Chapter Thirty One: Is Everything Back To Normal Now?
Fightscne's written by Sarinax
Betad by Carrie2sky

The Minato clone made the first move. He placed his sword into the ground, and made a few hand signs. Water splashed out between the floor and the sword. The liquid started to form around his body and he stayed in it. Soon it synthesized with him, making him a watery substance.

"Distract him," the Minato clone said.

Minato's clone nodded his head in approval, and went running towards Kyūbi. He swung his blade in Kyūbi's direction. Kyūbi saw this coming and jumped to the side, causing Minato to miss. While Kyūbi was distracted, the Minato clone had spit water from his mouth.

It hurled its way at Kyūbi, and then it trapped him inside of the water prison. This pleased the Minato clone, and he formed another set of hand signs. In seconds, a shark like fish had appeared in the water prison along with Kyūbi. The fish tried to bite him, but it went right through him. Kyūbi had floated his way out of the water, as if he was a ghost.

The clone was surprised. There's no way this guy can do such a thing! But he is a demon after all . . .

Now they were back to where they started. Kyūbi was not at all affected, nor did he seem tired. Minato was getting low on energy and chakra. Knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to defeat Kyūbi, he decided he could only distract him until he came close enough to the real body so he could place the seal on him.

This however, was easier said than done. Kyūbi seemed immortal, unable to hit, and did not appear to get exhausted. Even if Minato would go all out on Kyūbi, it still wouldn't do any damage. There was no way they would even be able to hit him.

Minato had thought about it, and figured that maybe this wasn't even Kyūbi's real body they were fighting. Yet, he was able to perform jutsus and still attack. So he had to be real. Maybe they weren't fast enough to fight him, putting them at a great disadvantage.

Taking out a special kunai Minato was saving he flung it toward Kyūbi and missing on porpose as Kyūbi was distracted moving away from the weapon Minato was able to apear behind Kyūbi in a flash. Swinging his arm out, Minato had knocked Kyūbi off ballence and sent him flying across the area. Even if it was only one hit, it worked effectively.

Minato had little patience and ran after him. He jumped in the air and took his blade out comming down hard, barely missing. Kyūbi rolled to the side and shot up quickly dodging every thrown attack at him.

Kyūbi threw a fire jutsu at Minato, and Minato's clone had jumped in the fire's way taking the hit. This caused only some of his clothes to burn, but the fire itself had disappeared into steam.

Since Minato distracted Kyūbi, Kyūbi didn't see the Minato clone come at him, he had only felt the chakra. All he could do was try to avoid it, being unable to detect where it came from. The Minato clone had come up from the air and kicked down hard, right on the back of Kyūbi's head.

Kyūbi went straight down into the floor making a large crater in the ground. Dusty smoke covered their eyes, and Minato couldn't tell if Kyūbi was still down there or if he got away. Slowly Kyūbi had risen upwards from the smoke only to be a few insches away from Minato's face as Minato was unable to move. The dangerous red eyes gave a glow and suddenly Minato felt a familiar feeling throughout his entire body. He was caught in a genjutsu again.

Minato was now in a cell, chained to a wall. He could now see Kyūbi standing before him slowly making his way over to Minato. Kyūbi lifted his arm and pointing his finger toward Minato and soon fire had spread it's way all over Minato's body, the sensation of the burning of his skin was making Minato scream out of pain. Trying to release the genjutsu he was under Minato fought the chains wrapped around him.

Unable to break free as the fire was growing hotter, it was now burning not only his body but his spirit in the illusion. This had continued for at least two minutes. All of a sudden the pain was gone, but as fast as it was gone, it started up again. The genjutsu continued to go on for an entire day in that world.

Suddenly, the genjutsu ended just like it had done before. Minato narrowed his eyes and looked through what looked like a mist, he was sweating heavily and it felt like he was a fountain, pouring out it's water, but in this case, body liquid.

Minato's clone had disappeared during the genjutsu so Minato was left alone again.

Kyūbi stood motionless, waiting for Minato to look into his eye again, but he also knew that Minato understood that he used eye genjutsus, and would avoid direct eye contact from now on. Therefore, he had to think of a way to get Minato in his genjutsu again.

Don't look at him directly in the eye. Focus on his feet and try to follow his movements that way he can't send us into a genjutsu again, thought Minato and sighed.

Minato stared at Kyūbi's feet, avoiding eye contact, while trying to increase his other senses to fight, even if only a little. Kyūbi leapt into the air, throwing some shurikans that came out of his sleeve, hurdling towards Minato. Since Minato was looking down, he could only hear where he was coming from. Minato jumped out of the way. Then, he heard a sizzling sound, unsure at first was it was. Then it dawned on him.

It's an exploding tag! Minato shouted in his mind.

He had to jump up to get out of the way. Unable to avoid getting hurt, the explosion was small anyway. It had barely singed his clothes, let alone his skin. He lost his balance and fell to the ground in pain.

"Now you die . . ."Kyūbi said as he came up closer to Minato with a grin.

Minato had his katana still in his hand, and when Kyūbi had approached him, he swung it at Kyūbi, successfully hitting him. The blade didn't pierce him, as it was placed vertically with the flat side of the blade hitting him, so Kyūbi was pushed back far away from Minato.

Minato was running out of chakra, and was getting tired. He had to stand his ground though, and get done with this, once and for all.

Minato waited for a couple of minutes, unsure of where Kyūbi was, or when he would attack again. He couldn't feel any movement, or chakra usage.

Wanting to look up, Minato knew that it would be idiotic to play right into Kyūbi's trap. He definately didn't want Kyūbi to get the best of him, but he wouldn't be able to deal with that excrutiating pain again.

After a couple of more minutes Minato's patience ran out, and he looked up very slowly. He couldn't find Kyūbi anywhere, he might have been under the ground, but he wasn't sure.

No more clones appeared either, so he didn't have to worry about that. He kept his guard up just in case he was missing something.

Minato could hear a faint cry, the familiar sound had scared him frozen unable to move. His suroundings went black then faded to red. Blood had splashed onto him and the disturbing images of every one he knew, dieing. The only thing he could do was watch as Kyūbi had brought something to his mind that Minato never wanted to think was possible.

It's just a genjutsu Minato thought to himself as he tried to move to save everyone. The only thing he found himself doing was falling on his knees and feeling some kind of dark eerie wind as it carried the screams and deaths of innocent people. A maliciously laugh echoed through out the area as Minato looked up to see Kyūbi's true eyes stare directly at him.

As if in slow motion Kyūbi's snout made it's way over to Minato, slowly opening his jaws while saliva spilled out. His mouth was so close to Minato that he could smell the disgusting breath that Kyūbi had. If Minato was paying attention he would have been able to see the blood stains that Kyūbi left in his teeth and gums.

Was this the end for Minato? Had he failed to do what he promised to do? Kyūbi was closing in on him and something in Minato felt like he had just died, but an image flashed through his mind as he saw that precious person that he kept him together, that person that he was doing this for.

Something jolted inside of him making the adrenaline rush though. Minato knew that it was too late to escape from Kyūbi so instead he gripped the handle on his katana that he still held onto. Forcing his legs to give him a boost Minato flew straight into Kyūbi's mouth with his weapon going in first.

With a flash of light Minato now realised he was back where he started, listening closely Minato looked around, afraid that Kyūbi would appear any second and catch him in some kind of jutsu. Luckily, nothing happened after a couple of minutes, and he was really glad, but still watched out for some kind attack.

Kyūbi was nowhere to be found.

"Gotcha!" a voice shouted as Minato felt someone's presence behind him. His eyes widened and it seemed as if everything went in slow motion, and before he knew it, Kyūbi stabbed him with his claws straight into his right shoulder.

Minato cried out in pain, and grabbed Kyūbi's wrist to get it off of him. Then it hit him.

Kyūbi felt a burning feeling on his wrist and not until it was too late did he realise what had just happened. He looked down at his wrist and then at Minato's who was falling to the ground, half conscious. Kyūbi had the seal on his wrist.

Minato hit the ground. Kyūbi shouted out in agony and then everything disappeared in darkness for Minato.

Minato was currently looking up at a white ceiling through half lidded eyes. His head was aching and it felt as if he'd been tossed into a washing machine at full speed. Everything was spinning and he wanted to throw up. He sighed and closed his eyes again as he turned his head to the side; that's when he noticed that something was poking his cheek. He wrinkled his nose and forced himself to open his eyes again. He was met with two big blue eyes that looked worried.

He frowned. What the bloody hell . . .? He thought and closed his again and re-opened them. He blinked a few times before he realised that it was Naruto looking down at him.

"Naruto!?" he exclaimed as he tried to sit up, but couldn't move his body upwards, he was too tired to do so.

"Don't even try it, Minato," a stern female voice said from the other side of the bed as Minato turned his head towards the source of the voice. He was met with Tsunade. "You've been out for over a month and I don't want you to hurt yourself before you even get the chance to wake up properly."

"Sorry," he said with a very hoarse voice as he felt Naruto shift on his left side.

"Naruto's been worried and so have I," Tsunade continued and even though Minato didn't look at her, he felt her gaze on him. He was perplexed.

Naruto was back to normal; he was fifteen again. Naruto had recovered from the incident and was now looking very healthy compared to what he had looked like before. He wasn't covered in wounds anymore and Minato noticed that he didn't have the whiskers now when Kyūbi was gone. But what shocked Minato the most was that Naruto was very pale and had dark bags under his eyes as if he hadn't been sleeping properly for a long time.

"What happened to you?" Minato asked, frowning and even though Minato's muscles were very weak, he could feel himself shaking.

"Well, I . . ." Naruto began but stopped and Minato could see tears forming in his son's eyes. "I'm just happy that you're alive." The tears fell and Minato found himself speechless.

"Naruto . . ." Minato finally said, quietly. He would give anything, just to able to move his arms to wipe Naruto tears away and console him.

"As you can see, Naruto returned to normal during your fight with Kyūbi and Kaikou," Tsunade said as Minato still didn't look at her. "This happened only three days ago, and don't ask me how but his memories are slowly returning, however, it'll probably take some time until they're fully back but until then . . . well . . ." Tsunade trailed off. "Er, Naruto?" Naruto lifted his tear stained face to look at her. "Do you mind if I talk with Minato alone for a moment?"

Naruto frowned but stood up and left the room. Minato's eyes widened as he tried to reach out for his son who exited the room.

"Tsunade—"

"No Minato," Tsunade interrupted him as Minato frowned again. "You'll have to listen to me now. Naruto returned to his old body two days ago, at the same time, his memories began returning as well. He's very confused and he remembers everything from his childhood but nothing from the academy days and on, so . . . he's scared. Because the only things he knows is hatred and sorrow right now. He does remember you and that's very good because I was afraid that he might forget about you," Tsunade explained as Minato saw that she was exhausted from helping Naruto through the previous days.

"You said that he's slowly remembering?" Minato asked as Tsunade nodded.

"Yes, he is and he told me about these dreams where he tries to run towards a person he can't see the face of, and every time he wake up he gains a new memory," Tsunade answered as Minato sighed. "Since his memories begin before he started at the academy, he knows that no one liked him back then so he's extremely scared and paranoid, but when he saw that you woke up . . . well . . . I've never seen him so happy before." Tsunade smiled.

"I should have been there," Minato said after a pregnant silence. Tsunade looked away from his face. "I'm his dad and I should have been there when he regained his memories, that's when he needed me the most!"

"There was nothing you could have done Minato. He was scared the whole time until he saw your open eyes. He doesn't trust me, he doesn't trust Sakura and the only ones he remembers who actually looked at him without hatred is Sasuke and later, when he saw you. No one of us understand how he feels right now," Tsunade continued to explain as Minato closed his eyes for a brief moment.

"He hasn't been sleeping, has he?" Minato asked after another pregnant silence as Tsunade shook her head.

"He's been so scared at all hours, being unable to sleep, but it'll probably get better now," she finished with a smile.

"Yeah. But I noticed that he could walk," Minato said, remembering that Naruto walked out of the room by himself.

"Yes, he learnt that before he returned to his normal body, he's still a bit unsteady but he can move around pretty good now," Tsunade commented as Minato nodded with a small smile. Naruto would never give up and always did his best no matter what.

"I noticed that my muscles are very weak and atrophied, when will I be able to walk again?" Minato asked, as he smiled a bit at the irony, first Naruto and then him.

"I thought that I'd give you something to make the healing process quicker, but there's a catch," Tsunade answered with a smirk as Minato frowned. "I'll only give it you if you stay with Naruto twenty-four-seven until he regains his memory completely."

"Of course I will stay with him, but why didn't you use it on Naruto before?" Minato asked again as Tsunade sighed at all the questions.

"Children can't take this medicine, it would damage their chakra and mental capacity, that's why," she answered as Minato nodded. Tsunade went out of the room for a few seconds and returned with a glass, filled with a yellow liquid.

"Drink this and you'll be back on your legs by tomorrow night, okay?" Tsunade said as Minato nodded again before Tsunade helped him drink it all.

Disgusting . . .Minato thought when he had emptied the whole glass as Tsunade smirked again at his reaction.

Two days passed and Minato was back on his legs again. He was wobbling but he could move so he and Naruto were in equal positions now.

Naruto was finally asleep, after all this time of stressing himself out and by staying close to Minato the whole time as well.

Minato looked at his son's sleeping face and he'd noticed that Naruto was regaining his normal complexion's colour. He was probably remembering some of the days from the academy where he met his first friends, like Shikamaru, Kiba and Chōji.

"Ne Minato?" Tsunade asked as she entered the room where Minato was looking over some documents about Konoha, shinobi, Kyūbi attack, Shinigami and stuff like that.

"Tsunade-san," Minato answered with a frown. They hadn't talked to each other for quite some time now.

"I forgot to tell you something that I think you might have noticed when you fought Kyūbi," she began, as Minato frowned again while titling his head. "I know that you were caught in two genjutsus and I kind of helped you out there," she continued as Minato smiled. She was the one who had broken the genjutsus when he couldn't.

"So it was you, thank you," Minato answered as Tsunade smiled a wide smile. "That gives me the answer to another question, but there are a lot of questions I still don't have answers to," Minato continued as his smile faltered.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Kaikou looked like me but I didn't die when he died. Naruto's reason for using the yellow chakra . . .there are so many questions I want the answers to," Minato answered as Tsunade gulped.

"Minato, listen to me and promise me that you'll hear me out and do the right thing when I'm finished," Tsunade began as Minato had a worried facial expression. "Promise me you'll stop looking for these answers, please."

"Nani!? Why Tsunade-san?" Minato asked with a shocked facial expression that told Tsunade that this wasn't going to be an easy task.

"Because sometimes you shouldn't play with things you don't know much about," Tsunade answered as Minato sighed. "I know that something bad is going to happen if you continue searching for your answers. I don't want you and Naruto to go back to the unhappiness you had before you met each other. If that happens, it will be hard to be a family."

"So you're telling me to just give it up?" Minato asked as Tsunade sadly nodded her head.

"Yes, but it's for the best. I don't want anything bad to happen, that's all," Tsunade answered as Minato sighed again, lowering his gaze to the floor.

Minato thought about it for a long moment and finally, after more than a whole minute, he looked up at Tsunade again. "I know that you're right, but . . .I really want to know, and still . . ." he sighed and rubbed his eyes with one of his hands. "I think I'll follow your advice for once."

Tsunade smiled more than she had done in years and Minato couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Thank you so much Minato, thank you."

Minato was looking over some documents a Jounin recently gave him. It was about some kid named Konohamaru that had 'accidentally' been found in the women's bathhouse, again.

Minato sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama!" someone shouted and the next Minato knew, his office door was flung open, revealing two panting Chuunin that looked like two strawberries because their faces were red from exhaustion and their hair was full of leaves.

"Um . . . yes?" he asked and frowned with his eyes while looking at them with half amusement, half concern. He may know what this all was about.

"It's the . . . Hokage monument . . . sir!" one of the Chunnin said between the pants.

"Don't tell me more," Minato said and stood up with a smirk on his face. "Naruto painted the Hokage monuments again, didn't he?"

"Yes sir," the two Chunnin answered in chorus.

"Here we go again," Minato said with a smile as he exited the Hokage building though his office window. As he fell down towards the ground he was actually reminiscing nostalgically.

It had been half a year since Kaikou and Kyūbi had disappeared and Naruto had fully regained all of his memories and ability to walk. It had been really tough most of the time, but finally, everything was okay and back to normal, well . . . as normal it could be on Naruto's part, considering that his father was the Fourth Hokage, he had a family, he didn't have Kyūbi anymore which meant that Akatsuki couldn't go after him from now on, and his friends were still amazed over this whole 'Fourth Hokage alive dad thing' and they had known about for nearly over a year now.

Yeah, it was okay now. They hadn't heard much from Hebi and their location nor the Akatsuki, but both the Fire Country and the Wind Country were doing their best to capture them. Naruto had begged on his knees that Sasuke should at least be given a chance to live a normal life in Konoha again, but unfortunately, Minato couldn't agree with that.

Naruto had been pissed about that and still was, that's why he had painted the Hokage Mountain over seventeen times now, only to piss Minato off, and Minato couldn't deny the fact that he was rather pissed because all of the pranks Naruto was pulling made him feel older than he really was.

Minato landed on the ground and began running towards the Hokage monument where he could see something orange move around. He smirked and ran faster.

But he didn't dislike the way Naruto was acting because Naruto was happy about having a family of his own and not being hated by the villagers anymore, and if Naruto was happy, Minato was happy as well because Naruto was his everything.

"Oi, Naru-chan?" Minato asked as he stopped behind Naruto who was currently painting Minato's face, giving it wrinkles, glasses and gray hair. "That's low you know."

"Huh! Dad!?" Naruto shouted in surprise as he turned around facing his dad with a shocked expression. "Um I mean . . . hello, what brings you here?"

"Oh, wittle Naru-chan doesn't know?" Minato asked in a fake baby voice. "I think you'll figure it out during your week of being grounded, but maybe you'll realise it during your time of cleaning up the monument before being grounded?" Minato said as he looked at Naruto with an amused smirk; Naruto's facial expression was priceless.

"Nani!? You've gotta be shitting me!?" Naruto screamed and made gestures with his hands and arms as Minato had to move out of the way, to avoid being hit.

"Does it look as if I'm 'shitting' you?" Minato asked, emphasizing the 'oh-so-beautiful' word choice of his son.

Naruto shouted out in agony and self-pity.

"Hey, it could be worse, maybe you want me to extend your punishment?" Minato asked and couldn't help but grin at Naruto's facial expression.

"NO! I'll be a good boy!" Naruto said, somewhat embarrassed by what he just said, but hugged his dad all the same.

Minato laughed and ruffled his hair while returning the hug. "When you want to be, you can be so sweet, and sometimes I wonder if you're really human or if you're a failed experiment," he said as Naruto's jaw dropped.

"That was really low, so we're even," Naruto smirked as Minato snorted.

"Fine, you're not grounded, but you're still cleaning the monument," Minato answered as Naruto's face faltered.

"Damn it . . ." he cursed before realising his mistake.

"I'll take that back, you're grounded for . . . a month."

"Dad!"

That's it. Please leave reviews and I hope you enjoyed the story. It's been a great adventure writing this story, and since it's my first story I've published online it's been quite nerv-wrecking at times as well. I thank you all for staying with me during this journey.

Cheers.