Six Years Too Long

Chapter 1

Warning: This book is fairly wordy and long-winded at times. I ramble, it can get repetitive, but that's just how I do it. If you don't like it, please don't read it 😭 it's just my style of writing and how I enjoy writing best! Hate comments will be deleted and the users will be blocked, and then you won't be able to comment or read at all.

To everyone who is rereading, or new readers coming in, thank you all for coming! This book was my re-introduction into Naruto after not writing it for many years. The first dozen chapters may seem shaky as I find my footing and for that I apologize, but I sincerely hope you enjoy.

Thank you all for helping me rekindle my love for this fandom.

Again, HATE COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED, USERS WILL BE BLOCKED! If you don't like something don't read it, but please don't be a dick about it either. I'm not going to change it. It's fanfiction y'all it's not gonna be perfect and it's 100% gonna be cringey at times and suck a little. Go write your own fic if you think this one's ass omg 😭 let me live

This is cross posted on AO3

Third person pov

The Kyuubi attack had been devastating, as one might suspect. The lives lost that day were immeasurable, and the structural damage done to the village had left them vulnerable and several without homes. The tensions it caused politically nearly tore Konoha apart at its seams.

Losing their Fourth Hokage had taken a toll on them. Such a tragedy was not one they easily recovered from. The Yellow Flash of Konoha was a war hero revered across the nations and loved by his village. The news of his and his wife's death brought great mourning to all who'd looked up to him. He'd given everything to the Leaf Village. Including his life in the end. He was a respectable Kage-- a true hero. 

One issue that was severely overlooked was the lack of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki's bodies at the end of it all. Last anyone had seen of either of them, they'd both had a gaping hole through their middles and Minato'd been performing the Reaper Death Seal. When no one could find their remains, they hadn't been surprised. They'd taken what little remained of their Fourth Hokage's robe and gotten closure as best they could, pulling Kushina's headband from her home and placing that alongside it.

They were a little too concerned about their decimated village to try and figure out the exact way the bodies of their beloved leader and his wife had been destroyed. Perhaps it was a side effect of the seal, or the Kyuubi's overwhelming chakra. It hadn't even crossed their minds that they-- that Minato-- could be alive.

But he apparently was. Because the guy woke up alone in the woods, nearly six years after said nine tails attack, completely unscathed, confused, and.. and sad.

His last memory was of Naruto. He was so, so tiny, wailing so loudly as the Nine Tailed Fox was sealed in him. Minato had been ready to seal the other half in himself when his world went blank. The last thing he heard was Kushina cursing and beginning the very hand signs he'd been prepared to do himself. His heart dropped when he realized that probably meant she'd done what he'd been planning to.

His head weakly turned, searching for signs of... well, anything, really. He very clearly recognized this location as the place he'd teleported the Nine Tailed Demon to, but the destruction that had been wrought was missing. Green grass spread where there should've been scorch marks, and fallen trees were either cleared or overgrown. The movement of his head made it spin. Nausea lit up in his stomach like a warning. 

Something wasn't right. Minato knew this, but he couldn't find the energy to inspect it too much further at the moment. He simply laid there and watched the clouds drift by lazily, the grief of undoubtedly losing his wife bubbling over into tears that forced their way out of his eyes.