I'm baaaaaack!!!!

First off, nothing is off, nothing is cancelled, hiatus-ed, or killed. All non-completed fics are still underway. See my profile for complete details.

Kudos to my ever-phenomenal betareader, JH24.

And now, a new story. I am still working on everything else, but school, two jobs, and life in general have severely limited my writing time. This idea grabbed me, and I ran with it in an attempt to get 'back in the game', so to speak. Here goes.

WARNING: This is going to be fairly dark; even if it doesn't look like it now. Major characters will be killed, permanently maimed and/or mentally traumatized. If this isn't for you…well, you have been warned. Flamers will be made fun of.

A Simple Courtesy

Sarutobi Hiruzen winced as he gazed from the Hokage tower down onto the raging demonic entity massacring its way through Konoha's finest. It really is just as the legends describe; a true force of nature, all but unstoppable.

He glanced over at the young man to his left. He was tall and rather muscular, with shoulder-length blonde hair. The man was the feared Yellow Flash, Yondaime Hokage, and Hero of the Konohagakure no Sato, but to Sarutobi, he was a good friend, a confidant, and most importantly, his successor.

Sarutobi was incredibly proud of Minato, having watched his growth from when he was a young boy learning under Jiraiya. Now, he was the epitome of a shinobi; so powerful and renowned he could be slightly intimidating even to his closest friends.

It wasn't anything he consciously did, but rather the way he carried himself, his trademark flame-hemmed cloak, and his awe-inspiring reputation demanded respect, even though the man who bore them didn't relish it. As Sarutobi's successor, he was acknowledged to be the most powerful man in the village, and the aged Sandaime loved him like a grandson. And all it took was that one glance to see that Minato was afraid. To see this man, the pinnacle of the mighty Leaf Ninja so worried put Sarutobi over the edge.

"Dammit, Minato, don't you have anything?! Anything at all we could use to stop Madara's ambition?"

The Bane of the Iwagakure looked back at him with a small smile that never reached his eyes. "Shiki Fuujin."

Sarutobi scowled. "I thought you never finished that."

Despite his words, Sarutobi couldn't help but feel slightly relieved. It amazed him how despite the fear radiating off of the younger man, he still managed to exude a quiet and calming confidence.

"It will work."

"No. I forbid it. There is still time; we must search for another way."

"Hiruzen…you know, just as well as I, that there is no other way. And it will work; the theory is sound, and I have all the necessary arrays on parchment at home."

"Even assuming it does work, it will kill you, and then where are we left?"

"It will work, old friend. It will work. Konoha will need you after I'm done, though."

Sarutobi stared for a minute, and then gave a short, reluctant nod. "…Very well. I cannot believe it's come to this…"

Minato let out a mirthless laugh. "Neither can I."

Hiruzen needed to know more, though, before he was willing to let his successor march to his own demise. "From what I've seen of your notes, the technique will require a jinchuuriki." (1)

"That's correct."

The old man glared. "I thought we were above that! Who do you intend to inflict such a fate upon?"

The mighty Yondaime looked away. "Who else could I use?"

Shock did not begin to describe Sarutobi's face. "Your own son?! Gods above, man, have you completely lost your mind?"

Minato sighed. "It's the best possible choice. Little Naruto will need to grow up without my name attached to his; the Iwagakure will never allow him to live if they find out who his father was. You can step in, make him a ward of the state, and after everything's settled down, leave him with Kushina and Jiraiya-sensei. Please, Ojiisan. You know as well as I do that it is the only way."

Hiruzen tilted his head back and gazed at the ceiling. It seems so long ago…I would sit, and stare at this very spot, and feel sorry for myself about how much paperwork there was to do. I would give anything for those days to be back… "…Do what you have to do. I will take care of the rest."

Minato nodded. "The notes for Shiki Fuujin are with the rest of my research materials; the seal shouldn't need maintenance, but I don't want to gamble with a demon lord. And Sarutobi…make sure he's seen as the hero he is."

"Very well." As the younger man turned to go, Sarutobi grabbed his shoulder. "Minato…good luck, kid."

The young blonde nodded, then vanished in his signature yellow flash. Sarutobi turned from the window, eyes filling with hot tears he would not allow himself to shed, knowing that this had been the last time he would see Minato alive.

An infinitesimally small fraction of a second after departing the Tower, Namikaze Minato arrived at one of the many thousands of Hiraishin seals inscribed all over Konoha. Those very seals had been the reason no foreign power had been willing to attack Konoha for several years; now, all they were good for was transporting him to his newborn son and his sleeping wife.

The hospital had collapsed soon after the Kyuubi had first arrived. Hundreds had died, mostly victims of the Kyuubi's wrath who had survived the beast's direct attacks. However, a kunoichi of Kushina's skill would not be put down that easily, and despite being in horrible shape from a difficult pregnancy, despite the near-lethal amount of blood she had lost giving birth to the beautiful baby boy clutched tightly in her arms, Kushina had managed to not only escape the hospital's destruction with her son but had also rescued eleven other patients before adrenaline ran out and a combination of her injuries and fatigue knocked her unconscious.

Exactly four seconds after the first messenger had informed him about the hospital, Minato had gathered his two most important people in the world up and was flashing to the Senju main house, the only place he could think of to find someone with enough skill in iro-ninjutsu (2) to heal his wife and care for his son.

And now, only a few short hours after that moment, he was back, trying to avoid looking at a far-too-pale Kushina while simultaneously trying to imprint the image of her face on his retinas. All too soon, he had hugged a tearful Tsunade goodbye, given his wife one last kiss, and gathered his sleeping child up in his arms, before leaving to face his own worst nightmare.

It was over. Sarutobi Hiruzen had watched through the crystal ball in the Hokage Tower as his successor appeared on Konoha's north-west wall. The gigantic red-skinned toad boss Gamabunta arrived on the scene in a cloud of smoke, and the two conversed briefly before leaping off towards the Kyuubi. The beast roared, but never had a chance to counterattack before its energy was drained away by some invisible force into the small child in the Yondaime's arms. It took only a few short minutes for the sealing to complete, and then the empty, translucent body of the fox demon slowly began to evaporate into the night sky. As the last vestiges of the demon disappeared from sight, so did Gamabunta, leaving the Hokage to fall to the ground. Sarutobi watched as three of the ninja who had previously been attacking the Kyuubi caught their dying leader in their arms; of them, he recognized only Jiraiya. He watched as Minato spoke a few short, pained words to his old teacher before going limp.

And now, he stood in the Hokage's office, having reclaimed his old robes of office from his home in the East District, carrying the young baby Naruto, and vainly trying to soothe the wailing child while just as vainly trying to persuade some of the more influential members of the village that the boy was NOT going to be slain.

They understood that the Kyuubi couldn't escape; they trusted their Yondaime's mastery of sealing. Their calls for Naruto's death sprung from a simple desire for revenge. It disgusted the aged Hokage to see so many of his friends and compatriots reduced to such a state, and it was at this point that he realized he couldn't keep his promise to Minato.

Sarutobi fixed as many of the ringleaders as he could with a piercing glare. "And would you call for death with such enthusiasm if you knew that this boy was your beloved Yondaime's child?"

That silenced all but a very few, who were in turn silenced by their peers. Sarutobi continued. "This boy is Namikaze Naruto. He is the son and heir to the Yondaime Hokage, and he has been given the terrible burden of jailing the Kyuubi for the rest of his days. It cannot escape. It cannot possess him. Its fate is to suffer for many years to come. Is this not a far better punishment? Is this not justice? And this boy is the one who will do our justice to the Kyuubi. This boy is the son of a Hokage, the greatest lineage in Konoha anyone can claim to have. He will grow up loved by his people, he will follow in his father's footsteps, and he will become one of the greatest ninja the world has ever seen. And you poor, pathetic fools clamour for his death?! For shame. You are all shamed and dishonoured. Now get out of my sight, and do not return until you have changed your ways. Begone!"

And so it was, that Namikaze Naruto became known throughout the Konohagakure as the hero who restrains the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and as the only child of the Yondaime Hokage.

(1) Keep in mind that the term jinchuuriki is literally translated to mean 'human sacrifice' or 'the power of human sacrifice' and only refers to those few who wield the bijuu. Sarutobi is referring to the fact that an innocent must be used to seal the demon, which he considers to be a great sacrifice.

(2) iro-ninjutsu – medical or healing ninjutsu.

There is a phenomenon known as the butterfly effect. It describes how a simple, tiny, innocent change causes ripple effects that can cause slightly greater changes, which in their turn cause still greater changes, and before long, something drastically different than what was originally predicted occurs. The most common example is likened to a tiny butterfly beating its wings. Does it go east, or west? Harmless, many might say, and of no consequence. But this change, east or west, can cause subtle changes to the wind currents, all but undetectable by any modern means. But the changes are there, and these subtle changes gradually diverge the course of fate, until a hurricane meant to strike one place ends up somewhere completely different, allowing some to live who were destined to die, and causing others to die who were destined to live. It shows the unpredictability of fate, and indeed shows that all fate is based around the concept of free will. Those who die in the wind and water of the hurricane are helpless against fate, but somewhere along the line, that fate was influenced by the free will of a simple butterfly that knew not what dire consequences its decision would have. This is a very drastic example, but it shows the point admirably. And now, this very principle is applied to the day-old Namikaze Naruto. A simple courtesy to a baby boy, one old man's split-second decision to attempt to improve that baby's future, will change the fate of nations. Enjoy the ride.