idea what they meant. No one had ever looked at him like that.

"Wh…Who are you people?" Naruto got up as he put more distance between them, noticing a brief flash of pain on their faces from his actions. Pain that came with rejection was a feeling he knew too well, had seen too much in a mirror.

"You did well by not giving up despite the pain this time." The man said with pride as though Naruto had done something impossible to others, "Pain meant the chakra pathways were being successfully opening."

"Eeeh! For real?" Naruto forgot about the two strangers in his dreams at the revelation. He had always stopped when he felt pain and chose to rest till it was gone. Hearing the praise made his head swell a little.

"You would have known that if you paid attention in class." Naruto for some reason felt a chill at the woman's words. The woman seemed sad and smiling warmly at him, but he couldn't help but feel that, disappointing her might not be a good idea.

"Who are you people?" He pressed. This was the weirdest dream he'd ever had.

"Naruto, we…" She chocked on her words, and Naruto's hand twitched, wanting to comfort her but not knowing how, but the man finished her words for her, "We're your parents. Sorry for being late." He said with a sheepish smile from the awkward last phrase, flinching as Kushina glared at him.

They both turned to the shocked boy whose mouth was hanging open. Waiting for his response at the sight of two strangers claiming to be his parents. In his dream.

Suddenly Naruto burst out laughing.

"Hahaha, This has got to be the weirdest dream I've ever had, dattebayo." He said shaking his head as he observed his 'parents'. "Wow, now I wish you were really my parents."

"Then how about a story of how me and your father met?" Kushina said with a mischievous smile. They would play along with the game till Naruto realizes that everything isn't a dream.

Minato watched as the mother and son duo sat on the floor and his wife started telling a story of when she arrived the academy. He shook his head at Kushina's prank like antics.

"When I first saw your father, he was a bit of a sissy." Never one to seemingly let go of a chance to humiliate him. "He looked like noodles that could break in half, but apparently, he was the best in class…"

Kushina spent hours telling stories of their time together to their son. Naruto sat listening in fascination, seeming comfortable and less guarded with the thought that they were merely part of his imagination. He listened as she told a story of how she was bullied for her red hair, and how she beat up said kids. She talked about how she got kidnapped and the guy saved by her by following her red hair.

"Your hair's really pretty though," Naruto found himself saying, blushing at the what he just said.

"You rhink so too?" She said shyly, "He said the same thing too." She said pointing at the quiet smilling man.

"But where were you all this time then?" The 7 year old asked, an inevitable question born from the pent up emotions accumulated over the years as an orphan.

Minato and Kushina had seen everything Naruto had been through, the social isolation and deprivation from neglection that he had to endure since their deaths.

Minato was proud not out of petty feelings of fatherhood, but with understanding how being segregated by an entire community would do to a person even as mature as a veteran shinobi, and Sakumo Hatake was a prime example of that. People need people, and Naruto, while harboring some signs including stunted mental, social and physical condition, did not turn suicidal or sociopathic.

'His will is strong.' He thought, assured that his faith, betting on his very own life, was well placed. 'He is our son after all.'

"We always were here, waiting for you." Kushina's lost its cheeriness once more as grief laced it. "But we're here now, and we'll take care of you 'ttebane." Both mother and son let out a subdued chuckle at the verbal tick.

"This might be the last time I see you again." Naruto was reluctant to part with the dream. It felt so lifelike, the best dream he's ever had, having loving parent like other kids. Parent that seemed just like him.

"I wouldn't worry about that anytime soon," she said with an ambiguous smile, "now, there an important matter that needs to be discussed." Kushina clapped her hands to instill more attention, and the air around them turned heavy as Naruto felt a familiar chill again, "No more fussy eating."

"Geh!"

"I know they're really good," She ignored Minato's shaking head, "But you're gonna end up a shrimp forever if all you eat is cup ramen. You need more fruits, meat and vegetables and everything else." She sent a glare that stifled any protest. "I'll teach you how to cook simple foods myself."

"Second, no more skipping classes." Noticing her son flinch at the mention of his truant nature, she continued, "You're going to end up a dunce if you don't attend your classes, and not just attending them, you will now have to listen to everything attentively and recount all of them to me later."

She knew that her son was too far behind his peers, enough to seem retarded but she knew that was because the boy had simply given up, and she knew why. The reason was how his elementary instructors didn't seem to pay him as much attention as the other children, never answering Naruto's questions, never correcting his mistakes or offer any guidance and some even leading him astray. Such actions would undoubtedly ruin a child's foundation. Had she not been dead, she might have showed just how much she strongly disagreed with them. Physically.

That is why she ignored his groaning. "I'll also give you some work to deal with. We're gonna have to revise everything you skimped on in earlier years."

"The other thing is hygiene."

"What's that?"

Kushina hissed at the question and severity of the problem.

"Your room is a dump, are you planning to be a roach farmer? I want your entire room to sparkle by the end of the day. And what's with not taking baths everyday? You allergic to water? Two baths every day. Why do you only have 1 pair of clothes? Why is your hair not cut well?"

The list kept on and on as she nitpicked at everything, while Naruto felt awkward at someone pointing out such things. He realized that this is how other kids felt when their mothers nagged at them for every little thing.

"You're going to clean your room right now before we talk about anything else." Naruto watched with a smile as she turned hysterical over why he wasn't a neat freak, only to actually feel his head getting bonked by her. "Or so help god." She finished with a hanging threat.

"Hisss!" Naruto rubbed his head as he felt pain. Why did he feel pain in the dream?

He watched as the woman hugged him again, this time in a less aggressive gentle embrace. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you again." She said in a warm voice that he had come to associate with her.

"I would do as your mother said Naruto." Naruto's gaze turned to the quiet man who hadn't said much the whole time, only to feel a hand patting his head. This, Naruto had seen fathers doing to their kids, smiling at them, and the man was doing the same. "Clean your room first."

And just like that, Naruto's figure faded leaving behind the two couple.

"It's worse than I expected." Minato earn himself a glare at those words.

"Worse? Its horrible Minato!" Kushina shouted him, "He is neglected, deprived of everything. He has no friends, no one to take care of him, no one to guide him, no one to talk to him, and they're all treating him like their joker scapegoat. They're making an idiot out of him, our own son."

Minato stood quiet but agreeing with her words. He did expect the situation to be bad. Unlike other jinchuriki, Naruto had the worst luck at having one that had been let loose in the middle of the village to wreck untold havoc and murder countless lives. The wounds of the victims were still fresh. Unlike other jinchuriki being treated with mostly fear than hate, Naruto was more hated by the whole village than feared.

"Hiruzen promised me he would take care of him, why did he lie? Where even is Jiraiya? His damned godfather." Kushina ranted. "Even if he just gave a name, he's the only person left related to him."

"I think Lord Third is doing all this to put as little attention on Naruto as possible. The masked man has bigger plans and Kyubi might just be a final key. They risked attacking us that night because the seal was weak." Minato's thoughts churned as he made out the possible situations, "They plan to make Naruto seem like an easy manageable target until he's mature enough for Jiraiya to take him and start training him seriously in advanced arts, giving him an exponential power boost in a short time that the masked man wouldn't anticipate." 'Maybe even send him to Mount Myoboko to hide him from the masked man.' he added the last part internally.

It wasn't really a bad plan, but Minato felt that it would take stretched up god level luck for them to pull it off, 'Lord third always liked playing with his odds.' Minato almost regretted not having the old man use the reaper seal. 'He was too old to both split the Kyubi and seal both halves.' Weaker too, he chose not to add out of respect for his predecessor. It was not in his nature to look down on others, so rhoughts remained thoughts.

"That's a shitty plan." His wife cursed and Minato smiled, "Why are you so calm? What's there to even smile about?" She said throwing her hands up. She was never riled up this much.

"It is a shitty plan," Minato cursed for the first time in his life and Kushina looked at him in suprise, "But he is still safe, and he has us now, to guide him, teach him and talk to him." He said with feverish calm.

"How…" Kushina hesitated before asking a question that has been plaguing her mind, "How long do we have?"

"We can stretch it till he graduates," He offered, 5 years, "Our chakra wasn't meant to last this long, Naruto's chakra was more potent than I though to support us both as our anchor." When he linked their chakra to siphon off of Naruto's, he expected the boy to handle it given he was an Uzumaki, and it would give them a year or 2, he hadn't expected so much chakra from the boy, and the quality of it was even more astounding, full of life force and vitality. And he knew that wasnt because of Kyubi's chakra as he has accounted for that.

"That isn't enough." Kushina lamented, "It won't be enough to guide him well."

"It will be enough to guide him," Minato replied confidently, "Just not enough for us to spend together."

"Not everyone is like you, you smart ass." She said in frustration, "You're impossibly good at everything you do."

"I'm not that good at everything," he said humbly.

"Can it Namikaze, you're making it worse with that attitude," she said in annoyance, "It even unfair sometimes. How we strive to be perfect enough for you, how we fail to be that perfect, and how you still end up honestly praising our failures as though we have accomplished something grand."

Minato wrapped his hands around her and whispered, "I always try to find more strength to keep those I love safe, yet it never seemed to be enough. This so called perfection people see in me is just an illusion." Leaning his head on top of her own, "I failed to save my my students, failed to save my wife, I sacrificed my own life, and now my son is suffering for my choices without having asked for it, or knowing why. And I left someone out there still planning to kill him."

Kushina's heart tugged as Minato talked. While often coming up with miserable long names for his techniques, Minato preferred talking less than needed. Talked even less about his own shortcomings, always putting a brave front.

"Like you said," trying to cheer him up, "he's the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. He'll take the world by the storm 'ttebane." She said with a resigned laugh, "He just needs to start with cleaning his room."

0000

Naruto's eyes fluttered open as he woke up from the floor. Memories of his meeting with his dream parents still fresh in mind quite unlike the vagueness he felt with dreams. Looking outside his window, it was already evening.

"I didn't even ask their names." He thoughtfully said, 'What good would it do though? Theyre just dreams' but still he felt like having names for imaginary loving parents wouldnt be so bad.

He muttered as he looked around his room. 'Might as well try cleaning it.' Just the thought of not doing it sent a chill down his spine, as though the woman would pop up and tear him to shreds.

For the next 4 hours, Naruto went about collecting every piece of trash around the apartment, and sending them out in bags. Wiped the floor, table, walls, washed the sheets, washed his own clothes, did as much as he could before taking a bath. Sitting at the small table, he peeled open his cup ramen, blowing the steam before digging in.

He frowned as he remembered the words of not eating just ramen. Meat he liked, but the rest was too much trouble and not worth it. He shrugged as he finished his meal. Ramen wasnt something he could give up on that easily.

Waiting for the sheets to dry some, Naruto sat cross-legged as he tried to summon his chakra again.

This time, it wasn't as hard as he felt no boulder. Now it felt like swishing honey as he moved it around his body. It gave him the feeling that he now had more energy than he previously did. It felt like that same golden place he met those strangers.

"Good job," A cheery voiced said suddenly.

"Arghh" Kushina watched with a smile as Naruto jumped in shock, she liked the progression of the prank more than she would admit.

"You again!" he exclaimed.

"Ok, that hurts you know." She said looking truly dejected by his words.

"Geh," Naruto looked around but couldn't find the blonde guy.

"Your father can only be around once or twice a week." She sadly notified him, "You'll have to put up with just me every day."

"Its okay." Naruto scratched his cheek as he replied, though his mind spun with confusion as though his world had flipped. 'I was just practicing with my chakra and suddenly I'm in the same dream again.'

"We can pull you here anytime you use your chakra. Once you wake up, try using your chakra while looking at your stomach, you'll see weird drawings." She explained, "You'll realize then if this is a dream or not. Just don't tell anyone, make this out secret." she watched as he grew more perplexed.

Minato had explained that it was best to play along with the Third's plan, and train Naruto themselves but without alerting their enemy, who are more likely to be monitoring them. They would teach the boy secretly to improve his knowledge and some fundamentals to raise his odds in preparation for his future path.

Kushina having more time, would guide him in his daily studies as well as fuinjutsu, while Minato will deal with the more practical parts with his limited time including Taijutsu pointers, weapons training, chakra control and ninjutsu, whenever he had a chance.

It would all be confined within the seal, but the knowledge and experience wouldn't be quite physical, and he would still need to practice in the physical world more. But with the masked man around, as well as the ANBU most likely monitoring him close, Minato expressed that he would think up of a way to cover things up.

"Alright, here's a list of books I want you to take from the library tomorrow, and bring them with you." As she listed the books, Naruto scrunched face as he couldn't keep up with the list, "If you forgot the list, then just concentrate on your chakra, and I'll pull you here again to remind you. Don't forget, you will recount everything you're taught at school, and I'll know if you're lying or skipped something." She finished menacingly.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why am I only able to talk to you like this? Why can I even talk to you like this if you're already dead?" Starting off as a shout, Naruto's words drifted into a whisper.

"Well, if you really want to know, you need to be study well so when we explain it, ypu will be able to understand it." She couldn't hold back the pity and sadness, at the thought of how he would feel upon learning why they died and why everyone else hated him. They had planned to tell him sooner, in a year or two, to avoid too much instability, as they news would be more negatively received if he were much older. Kushina would start by explaining her situation, and Minato would explain what happened in that fateful night.

"We've already talked a lot, so I'll let you rest, tomorrow, we'll begin." Her voice slowly drifted off as Naruto's view of the ethereal place melted away to the image of his own room again.

Recalling her words about symbols appearing everytime he used chakra, Naruto didn't waste any time, as he formed a seal and moved to lift his own shirt only to grumble in frustration at his stupidity before biting the hem of his shirt then formed the seal.

He watched in awe as a spiral symbol surrounded by complex inscriptions appeared around his navel, as though ink had come to life.

He had never seen this before, the people in his dream really were his parents and they weren't just his desperate imaginations for something. They were real.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he murmured, "Mom… Dad…" He could not even remember if he had ever uttered those words, but now he did, and he had faces to attach them to, people to call them, people who genuinely cared for him, who would hug him and even pat his head with pride. They were dead, but he could still talk to them.

Naruto tried to enter the strange place again, trying to summon his chakra every time but still couldn't succeed. He wanted to call out to them, to talk to them again, ask them everything and anything he could. He tried till exhaustion took him to sleep, this time, it wasn't the same nightmare of the villagers as monster trying to devour him, but filled with warm hugs with blurry images of his parents. His mother had said tomorrow they would talk again, and tomorrow couldn't come fast enough.