A/N

I do not, and never will, own Naruto.

AU

I read this idea on Nobody102's profile, in his list of ideas he wasn't going to use. It sat in my brain for a couple weeks, maturing, and then I had to write it.

Of course, it will differ widely from the original idea.

Prologue

Hiruzen paused outside the door for a second, taking a breath before opening it.

Entering, he was reminded, as always, of how different this room had become since he had been Hokage. Minato left all the windows open, letting the cool afternoon breeze blow through the office. Hiruzen had always kept them closed, since he had left papers strewn all over his desk, and they would have all been carried away by the wind.

Minato's desk was just what you would expect from him. There was a small stack of four folders on his left hand side, piled neatly, without a glimpse of paper escaping from the sides. On his right, a folder lay open, its contents neatly secured together with a paper clip. A couple pieces of paper lay in front of him, weighed down with paper weights or the man's arm.

Everything else was either in his drawers, or stored away in a file cabinet, neatly organized by category and then alphabetized.

Minato looked up, smiling when he saw who had entered. "Ahhh, Hokage-sama!"

"Hokage-sama." Hiruzen nodded back, smiling at their old joke.

"How's retirement?" Minato asked cheekily.

"It's amazing. So relaxing, and so much free time on my hands. I love it." Hiruzen responded, lying through his teeth.

Minato sympathized with the man. From his very early twenties, till his mid-fifties, Sarutobi Hiruzen had been the Hokage of Konoha, and almost all of his time had been occupied by the demanding job. Now, Hiruzen was bored out of his mind. He simply didn't know what to do with himself anymore. He spent so much time at the Academy, Minato was considering offering him a permanent job there.

"What are you doing there?" Hiruzen asked curiously, begging for something to banish the boredom.

"Preparing for the worst." Minato said, a small, sad smile on his face.

He remembered almost everything the Third had ever taught him about being Hokage. One of his very first lessons he had received in the office had been;

"The Hokage should hope for the best, but always prepare for the worst."

Hiruzen grunted in recognition, walking around the desk to peer over Minato's shoulder. His eyes widened in recognition. It was a sketch, a very detailed sketch, of an extremely intricate sealing array. It was very similar, but subtly different, to Kushina's seal, which Hiruzen had seen once.

He grasped the purpose immediately.

"How long till Kushina's due?" He asked, slightly surprised.

"A month or so." Minato said. "But it's hardly a normal pregnancy. It wouldn't be surprising if little Naruto ends up premature." His voice, when he spoke his son's name, was filled with affection.

"I see." The Hokage said solemnly. "Wait. Why are there multiple of them?" He asked, eying the drawings underneath.

"Like I said." Minato said, smiling slightly. "Absolute worst case scenario."

xxxx

Three weeks later

"I'll be right back." Minato said, pulling his other arm through his Hokage's coat. There was a twirl of white fabric, and he was gone.

Kushina merely groaned in acknowledgement, pressing Naruto's soft forehead against her own. They were laying on the bed, and the soft sheets contrasted with the sharp pain in her belly.

The pain of childbirth had been bad, but it hadn't done anything to prepare her for having the Kyuubi ripped out of her seal. Childbirth had been excruciating, but in a strange way it was still a...natural pain. The way her seal burned, as the Kyuubi was ripped out, reminded her more of one of Ibiki's horror stories. Like someone had taken a couple of wires and completed a circuit through her navel. The demonic chakra had always seemed acidic to Kushina, and the remnants were still burning away on her stomach.

She forced away the pain, desperate to deliver a message. She ran her hand through Naruto's tiny golden locks, smelling his skin.

"I love you, Naruto."

With that, she closed her eyes and let the darkness claim her.

xxxx

A little later

Minato banished all thoughts of the masked man from his mind, as he checked Kushina's pulse, feeling his panic abate as he felt the steady throb in her neck.

Minato looked down at his sleeping wife, then picked his son up from the bed. The first two Kyuubi Jinchuuriki had only received the fox after adolescence, when their bodies were more developed, and more equipped for the task. And they had been full-blooded Uzamaki, filled with vitality.

There was no way he could seal the entire Kyuubi into baby Naruto, even if he had wanted to. Luckily, he had already taken precautions.

He looked up when an ANBU alighted on the window sill, his wolf mask glinting in the moonlight. He had been the only ANBU smart enough, or stupid enough, to look for the Yellow Flash at his house during an attack.

"Gather the squads. Initiate Worst Case Scenario. You know what to do." Minato said, enunciating clearly, but quickly.

"Hai!" The man disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Minato activated Hiraishin, and felt his feet alight on cold concrete. He strode over, and placed Naruto, still wrapped in blankets, gently on a long wooden table, where a seal was inscribed in the wood.

"I'll be back, son," He promised, the word rolling strangely off his lips, "I have a fox to catch."

xxxx

"My apologies, Hiashi-sama. But the Hokage isn't really asking. One child is required from every major clan of Konoha. All the other clans have already given theirs, even the Uchiha." The ANBU said, his wolf mask to the side, over his right ear, revealing his dangerous, violet eyes.

"I don't give a damn about the Uchiha!" Hiashi sputtered. "The Uchiha can barely produce one talented Shinobi every generation! All their tactics rely on making eye contact. Against the Hyuuga, they're nothing! Every Hyuuga, without exception, either has been, or is currently, an excellent shinobi of the Leaf!" He straightened up. "The Hyuuga are the most respected Clan in Konoha. We are above such undignified practices as the one you propose." He concluded haughtily, his back perfectly straight.

The ANBU's face had remained slightly bored for most of Hiashi's speech, bearing the rant with remarkable patience for one so pressed for time. But at the last bit, his eyes flashed dangerously, his mouth dropping into a fierce scowl.

"ENOUGH!" he roared. "The Hokage is using his own son, as well, for this operation! How dare you insinuate that the Hyuuga are above him!" He stood up slightly, trying to get his emotions under control. "I'm taking your daughter, Hiashi-sama." He said, his voice deep and steady. "Unfortunately, we're rather pressed for time. We can either do this the easy way, " he slinked back slightly, ready to leap into action at any second. "Or we can do this the hard way." He finished, his voice perfectly neutral, his gaze steady, his stance confident.

Hiashi stared wearily into the eyes of the ANBU in front of him.

He wondered, not for the first time, what kind of man could inspire such fierce loyalty in his subordinates.

"Very well. Take her. " He said in resignation, waving his hand at the crib in the corner. He turned and departed, ignoring the ANBU that vanished behind him.

He tried to bury the fear rising in him, but he could feel it spreading, cold, from his stomach, up to where it lodged firmly in his throat. Unbidden, tears rose to his eyes as he contemplated the fate of his daughter. Now he just had to figure out how to break the news to her mother.

xxxx

The ANBU arrived at the concrete slab, staring. A giant clearing had been made in the forest of Konoha, and concrete had been poured down in a fitting, forming a perfectly smooth floor. A giant circular seal, easily as wide as a house, was scribed in the center, in charcoal. In the middle, the Kyuubi itself was glued to the floor, wrapped in long, thick chains from head to tail...tails.

It's chakra saturated the air, resulting in a heavy, sticky, atmosphere that was thick enough to gag on. The Kyuubi itself was growling lowly, snarling at the young Hokage, revealing canine's taller than Wolf.

The Hokage was standing in front of a long wooden table, where eight babies lay, perfectly silent. It was as if the babies could sense how close they were to oblivion.

As Wolf watched, a smaller, green circle glowed to life inside the biggest one trapping the Kyuubi, and began to spin. The Kyuubi growled, emitting an unbelievable amount of killing intent. The ANBU walked over to the table, his knees shaking, and placed the young Hyuuga girl inside the last circle.

Then he joined his subordinates around the edge of the large seal, adding his own chakra to the circle suppressing the Kyuubi.

The Kyuubi began to shrink, it's chakra sucked into the spinning ring. This process continued for several seconds, and in that time the Kyuubi shrunk to half its original size. Then the ring stopped spinning, and the chakra stopped flowing. The magic circle seemingly picked itself up off the floor of its own accord, and floated across towards the Fourth Hokage.

At the same time, Minato was touching the seal beneath Naruto, lifting it off the wood. He stood there, and both seals diminished in size to connect the outer edges to each of his fingertips. From there, he placed the Kyuubi's ring on young Naruto's belly, and then placed the ring from the table on top. With a twist of his right hand, he locked both rings into place, even as the young boy's cries of pain entered the air.

With a sigh, Minato lowered his hands. Then he turned to face the Kyuubi, and took a deep breath. Then he repeated the process with the next child, the Uchiha boy. This time, the Kyuubi shrank down to one third of its original size.

Then he repeated the process with each of the babies, splitting the remaining third of the Kyuubi into 7 parts.

When he finished, Minato was sweating, and panting heavily. Where the Kyuubi had once dwarfed the clearing, nothing was left except scorched concrete.

The ANBU stepped forward, gathering around the young Hokage, who was starting to regain his breath.

"Excellent work." He said, straightening up. "I made a slight miscalculation, and ended up putting more chakra into the last one, the Hyuuga girl, than I originally meant to." He paused to take a large breath. "But it should be okay. After Naruto and young Sasuke, she's probably the most suited for handling the Kyuubi's chakra."

The ANBU didn't really understand his logic there, but they said nothing, waiting for orders. Minato's head suddenly jerked up into the trees, in alarm. The ANBU looked too, but couldn't see anything.

"Wolf, stay here for a moment. The rest of you, take a child, and return them to their families. Inform them that the mission was a success, and that the seals are more than secure." The fourth put particular emphasis on the last part. "Then report to the Third, inform him of the situation, and wait for orders." The nine ANBU did as instructed, and vanished.

Wolf waited patiently.

"I summoned the Sannin, on the off chance that something like this would happen." Minato informed the last ANBU. "I have a feeling my wife will need more than a normal medic-nin. As soon as Tsunade arrives, bring her to my wife immediately. Inform both her and Jiraiya of everything that happened, assuming the Third doesn't beat you to it. I want Jiraiya to double check my seals, then Kushina if..." he paused, "when she awakens."

Wolf nodded, his eyes never leaving his leader's face.

"And...tell my family I love them, in case I don't return." He said, his voice grave.

"Hokage-sama?" Wolf asked in alarm, just as a man in dark robes with an orange mask jumped down into the clearing. The ANBU couldn't even sense his chakra.

"Go." Minato said, turning to face the masked man. "I have great respect for your skills, Wolf, but this fight is far beyond your capabilities. You'd only be in the way."

Wolf, for the first time, felt true fear for the young Hokage. This must be the man who killed his ANBU earlier. He had sworn to protect the Hokage with his life, but Wolf had a feeling that the Hokage was right. He'd only be in the way, and he had orders.

"Hai." He said, then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Minato breathed a sigh of relief. It sort of defeated the purpose to gain affection for your bodyguards, but he could hardly be a genius about everything.

"So." The man behind the mask said, his voice deep. "You sealed the Kyuubi away already." There was an unspoken question there.

"Yes." Minato said, feeling unusually talkative. If he had his way, the masked man wouldn't leave this place alive. "Into nine different babies, actually. Have fun trying to track them down." He grinned.

The masked man scowled slightly behind his mask. "That's annoying. Babies, you say? Nine of them? How fitting."

Minato inclined his head slightly.

"This way, their chakras will mix better, and they'll have superior control over the Kyuubi's chakra, in comparison to older Jinchuuriki. How ingenious." The masked man continued.

"Why thank you." Minato said, sarcastically.

"Of course, none of them will live long enough to realize their potential." The masked man continued, sounding almost regretful.

"And why's that?" Minato asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Because, after I kill you, I'll collect them, put the pieces back together, and flatten Konoha like I was going to earlier. Preferably before the Sun rises." He continued, his voice completely sure.

"That's not going to happen." Minato replied.

"And why's that?"

"Because I'm going to kill you right here, right now. If you really are Madara, you should've been killed a long time ago. I'll correct that mistake." Minato answered, his voice deadly.

The man grinned behind his mask. "You shouldn't underestimate me."

Minato swept his hand out from behind his cloak, sending his kunai flying around the clearing.

Tobi swayed to the side, letting one of the kunai fly past him. Then he sprang at Minato, his arm extended in exactly the same way as earlier.

Minato jumped forward too, and threw a kunai forward, which passed through the mask, in an exact mirror of their clash earlier. Just as Tobi's hand reached him, he used Hiraishin to get to the Kunai, and spun a rasengan into the back of the masked man.

He popped, releasing a small cloud of smoke. Minato looked up to see Tobi falling out of the sky, his hand once again reaching towards Minato.

Tobi plunged downwards, his hand an inch from Minato's face, only to have the Hokage disappear at the last second, and Tobi just barely managed to twist his body back up before he broke his hand on the concrete.

Minato flashed down from the tree, back to the kunai he just left, stabbing his kunai in Tobi's chest.

Tobi watched from his tree as his clone exploded into smoke, and sent a trio of kunai at the young Hokage, grunting in satisfaction as they sunk into the man's chest.

His eyebrows rose as the Hokage exploded into smoke. There was a rush of wind behind him, and before he could react, he had a kunai protruding from his chest.

Tobi turned around to smile at the young Hokage.

Minato noticed a new design in the man's red eye, right before he exploded into a flock of crows that crowded his vision.

Quickly, Minato flashed down to the ground, before Tobi could take advantage of his obscured vision.

Tobi watched from high above, from a branch that he had never actually left. Minato's eyes rose from the ground, unerringly meeting Tobi's.

He slowly took off his coat, tossing it to the side, watching as Tobi descended to land on the opposite side of the clearing.

"We can start for real now." He informed the masked man.

That was the Hokage's idea of a warm-up? The masked man felt a smile grow on his face. Perhaps Konoha hadn't fallen as far as he thought.

xxxx

Where once there had been a small clearing, now the forest was flattened for miles. Fires, usually made of black flames, covered the landscape.

The masked man clutched his burned arm, grimacing in pain. His space/time jutsu took too much chakra to maintain for any length of time, and he had been caught unawares by an explosive tag. His robe was split open around his middle, revealing a shallow slash across his abdomen, which was slowly dripping blood. His mask had been glanced by a rasengan, splitting it in half, revealing his other sharingan. A tiny piece of his mask had cut through his left cheek, resulting in a stream of blood down his face, flowing under the bottom part of the mask still covering his mouth.

He was very unhappy. Not only had his mask been broken, but he had also been required to use much more chakra than he had planned on.

Minato stood opposite him, breathing heavily. He had almost been caught by the man's vortex, and had narrowly escaped for a second time using Hiraishin. After that, the masked man had brought out his long chain, with which he integrated multiple fighting styles, such that his attacks were impossible to predict.

Minato clutched his rib cage, where Tobi had broken several ribs with the heavy chain. He was left in a long sleeved blue shirt, his flak jacket quickly flung to the side after Tobi had glanced it with an Amaterasu, slowly incinerating the material.

Minato was getting frustrated. While it was true that he was slowly wearing down the masked man, who was probably more injured, he was running out of time and chakra. Any minute now, ninja from the village would show up, and get in the way. Or he would run out of chakra, and be killed.

Tobi, for his part, was just as frustrated. He had used up way too much chakra, and was running out of ideas for dealing with the annoyingly fast shinobi. He couldn't seem to catch the Yellow Flash with Amaterasu, much less anything slower. Any minute now, ANBU would probably begin to arrive, and his opportunity to finish the Yellow Flash once and for all would be gone.

Tobi contemplated a Namikaze Minato in his mid-thirties, resisting his Moon's eye plan. That just would not do. He had to finish off the young Hokage, tonight.

At least the Hokage had seemingly run out of surprises as well. The giant toad had almost crushed the masked man, but he had managed to turn himself insubstantial just in time. Then the frog had been dismissed quickly, not fast enough to be of any more use in a battle of speed.

Minato took a deep breath. It was time. He could not afford to let this man escape alive; next time he would return, prepared, and he would destroy Konoha. Besides, the man was threatening his son, and he couldn't have that.

"I suppose I'll show you my final ace." He said, voice carrying to the masked man. "Pay attention, I can guarantee you've never seen this before."

The masked man took the bait, hook, line and sinker. He straightened up, focusing his sharingan on the Hokage's hands, memorizing the handseals, and waited.

The Hokage finished the handseals, and straightened up, a shocked expression on his face.

Tobi waited for a second, then laughed. "That's quite the impressive technique you've got there. Was it supposed to actually do something?" He asked snidely.

It felt like a bucket of ice-water had been thrown at his chest. Except instead of splashing against him, it had passed all the way through, freezing his insides.

At the same time, the world seemed to fade. The hissing of the burning forest, the cracks as trees collapsed; it all faded. The wind on his face, the sweat on his arms and around his mask, all feeling faded too. Then the world took on a grayish tint, all color fading except for the colors on the Hokage in front of him, and the glowing entity behind him.

The thing was as tall as the Kyuubi, vaguely man-shaped, and swirling with power. Currents under the surface of its translucent skin colored it in many shades of green, purple, and gray. It had gray dreadlocks, and two eyes that were completely yellow.

It's presence was massive, even larger than the Kyuubi's. It was an entity so old, so ancient, that it made the Kyuubi look like a little kit sucking at its mother's breast. It's very presence commanded absolute obedience, it's stern, yet gleeful, visage relishing his terror.

It could only be one thing; the Shinigami, the death god. And it was focused on him.

At the same time, Tobi realized that it had one long, light blue arm extended. It traveled through the Fourth's chest, burying itself in his own.

"You know who this is, right?" Minato called. When Tobi didn't answer, gritting his teeth, Minato continued. "The Shinigami can only be seen by those already within his grasp. The fact that you can see him means you're already crossing the threshold between life and death."

The Fourth gave a tug, and Tobi almost collapsed. He could feel his soul being ripped from his body; the Shinigami claiming him.

Minato grunted, and gave another tug, ripping Tobi's soul completely from his body. His last sight of the man had him falling forward, panic on his face, one sharingan spinning uselessly in one, last, desperate attempt for a jutsu.

Then the man face-planted in the dirt, where he belonged.

Minato breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the Shinigami withdraw his arm from him for the time being. He had one last thing to do, and not even the Shinigami could keep him from doing it, even if it had wanted to.

Using Hiraishin for the last time, he alighted on his home carpet, stumbling to the bed where his wife and son were sleeping.

He coughed, hacking up blood, which he wiped across the back of his hand.

He bent over the bed, staring at his child. It could have been a mirror to the past, an almost exact copy of himself as a baby, except for one thing; the whisker marks on both cheeks.

"I love you, son." He said, cherishing the words. Then he formed his last seal. He would leave the rest of his chakra inside his newborn son, watching over the Kyuubi till the day Naruto could control it for himself.

He pressed the seal to Naruto's stomach, feeling the chakra flow out his body, down through his hands, and into the small child.

The world darkened, and he fell over backwards, dead before he hit the floor.

And so ended the time of the Yellow Flash, savior of Konoha, and the Fourth Hokage.

xxxx

Meanwhile, little Naruto dreamed.

He was once again being forced out into the light, into life, this time with the accompanying roar of the Kyuubi.

He was terrified, or as terrified as a one-day-old child could be.

Suddenly the dream vanished, replaced by a warm presence, a soft yellow light, and the feeling of security, of being safe, washed over the newborn.

"Shhhh, Naruto. It's okay, I'm here. You're safe now." The warm, familiar voice washed over him.

The child did not yet know what the words meant, but on a deeper level he understood the reassuring tone behind them.

And so his dreams vanished, and he slipped into a deeper, peaceful sleep.

xxxx

The man stumbled onto the table, almost missing it. His left eye was now completely blind, and Tobi would have to procure a new one.

To think that the little yellow brat had forced him to use Izanagi. Tobi snorted. He had been old before the Fourth had even been born.

"Zetsu..." He coughed out.

The two-sided man rose out of the floor, and wordlessly began administering aid.

Having subordinates was useful, after all. It was definitely time to acquire some more. And resources...and plans. He had been delayed, for sure. Never had he expected to meet such resistance in Konoha. For now he needed to rest, recover, and secure another Sharingan.

Then, perhaps, he would finally start recruiting.

xxxx

A/N

Tell me what you think! The night of the Kyuubi's attack and Minato's fight with Tobi is one of my favorite parts of the series, and it was even more fun to write.

I'm going to try to start writing more, we'll see how that goes. Although I might also be really busy the next couple of weekends...so we'll see.

~protossfire