Minato Namikaze gazed across his rapidly expanding empire with pride. His chest swelled with each breath and he could smell his glory on the wind. He was writing history with each passing day. The weight on his right thigh shifted slightly, prompting the conqueror to look down at the gun at his hip. What a magnificent thing it was.

With his Teigu in hand Minato had taken cities with a single shot. His legend would be incredible, he would become myth. He could feel it emanating like an aroma from his gun each victory, enticing him further and further. Everytime he pulled the trigger and the void within the gun's chamber opened, the little tendrils of nothing reaching out and pulling in everything around them, Minato could see his future. Could see statues made of gold and formed in his image. The deafening boom that followed wasn't scary, wasn't even a humbling experience, it angered Minato, for it took away his vision into the future. But, it also brought him one step closer.

Minato's eyes sparkled with a miniscule shock when the gun shifted in its holster, tiny feet appearing past it. Minato looked up to find his son, his heir apparent, staring up at him with innocent blue eyes beaming up at him. Minato smiled warmly. He brought the boy forward with his hand resting softly on his tiny shoulder. The boy stared across the balcony with his father, staring at the expansive city that Minato had recently conquered.

Smoke still billowed up and rubble littered the streets.

"Tou-san…" Minato sighed, closing his eyes. He couldn't understand the boy's adamant use of his mother's honorifics and cultural figures of speech. "Did you… did you do that?" His voice was meek, small… Timid. Minato figured he would have to fix that. The subtle shift of weight at his hip told him he would have to do it now. A passing thought: Why did his gun decide to react to his thoughts now of all times?

Minato crouched down, knees flaring out to the side slightly as he balanced his weight on the tips of his toes. He sighed, smiling softly as he stared across his city. He patted his son's back, looking into his eyes.

"Naruto… there are a few truths to life." He began, pulling his son closer to his chest and indicating with his head for the boy to look across the expanse of city. "Like, for example, that it is the job of the man to protect the woman. And that it is the job of the woman to raise the children." He continued, passing on his values to his son's young, eager mind. The boy looked to his father, but the man was too focused on his city.

"And, there are people who fight," Minato flexed his jaw, grinning widely with a fire blazing across his eyes when he turned back to his son, "And those who don't." His smile died and his eyes dulled. Naruto perked up, eyes wide and questioning.

"But Tou-san, I want to help people!" Minato sighed.

"I know, but you must be able to fight Naruto. I allowed you to begin instruction as a medic, but I will only allow you to progress so far. Once your next birthday comes, I will personally take over your teaching. You are my son," He placed his hand heartily on Naruto's shoulders, feeling his heart break at the way tears were forming in the corner of the young blonde's eyes, "And you must be a fighter to rule over our kingdom when I am done with this life." He stared into the boy's clear blue eyes. 'Like the sky…' he thought to himself.

"B-But, I want to be a medic Tou-san! I want to help people!" Minato's brows flared. He felt his throat clench and anger well up in his chest. He stood, glaring down at his boy. His son. His heir. The boy would be a fighter whether he wanted to be or not.

"Naruto, you can help people by fighting for them. This world is not so forgiving as you believe it is. There is one final truth of life Naruto." The man stared at his city again, eyes harsh and cold like stone.

"The Strong survive and The Weak die." As he finished speaking the entrance to his room exploded.

Naruto awoke in a blurry haze, finding dark figures striding towards him and his father. His entire body hurt and he felt tears streaming down his face. He choked out a sob at the pain. His rib cage hurt, and from the descriptions in his studies he was sure they were cracked if not broken. He looked up, trying to find his father only to glance to his right, an unmoving figure with blonde hair on the ground. His world froze, the pain evaporated, and Naruto found his chest clenched.

"Tou-san…" He mumbled, eyes wide and blonde hair swaying in the wind from the balcony of his father's room. He rose slightly, pushing himself on tiny arms and trying to crawl towards his father.

"Tou-san…" He choked out, voice pained as tears flowed slowly out of his eyes. His face scrunched up in sorrow.

"Tou-san!" He screamed as he reached his father's body, heaving him onto his back to find a hole where his heart was located. Blood seeped out on both sides, bubbling up over his armored chest and equally pooling underneath him onto the white marble. His eyes were closed, a trail of blood leaving the corner of his mouth. His blonde hair was dirtied, grime and rubble marking a stark contrast to the golden strands. Naruto put his head on his father's chest, crying, just trying with all his might to will him back to life.

"Tou-san… Tou-san…" He buried his head further and further into the man's chest as he cried, his body curling up as his hands balled into fists atop his father's frame. He heard chuckling from his left, and he snapped his head up, glaring with grit teeth, snot and tears mixing on his face. A group of black-adorned figures, swords on their backs and minimal armor on their frames. They were staring at Naruto with manic smiles, laughing at his sorrow. The one in the lead held a massive shield in his hands that seemed to have eyes that jeered at Naruto.

"I didn't know Minato the conqueror had a son, but I guess I know why now. You're a crying little brat! Hahahahaah! He must've kept you hidden away from the public out of shame! What a joke." The man with the shield spoke with arrogance, a voice much like Naruto's own father whenever he conquered a city. The voice of victory. Naruto knew it well. He felt his gums bleed from how hard he was gritting his teeth. He could feel his body shaking in a toxic mix of sorrow and rage. A metallic sound rang in his ear.

Naruto looked to his father's hand, finding the massive firearm glinting dangerously in the sun. The men seemed to have noticed to.

"Try it brat. Please. Try it. Your father couldn't pierce my Teigu with his, so I'd love to see you try." The man goaded, stepping back and forcing his squad to do the same, giving the boy room. Naruto glared at him, hastily grabbing the Teigu from out of his father's hands and trying to lift it. "Oh? I hadn't even thought of that… Hahahahaha! It might not even accept you! Hahahaahaha!~"

Naruto cried as he tried to lift the Teigu, both hands curled around the mighty handle trying to heave the massive gun with his tiny arms. He cried, giving up and putting his face on his father's chest, burying it further into the man's chest. He just wanted… He just wanted today to end. To return to yesterday, so he could tell his father, so he could save him, so he could hug him again. He wanted to see his mother, he wanted to go out and buy ramen, he wanted…

Blood.

Naruto's head snapped up, looking around in a scared manner. Where had that voice come from!? The men laughed, talking to each other about how the boy had already gone crazy, but he wasn't crazy! Someone had spoken!

The gun in his hands shifted.

Naruto jumped slightly, but found that he couldn't remove his hands from around the gun's handle. He whimpered, scared for his life.

Wield me.

He cried more, but his eyes widened.

I will judge you.

The weight on his hands disappeared and Naruto found that he could pick up the mighty gun like it was a twig. He hefted it upwards, the black frame gleaming dangerously in the sun. Naruto felt murder roll off of the gun like he had never experienced. The gun seemed like it could devour entire cities for breakfast. Naruto gulped. His father had taken whole cities with one single use of this gun…

Aim.

Naruto did so, shakily raising the gun towards the group of men that suddenly grew serious, crowding behind the leader who raised the massive shield at Naruto. The blonde watched as it unfolded and grew into the size of a wall, glaring at him with its odd eyes. Naruto's arms shook uncontrollably.

Breathe.

Naruto inhaled a mighty gulp, and suddenly felt something pierce his hands, forcing the air and a scream to follow. Blood trailed down his palm and dripped onto the ground. Naruto looked at the Teigu fearfully, but found that for some reason his hands weren't shaking at all anymore.

Fire.

Naruto found his finger lacing around the trigger on its own, pulling back.

The top part of the gun slid forward, revealing a darkness unlike anything Naruto had ever seen. It moved outward in tendrils that seemed to lick at existence, until suddenly flooding out from the gun and dropping without a sound onto the ground. Sloshing around and around, pooling beneath his feet and sucking up all of the light that existed around Naruto. His world became nothing but him, the gun in his hands, and the group of men in front of him.

Yesssssss…

The voice returned, and suddenly the darkness from the gun was sucked in at unbelievable speeds, the barrel snapping shut again and a deafening sound destroying Naruto's sense of hearing as his world turned inversely colored for the tiniest of moments. His eyes shut in response.

The sound of metal connecting with the ground forced his eyes open, staring down at his hands. His arms were shaking uncontrollably, and his hands were twitching and moving on their own without his commands. His fingers reached for nothing and grabbed at nothing, his thumbs playing their own war with the air. He couldn't move them on his own, they wouldn't listen. Suddenly, his arms stopped shaking and his hands snapped upwards to present him his palms even as his fingers continued spasming.

Two large holes were dead center in either palm, a darkness oozing out from them. Naruto stared in horror as the wounds in his hands suddenly started to swirl, his skin contorting into a spiral that came up out of the darkness and closed over the wound, though Naruto felt for some reason that the darkness remained within his body.

Look.

Naruto looked up and cried at the devastation he had unleashed upon the world.

From its spot at his feet, the Teigu shifted.

A small blue haired girl strode through the hot land that made up her home, her bare feet burning slightly with each step, the ground coated with 2 inches of soot, the air slowly swirling ash around her home like a canopy. What had caused the destruction of her home, at this… absolute level, the young girl did not know, nor could she fathom it. Her family, they were the strongest. They hunted danger beasts for food every day. They killed weak bandits for their valuables.

They were the strongest.

The girl groaned slightly, her face scrunching up into a little pout, tears brimming the top of her lower eyelid as she looked around seeing blood-soaked grounds, limbs hanging from burning rooftops, charred bodies, and even some bodies that were cut in half. The girl, for once in her life, was scared. It was a new emotion, one that the girl had immediately decided she hated. She loathed the feeling. It was foreign and disgusting. Unbefitting of a Partas daughter such as her.

The young girl's eyes slowed painfully to a stop on the shaking and shuddering body that was laying painfully on its back at the center of her home next to the large compound that made up the main hall of her clan's compound. The girl wanted to run forward, but found that she could only stumble forward, her hands clasped in front of her mouth, tightly wound into a ball that grew whiter and whiter as she neared the body, sharply breathing as it grit its teeth, hand over its profusely bleeding stomach.

The girl slowly kneeled next to the body, a blue-haired man gritting his teeth and forcefully closing his eyes, his breath raspy and stuttered. The man's eyes opened sharply and immediately snapped over to the girl in a dazed state, his breath fast and shaky as he attempted to steady his breathing. He grinned slightly, removing the hand from his stomach and placing it, despite the copious amounts of blood covering it, onto the little girl's shoulder, grasping it firmly.

"Heh, heh, re-remember, heh, The Strong Live and The Weak Die. Always, ulgh, always remember that… Esdeath…" the man's words lost strength as he laid his head down, eyes slowly closing until his breath stopped, his hand falling limply off of the girl's shoulder and loudly onto the ground, making a slap sound as it landed in the puddle of his own death.

Esdeath said nothing as he leaned forward over her father's body, her blue hair shadowing her face. Her mind had shut down, unable to fully process the situation she found herself in, her father's dead body at her knees, her body coated in his blood.

"Helloooo~ Hey! Anybody here!?" A loud, annoyingly high-pitched voice cut into Esdeath's mind, the sheer annoyance it brought her breaking her trance, and somehow distracting her from her situation. Esdeath turned around slightly, her chin over her left shoulder. Her eyes drifted over the burning setting before settling on a small blonde boy as he meandered through the wreckage, naive to the death that surrounded him, a comically-large first aid bag draped over his body and flapping against his hip as he walked.

Esdeath did not call out to him. His annoying voice already pierced her mind, and she did not want to actually talk to him. Elgh. However, her silent prayers for him to ignore her were, well, ignored. The boy's eyes lit up as they landed on Esdeath's form, his face breaking from a large grin, a tooth missing from his top row of teeth and two from his bottom.

"Hey! Heya! Little girl!" The boy shouted at her, waving his hand as he ran towards her, though as he neared his eyes landed on the dead body next to the girl, widening as he realized the weight of the situation he had found himself in. His speed slowed to a waddle-pace, crouching down next to the girl and staring at the body. The girl's eyes watched him, a dead-ice glazing over her normally bright blue eyes.

For a moment, the pair were silent. Neither speaking nor moving. The boy continued to stare at the body, his face slowly contorting into grief, regret. Esdeath did not know what he had to grieve in this situation. Until, he spoke.

"I…. I was too late. I-I ran as fast as I could but… I was too late." His voice was low, loathing. He was angry. At himself. But also sad. Esdeath was confused, though she decided that she shouldn't question it. She was angry and sad too. Perhaps the boy understood how she felt.

"He is my father. Or, was." Her soft voice caught the boy off-guard, breaking him out of some sort of trance he found himself in and causing him to shake his head and look at her, sapphire meeting ice.

"Oh…" his voice trailed off. Now, he felt even worse. That was, until he noticed the blood smeared shoulder that Esdeath boasted.

"Oh oh oh are you hurt!?" The boy shouted in a manner that Esdeath couldn't fully describe as excited, but she couldn't fully deny that it wasn't excitement. It was odd to her. However, she did not correct his mistake, watching as he quickly approached her and began to tear into her clothing, trying to see the 'wound' she had on her shoulder until his eyes met bare, porcelain skin underneath her now destroyed sleeve.

"...No." Esdeath muttered, looking into the boys regretful eyes. She was annoyed, and he could tell.

"Ahahaha uhhhhh," the boy looked around as he scratched his head. He at first thought to grab the clothes off of the body but… that was just wrong. Seeing no other option, the boy quickly stripped himself of his long-sleeve white top, his chest now bare in the cold environment, and handed it to the girl.

"Here. It was my fault, so naturally I should be the one to fix it." The boy explained, noting the somewhat surprised look on the girls face. Regardless of her shock, Esdeath draped the shirt over her body, the shirt surprisingly a little too large for her, the sleeves coming past her hands and folding over them slightly.

"Thank you." Once more, the boy nearly missed her soft voice, though he smiled in a cheeky manner and rubbed the back of his head.

"Hehe, no problem. Name's Naruto by the way, what's your name?" Ah, so his name was Naruto. Esdeath stared at him, before nodding slightly.

"Esdeath Partas. Do you not have a surname?" The girl's innocent question broke the boy's smile and made his tear-lines darken slightly.

"Y-Yes I have a surname, but… I don't like to tell people what it is." Naruto explained slowly, awkwardly trying to avoid the situation.

"Uhhahah, uhmmm, well I should be going. I'm trying to make it to the capital in at least the next week. I found your home while heading south." Naruto explained, going to stand up, until Esdeath's small hand clasped his wrist, forcefully tugging him down to her eye-level.

"I-I don't wan… You're not going south, idiot…" Esdeath's words trailed off, and she nearly giggled upon seeing the boy's exasperated and shocked face as it contorted into mental pain.

"What!? Oh come on!" The boy groaned, clasping his forehead with his free hand, the one not in a claw grip courtesy of the small blue-haired girl near his knees.

"Agh! Which way is south then, since you're so smart huh?" Naruto angrily demanded, forcefully swiping his arm away from Esdeath, who mumbled something when he did.

"I… I can show you… I-If you want." Esdeath stumbled on her words, not out of embarrassment, but she did not think she would feel a need to… get the boy's help. She… didn't want to be left alone in her burning home. And, while the boy's voice alone annoyed Esdeath, he was her only option at the moment. The boy reared back slightly, his face in shock, before he crossed his arms and looked away.

"Fine. Let's go then." Naruto demanded, until his eyes looked at Esdeath once more, who looked up at him with Icy blue eyes. His glare softened, until he reached down to her with his hand.

"Come on. I know it's hard now, and while it might not look like it, I know how hard those first steps after something like this can be. How bout a deal, since you've got my shirt and it's cold as heck here, I'll carry you so that you don't have to walk and I don't have to shiver, deal?" Naruto offered, his serene face calming Esdeath, who grasped his hand and nodded. The boy closed his eyes and grinned, his missing teeth adding to his image, before he promptly turned around and held out his hands.

"Come on then! Let's get goin!" The boy exclaimed excitedly. Esdeath grinned slightly, reaching her arms around his neck and allowing his arms to snake under her thighs, hoisting her up onto his bare back, the boy grinning.

"Heheh, here we go then! To the capital!" The boy shouted, waddling out of the burning Partas compound.

In the future, Esdeath would come to find that same voice a little less annoying, that same smile a little more incredible, and the boy's ability to make her smile even in the worst of situations a godsend.

Najenda found herself uncharacteristically nervous. But, she supposed, how could she not be nervous? Today was to be the start of her future, of her career as a soldier of the Imperial Army. Today was perhaps one of the most important days of her life. She would live or die for this empire, and it was time to do something for it!

Her determination and pride were still smothered by the unending nerves caused by one simple fact: She didn't know a single damn person in her year. She had no one to talk to. She had no one to laugh with. Hell she didn't even have somebody to insult or tease. Didn't even have a rival to fight!

She wouldn't let this hold her down though. She was too prideful for that damnit! So, she decided she'd stake out the people around her, get a feel for who might be somebody worth talking to.

"Hrmm… Too arrogant… Too fat... She's got, wow those are big ok… hmmm…" Najenda muttered as her eyes peered across the expansive crowd of people in the open courtyard of the military school they all would be attending for the next 4 years. Najenda's eyes stopped and her brows rose slightly when she spotted a young man.

"Oh?" She murmured, taking in his features. He was a tall guy who had blonde hair that gleamed in the sun and reflected its color back at it with big blue eyes imitating the sky. Odd whisker marks adorned either side of his cheek, though perhaps the most striking feature of his face was the massive smile that was breaking his face apart and glinting in the sun. Najenda had to admit that he was quite the looker.

She decided, then and there, that she would talk to him.

Author's Note:

Here it is. The first chapter of The Medic rewrite. For anybody who is actively reading 'A Smile was all it took' please know that I will still primarily be writing for that story.

I noticed today that The Medic is my largest story in terms of following, having 700+ follows. I recently had a resurgence of wanting to read Naruto/Esdeath stories, and just like when I started writing the original story I found that I either hated most of those stories or that I had already exhausted all of the good ones, or even that the good ones were short / discontinued, etc.

So I figured I'd write what I want to read, as usually starts. Plus there's a large following for the original that are left with nothing, so here's a rewrite complete with all of the advancements in writing skill I've made since the original.

Review if you enjoyed.