AN: Thank you guys for all the reviews: xxAre-chanxx, CandyGirl999, kakashi-is-hot, BloodKitsune11, narutofan, CJ Snow, calypso tchaka, fanficreader71, CNGB, srkaddict, Phnxfry1. You guys are all awesome for reviewing :D. One more thing before I start the chapter, I want to remind you guys that every time you review, it inspires me to write a little more. If you like the story, let me know, or I will think no one likes it. If you have an idea, leave it in a review. People often judge a fics popularity by the number of reviews it gets, so if you review, more people will probably come and read it. I'm not holding this fic hostage for more reviews, but I'm asking everyone that likes the story to review, because it means a lot.

Anywho, onto the story.

ANN: This chapter is partially based off of Manga Chapter 538

Chapter 6

Naruto shifted excitedly as he and his two new friends made their way to the academy. They had told him last night after the exchange with Chouseki that they would be attending the ninja academy with him once it started up today. Naruto was starting his third year at the academy, which meant, including the newly starting year, he only had four years left before he officially became a shinobi of Konohagakure. Minato had told him that he and Kushina were the same age and would probably end up in the same class as Naruto.

Much to Naruto's gratitude, Kushina and Minato had woke him up early to get ready for the day. Naruto's gratitude was attributed to the fact that he had a tendency to sleep in, and thusly ended up getting to the academy late most days. This was the first time Naruto could remember actually heading to the academy well-groomed, completely fed, and on time. Perks to having roommates I guess, Naruto mused internally.

It took them only a few minutes of walking before the academy came into sight. Children were everywhere, many accompanied by their parents, seeing as it was opening day and most wanted to see their children off. Naruto glanced around, taking in the sight with a slight depression in his mood.

Naruto felt an arm suddenly close around the back of his neck. He looked up in slight surprise to his left, where Kushina was smiling a foxy grin that reminded Naruto of his own. Seeing this, Naruto suddenly felt reassured. He could feel the message implied through her action. Don't worry about them, you've got us.

Naruto smiled confidently back at Kushina as they walked together into the building, ignoring everything else.

Umino Iruka had a smile on his face as he walked towards the classroom. The nineteen-year old chūnin was starting his first year as an academy instructor. Iruka had never felt the yearning for constant combat or action that most ninja felt. Now, he certainly wasn't a slouch when it came to his ninja skills, but for as long as Iruka could remember since becoming a ninja, something about passing down the skills and tradition of being a ninja had always fascinated him. Iruka hadn't been a chūnin for long before he had submitted his application to become a instructor. A few months ago, he had been notified by the Hokage along with the other newly inducted instructors of their new employment.

Iruka had since been preparing for the coming school year by gathering the required equipment for the curriculum. He would be starting off teaching a class of third-year students, which meant this would be the first year that they would practice practical ninja arts. The previous two years, the students were just taught simple math skills, some history, and some chakra theory. This would be the first year where most students would actually try to call on their chakra and start learning basic ninja skills.

Iruka suddenly realized that he had arrived at his classroom, having dazed off a bit. He slowly reached out and turned the knob, pushing forward and walking into a screaming room of eight-year olds.

Most of the children noticed his entrance and immediately quieted down, but there was still a good amount of students talking amongst themselves. Almost all the remaining students were silenced as his collection of books hit the table with a loud slam. Much to his annoyance, he noticed two children in the back were still talking amicably... and very loudly between each other. He suddenly realized he recognized one of the two children, it was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, the Kyuubi child. He felt his hand clench and unclench in anger as his thoughts shot back to his deceased parents and how that creature brought about their deaths. Surely this had to be some kind of sick joke! The Hokage knew about his parents, so why would he stick Iruka of all people with the demon brat?

Iruka noticed most of the children were looking at him in confusion, unsure why he looked angry. Iruka stopped himself, and he took a few deep breathes, attempting to calm himself. He looked back to where the demon brat was chatting with a red-haired girl and cleared his throat loudly, attempting to get their attention. Much to frustration, both seemed to be either ignoring him or just didn't notice. Iruka started to feel his anger returning full force at the disrespect these two children were showing.

"Shut up!" Iruka suddenly exploded in Naruto's and the girl's direction, furious at being ignored. This caused Naruto and the girl to stop talking and look in his direction. Both seemed embarrassed, seeing as they both reached up and scratched the back of their heads, something that didn't go unnoticed by Iruka. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't known that the Kyuubi brat actually had any friends...

Shaking himself from that train of thought, he cleared his throat again before speaking, "Hello class, my name is Umino Iruka, and I will be your teacher for the last four years here, at the academy. You can call me either Iruka-sensei or just sensei if you prefer. Now, most of you probably already know each other, but we are going to go around the room and everyone is going to introduce themselves, ok?" Most of the children seemed to nod in agreement. "Ok then, let's start with you, and work across the row and then each row after that", Iruka said as he gestured to a child with his black hair pulled back in a ponytail.

The child muttered something that Iruka thought sounded like "troublesome", and stood up. "My name is Nara Shikamaru". He sat back down and the person next to him got up and introduced himself as well. It continued more or less smoothly through the next 25 children in the class. Iruka was surprised that he had so many students from many different prestigious clans in the village. He remembered seeing, on top of Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chōji. A second coming of the famous Ino-Shika-Chō trio? Iruka silently mused. Other than that, Aburame Shino, Inzuka Kiba, and Hyūga Hinato were also in his class, all heirs to their clans as well. Of course, one couldn't forget about Uchiha Sasuke, the lone survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre. Iruka had heard he was an up and coming prodigy of his own right, and Iruka was curious to see how good he was. Most of the other children were from civilian families or from non-clan shinobi parents.

Finally, Iruka turned his attention to the last three children to introduce themselves, namely the Kyuubi brat and the two children that seemed to be his friends. Seeing it was his turn, a confident grin split Naruto's face. He brought his open palm down on the table with a resounding bang, shocking most of the children that hadn't been paying attention or started to doze off. Suddenly, all eyes in the room were on him.

If this bothered Naruto, he didn't show it at all, grin still plastered on his face. Instead of backing down, he stood up. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and don't any of you forget it, because I'm going to be Hokage someday, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled to the entire classroom. There was complete silence for a few seconds before almost the entire room burst out into laughter. Even Iruka was chucking at the absurd (to him) proclamation from the child. Several other children were throwing out comments like "not in a thousand years" or "as if a dobe like you could become Hokage" between fits of laughter.

When Iruka finally looked back up to Naruto, he saw that he was looking somewhat angrily at children in the room that were so easily laughing at his aforementioned goal. Iruka also saw, much to his surprise, that the two other children were both giving out their own glares to the children laughing at Naruto. The blond-haired one leaned over to Naruto and whispered something into his ear that Iruka couldn't pick out. The anger quickly vanished from Naruto's face as the words seemed to calm him down. He gave a slight nod to the blond-haired child and leaned back in his chair, instead of exploding at the classroom verbally, much to Iruka continued amazement.

Iruka turned his gaze to the blond-haired child sitting next to Naruto, taking in his appearance for the first time. Iruka's eyes widened marginally once he realized that he and Naruto could probably be siblings with the similarities between each other: blond hair, the same blue eyes, hell, they were even wearing almost the same jacket. Iruka of course dismissed the possibility, he would of known if the Kyuubi brat had had any siblings. He also felt that the child reminded him of someone, but Iruka couldn't quiet place who.

Looking over at the other child, a girl with long, red hair, he took in her appearance. She had a rounded face that reminded him a bit of a tomato for some reason. She had fair skin and incredible violet eyes. She was still glaring at the other children, and Iruka could almost feel the fire that seemed to be leaping in those very same violet eyes. He couldn't exactly place why, but she reminded him a bit of Naruto.

The blond-haired child finally decided to stand up. He picked himself up slowly before speaking, cutting through the remaining laughter, "My name is Minato". He paused for a second before continuing to Iruka's surprise. "You know, I read somewhere that the Yondiame Hokage said he wanted to be Hokage when he was in the academy too. He was a nobody back then, born from a clan-less shinobi and a civilian mother, both who died shortly after his birth, simply an orphan. They laughed at him back then, but he went on to become Hokage didn't he?" Minato's eyes darted across the crowd of children before finally resting on Iruka. "You all shouldn't be so fast to judge someone because of where they come from, their past, or even the way they act. Anyone can achieve anything if they try hard enough, the Yondiame did, why can't anyone?" Minato had said this entire last part looking directly at Iruka, even though it was addressed to the entire class. There was complete silence in the room for a few seconds, as everyone absorbed Minato's speech.

Iruka was understandably a little shaken by Minato's words. For Kami's sake, he had just been subtly scolded by a child about not being tolerant. Iruka was no fool, he realized that Naruto was the container and not the demon itself in human form, but still hated him for the demon he contained. Iruka realized that he wasn't exactly being fair to the child in this way. He of all people as a teacher should know not the judge someone before getting to know them. Shaking his head a bit, Iruka decided to come to a resolve. His initial plan had been to just ignore Naruto for as long as possible, but he decided now to at least treat him as a normal student. If he turned out to be as bad as the stories made him out to be, he could always go back to ignoring him.

Iruka's eyes suddenly widened as he realized why Minato was so familiar to him. He brought his head up and inspected Minato's face to confirm his suspicions. The Yondiame Hokage's full name had been Namikaze Minato. Iruka stared up at the blond-haired child with narrowed eyes, thoughts running wildly in his head. This Minato child had just come forth and spoken as if he intimately knew the Yondiame's history, stating things that Iruka hadn't even been aware of. On top of that, he bared a striking resemblance to the late Hokage himself, and also Naruto, for that fact, Iruka noted with slight trepidation. Iruka could feel this as if it was a puzzle just waiting to be solved. He gave one last cursory glance at the boy before his final thought on the matter went through his head, just who is this child?

Iruka's silent game of Clue was interrupted as another, yet equally loud palm slapped down on the table, jolting him out of his musings. Looking up, he didn't feel surprised for some reason to see the red-haired girl giving a very mischievous, ear-splitting grin to the classroom

"My name is Kushina, and you all better all remember it, because you'll be hearing about all of us soon" she yelled while gesturing to the trio with the grin still spanning her face. "Especially this soon-to-be Hokage right here".

Iruka saw Naruto's eye widen at her statement before he quickly turned his head away from the rest of the classroom. Iruka thought he saw a tear start to trail down the side of Naruto's face, but wasn't able to be certain because of the distance between them. He shouldn't of been surprised, this is probably the first time anyone actually acknowledged Naruto's goal and actually said he would achieve it, Iruka silently guessed.

"Yeah right, I'm sure we will hear a lot about you and that dobe, tomato-face (AN: for those that don't know, this was a childhood name that bullies called Kushina as a child, comparing her face to a tomato)", a child spoke out from the classroom while rolling his eyes.

Many children gulped nervously as temperature of the room dropped ten degrees, an indescribable force suddenly radiating from red-head, who's eyes were suddenly hidden beneath her bangs. The indescribable force actually caused the child who had spoken out to fall to his knees in fear, unable to shake the sense of looming danger.

Iruka for his part was unable to keep his eyebrows from raising in surprise. He wasn't too effected by the killing intent being projected by the young girl, mostly because it was indirect and obviously subconscious. Still, for an eight year-old child to be able to display killing intent, especially if it was subconscious, was nothing short of amazing. Kushina finally decided to speak up. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch what you said, would you mind repeating that?" she asked in a mockingly sweet tone as she turned her body to face the child that had spoken out, eyes closed and mouth curved into a forcibly sweet smile.

The child in question looked up at her, fearing for his life before he stammered out a reply, "N-no! I-I d-did-d't say anything!". He watched in horror as she approached him, the false smile still plastered across her face. He closed his eyes, awaiting the end of his short life when he felt the soft pressure of someone placing their hand on his head. He opened his eyes in shock to see that Kushina was patting him softly on the head like a trained animal.

"Good, now, I hope no one else has anything else to say", she said looking out across the room. Defining silence was her reply, and a small smile crossed her face as she walked back to her seat and plumped herself down in the small chair. Naruto looked over to her in slight horror at the spectacle that just occurred, and she returned his look of horror with a smile of her own.

Naruto just turned away from her and looked down at his desk, absorbing the interaction which had just happened. Ok, its official, women are scary!

Iruka had herded them outside stating that he wanted to test to see their current combat skill levels through sparring. Naruto could feel himself getting excited at the prospect of being able to fight, seeing as it might help show people that he was serious about becoming Hokage when he kicked his opponents ass! Naruto's smile faltered a bit when the prospect of fighting one of his new friends crossed his mind. He had seen how fast Minato had been when he beat up the shopkeeper earlier, Naruto knew he wasn't even close to his level. He had also seen just how scary Kushina could get if provoked, and really didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of her punches.

Naruto ended up tuning out most of Iruka's explanation about the Symbol of "Combat" and the Symbol of "Harmony" and tradition of shinobi spars. Before he knew it, the sparring had began. There were several spars between kids he didn't know, nothing special in any of them. The first mini-surprise of the day came when Iruka called Shikamaru and Chōji forth to spar, and the Shikamaru kid just forfeited out! Talk about lazy, Naruto thought silently to himself as he heard small chuckle from Minato's direction.

"Minato and Kiba, step forth", Iruka suddenly yelled out, bringing Naruto back to the real world. Naruto leaned over to Minato and whispered a quick "good luck" to him as he started to walking to the sparring circle. Minato flashed him a quick smile before turning back to the circle, smile gone from his face and replaced by a neutral stare. Kiba set down his dog before also walking into the mini-arena. He had a confident grin and cracked a few knuckles in preparation. Both raised their hands, index and middle finger extended upwards while their thumb was crossed over the ring finger. Iruka eyed both of them before bringing his hand down and jumping back to initiate the spar. Both shot forward at breakneck speeds, fists raised. Kiba's leg shot out, aiming for Minato's head, but Minato ducked and guided his own leg up to Kiba's now exposed back. It made solid contact and sent him skidding back to the edge of the ring. Kiba quickly picked himself back up and threw himself back at Minato.

Naruto frowned slightly as he watched his two classmates fight. He noticed Minato was moving much slower than he had been when he fought the shopkeeper. This confused Naruto, why wouldn't Minato show his true skill level? Naruto put the thought in the back of his mind, next to all the other questions he had for his new friends.

Turning back to the fight, he saw Minato block a right hook from Kiba with his right palm. Using his now solid grip on Kiba's arm, Minato twisted and flipped Kiba onto ground with a dull thud. Naruto heard Kiba groan a bit in pain. He noticed Minato reach down to Kiba and offer a hand. Kiba seemed to eye it for a second, before reaching out and allowing Minato to help him back to his feet. Both had grins splitting their faces.

The sound of slow clapping reached the two combatants ears, drawing their attention to Iruka, "That was very impressive Minato, you showed that you would keep calm under pressure and assault. You also showed incredible coordination and dexterity, however, your speed could be improved and you lack a style. Don't worry, these are things we can fix in the academy. I would say you are on your way to the top of the class young man". Iruka turned to Kiba next before continuing. "You also did good Kiba, expect whenever you failed to hit Minato, you grew angrier and angrier, which led to your form and attacks becoming sloppy and even easier to block or avoid. Your speed was impressive for an academy student though, good job".

Both boys seemed to glow at the praise and critique. Both turned to each other, raising the previous hand gesture of the first two fingers extended before they reached out and linked them, crossing them over each other in the Symbol of "Harmony", both with huge grins on their faces.

"You're pretty good, I'll have to fight you again some time for real and beat you" Kiba said to Minato, who replied with a nod and continued smile. Both walked off to their respective areas.

"Next up, Kushina and Inafune Keiji" Iruka said while looking at his clipboard. Naruto looked over to see the child that had called Kushina tomato-face gulping rather audibly. He also heard a evil snicker to his left, and turned to see Kushina cracking her knuckles, fire in her eyes.

"This is going to be fun".

Naruto almost felt sorry for Meiji, he had been sent to the hospital for the injuries he had sustained from Kushina's beating. A new nickname for her was already starting to circulate among the children, Akai Chishio no Habanero (Red Hot-Blooded Habanero), both for her hair and her incredible temper. For some reason which Naruto was unable to discern, this amused Minato greatly, but when Naruto asked, he just shrugged it off.

"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, you guys are up", Iruka called out. Cheering suddenly erupted from the female half of for crowd, girls fawning over Sasuke for his attention. A thought suddenly came to Naruto. This is that popular kid, I bet if I beat him, I'll become popular because I'm better than him!

"Alright, let's do this!" Naruto yelled as he walked forward. He failed to notice among the mob cheering for Sasuke, other than his two new friends, there was one small girl rooting for him.

"G-good luck Naru-", Hinata was cut off as the mob's cheers intensified once Sasuke stepped into the ring.

"Alright, Uzumaki Naruto vs. Uchiha Sasuke-"

"Let's rock loser", Naruto suddenly yelled out, preparing to charge. Iruka felt his eye twitch a bit.

"Naruto, you need to make the symbol for combat before you spar, its common protocol!" Iruka told Naruto in slight exasperation.

"Who cares about that? Lemme beat this loser up already! This is the day I become popular!" Naruto yelled back in response.

Naruto heard Sasuke snort at his claim. "So stupid... fine, I'll take you down in one-"

Iruka had had enough. "Stop! Both of you". Iruka went on to explain how using the symbol of "Combat" and "Harmony" was a tradition in shinobi spars, but Naruto just tuned him out, not really caring about what he had to say. Iruka seemed to noticed his inattention, as he yelled, "Are you even listening to me Naruto! This is the second time I've told you this!"

"Yeah yeah yeah..." Naruto trailed off, truthfully lying out his ass. Naruto quickly formed the symbol of "Combat" as did Sasuke, before a "begin!" rang out over ring. Naruto rushed forward, as did Sasuke, fist aiming for his gut. Before Naruto knew what happened, Naruto felt a pressure on his stomach, throwing him off balance and backwards onto his back. Suddenly, Sasuke was crouched over Naruto. Naruto saw a fist quickly closing the distance between where it was and his face, but it stopped right before it reached it. Cheering erupted from the crowd, praising Sasuke for his victory.

Sasuke sneered and pushed himself off Naruto's form and started walking away. Iruka announced the victor to be Sasuke and told them to make the symbol of "Harmony", but Naruto didn't hear him, his eyes and attention trained on Sasuke. Naruto had looked into his eyes when he was crouched over him, it had been like Sasuke was looking straight past him. "I'm not even on your radar am I you butthead", Naruto yelled at Sasuke's retreating form. "No, you're not just a butthead, you're a dribbling dried up piece of crap!""

Naruto felt a hard slap to the back of his head. He turned to look at Iruka fuming at him. "Shinobi spars are sacred traditions, now make the symbol of "Harmony" damn it!". Naruto grumbled as he stood up and started walking in Sasuke's direction. He reached up, making a very loose half-ram hand sign, Sasuke doing the same. Just as they were about to link, both of their hands slipped past each other's and grasped the front of the opposite's jacket.

Anger bled onto Sasuke's face. "You wanna fight dropout?" Sasuke growled while Naruto gave him an equally intimidating growl of his own in response. Both felt a pair of strong hands separate them as Iruka intervened. The crowd started booing Naruto, and Naruto felt like he had had enough. He jumped over the fence surrounding the academy and gave one last glance back at Sasuke before shooting off in the opposite direction.

Kushina bit her lip nervously as she watched Naruto run away from the academy. She looked pleadingly over to Minato, and he gave a quick nod to signal his understanding. Both of them shot off in the direction that Naruto had run.

It took them only five minutes to catch up with him. They ended up following him across the rooftops. "Come on Naruto, stop so we can talk to you!" Minato yelled to him as they continued to pursue him. When Naruto refused to respond, Minato sprinted forward with a quick burst of speed and grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt with his left hand while hooking his left leg around Naruto's right. The result was the both of them tumbling to the ground rather unceremoniously.

"Hey, what the hell was that for! Damn you Minato", Naruto yelled to Minato as he picked himself back up off the ground, limping slightly.

Minato shrugged, picking himself off the ground before replying, "Well, I had to make you stop running, didn't I?". As he finished his sentence, Kushina finally caught up with them. Naruto eyed both of them wearily.

"Look, forget about all those people, they're idiots and don't know anything", Kushina spoke to Naruto. He continued to eye both of them for a few more moments. An unusually serious expression on his face suddenly appeared on his face.

"I haven't ever told anyone why I want to become Hokage", Naruto started. "I know you guys aren't stupid, you've noticed how people treat me, how they hate or ignore me, treat me like I'm trash. If I become the Hokage... the strongest ninja in the village, there would be no way people would treat me that way. If I become Hokage, people would have to respect me and treat me nicely! They would treat me like I'm someone. Someone important". Naruto had turned away from them while he talked, staring at the civilians down on the street. "But it's not just that. Up until recently, it was just that, being recognized. But over the past few days, I realized there is another reason why I need to become Hokage. I've never experienced friendship before, so now I know just how precious it is. I need to be strong in order to protect it, and protect those that give it. You guys, even if I've only known you guys for a few days, are precious to me. You're... my precious people, I guess you would say". Naruto's grip on the handrail he was leaning on tightened. "But you aren't all. I've realized that, even if these people hate me, I don't hate them, I can't. They are normal people too, just like me. They have friendships and precious people too. Being the Hokage would mean I would protect the village too, not just be the strongest ninja. It's something I have to do, because for whatever reason, I love the village".

There was defining silence for a few moments. Naruto internally cringed at his stupidity in a small moment of weakness. They were probably internally laughing at his reason for wanting to become Hokage. He turned around and was greeted by the sight of both of them staring at him with conflicting emotions, which confused Naruto a bit. He spotted happiness, anger, and... that look parents gave their children, was it pride? To say Naruto was confused was an understatement, if there had been any one reaction he expected, it had not been this. He suddenly felt Kushina envelope him in a bone-crushing hug, which Naruto was starting to get used to, but that didn't mean they hurt any less. Naruto noticed Minato place his hand on Naruto's shoulder, the emotion Naruto thought was pride running rampant through his features.

"Well, I think we need make you a Hokage as soon as possible then".

Ishidzukuri Teichi was walking down the street, running a simple D-rank mission by running an errand for an elderly lady. To the average passerby, Teichi was nothing more than a sub-average genin, probably stuck forever at the rank due to the lack of skill. In reality, Teichi was anything but that. He had been in Konoha for a little over eight years now as a deep Iwagakure spy. It was part of a major operation Iwagakure had started after the death of the Yondiame Hokage to reaffirm its position as a regional power after its lose in the Third Shinobi War. It involved strengthening the numbers and quality of Iwagakure ninja, which truthfully was very lacking after the war, but more importantly, flesh out Iwagakure's spy network, which was demolished during the war.

Teichi was a Tokubetsu Jōnin specializing in infiltration. He used a special ninjustu that allowed him to constantly appear at the same young age, despite him actually being around thirty-five. It was semi-permanent, impossible to detect and only dispelled under his death or manual cancellation of the justu. He was one of a few successful infiltrations of Konohagakure, and his simple duty was to gain knowledge of upcoming genin and relay it back to his handler. A relatively simple and low risk job. Teichi often found himself bored, Konoha was far more boring than Iwa.

So, when Teichi spotted three children racing across the rooftops, his interest was understandably piqued. He followed them silently, keeping himself hidden as they raced down streets and up to the roofs. He eventually saw one of the three child bring the lead one down to the ground rather painfully. He wasn't close enough to catch the entire conversation, but he did pick up a few words, more specifically a name that made his blood run cold.

"...Minato!". Teichi stilled. Minato... Namikaze Minato, the bane of Iwagakure during the last war. One of the few ninjas ever to have a Flee on Sight status given. Teichi had been at the Battle of Kanabi Bridge, one of the few survivors, he had even caught a glance at the demon that slaughtered his platoon. He inspected the child that was called Minato more closely. White jacket, blond hair in a spiky style, blue eyes. Hell, the other blond to looked just like him too.

Teichi shook his head, these kids must of been about eight, so they were born around the time the Yondiame died. He had never heard about the Yondiame having kids but... This is possibly big, I need to go talk to my handler. Teichi jumped off, thoughts running wild, completely unnoticed by the three children.

AN: I have returned! Sorry about the long time I took to update, a little bit over a week, but I gave you guys a over 5K chapter in return, so I think it worked out. I thought this chapter turned out pretty well, but there were a few spots I edited a lot (yes I actually edited it before posting this time). Let me know which parts you guys liked and which parts need to be fixed. I'm taking a slight vacation, so next update may take up to a month, but probably won't take that long. Anyway, whoever tells me what Ishidzukuri Teichi's name means gets an imaginary cookie, it means something actually (I think with my limited understanding of Japanese).

Anyway, I'm making this too long. PLEASE read and review, its the driving force for me to continue writing, I actually got less reviews last chapter then the chapter before, it was depressing :(. If there is a reason why you didn't review, let me know whats wrong with the fic, please. Anyway, I'm off, see you guys next time.

EDIT AN: Going through the story another time, I realized when I said that Minato and Kushina where giving Naruto looks of conflicting emotions, one which was anger, it could be misinterpreted that they were angry with him. In reality, they are angry at the village for treating their sun as such a pariah, even though he wants to protect them :)