Chapter 1

Hey guys! How's it been? I've decided to completely redo this story, make it more better and fit it to the plot I was originally going for. Sorry I haven't been updating- school is tough. I've been trying to keep up. But enough of that, this is a present to y'all guys.

So without further ado...let's get started.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in Naruto.

There had always been those days in his career when he wondered if perhaps he was going to die. It was an inevitable question that would later become an inevitable part of life that he would be forced to accept- not because he had to, but because it was what he chose.

He had been an orphan- had never known a mother's love or a father's pride personally- but he always made do with what he had. And he had understood from an early age; maybe before he understood the full implications of his career, that if he made ties with people then he had better be prepared to fight for them...and occasionally lose them.

His life (or any life for the matter) was never planned- just expected. It happened all the time, not with him of course, but he had read about it and seen it happen in the last generations. Men, who had been there this morning, appeared slung on a gurney in the afternoon; dead.

The Kyuubi however was neither expected or planned- at least not to him. But he does what he needs to, because he has chosen what he is and he be damned if he lose what he has.

The masked ninja with who. He fights with is skilled, but in the end, he proves that no matter what: no ordinary and physical tool- no fancy nancy jutsu- is ever enough for the might of the intelligence a man can possess.

He proves this again as he stands in front of the restrained Kyuubi, beside his wife and just over his newborn son. He made the seal from scratch. He knows it is a work of art, just like any seal is, but this is part of the legacy he will leave behind along with his son.

And he can't help but think how much of a shoddy father he is. No father would have ever condemned his son to a life of suffering. No father would die afterwards- leaving his newborn son in the hands of people he knows will make that son's life a living hell.

But it is what he has chosen.

And as he gasps out blood, scewerd by the Kyuubi's sharp and bloody claw, just behind his wife, he can't help but think, 'We are the choices we make.' His wife is just as reluctant as he is, but she gives his baby boy advice that he doesn't understand, but will...someday.

When he feels a cool tugging sensation in his belly, he wonders if that is what death feels like. But then he raises his hand to touch his wife, but stops in shock as he sees it nearly intangible.

And then just as abruptly- there is darkness and he is swallowed.