Birth of the Forest

Birth of the Forest 1.

KONOHA'S OUTSKIRTS

Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, drew upon the last of his chakra as he and his wife gazed at their beloved son. The Sandaime and his squad looked at the tragic scene with tears flowing down their eyes.

"FUUINJUTSU: SHIKI FUUIN!"

The death god materialized behind Minato. The fourth looked at his son's face with bottomless regret as he and his wife spoke their last words to their son.

He looked at Sarutobi, "keep him safe, Sandaime. He is a hero of the leaf, and must be treated as such. Promise me!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, nodded solemnly. "I promise"

Minato released chakra.

"SEAL!"

The Kyuubi's Yang chakra was sealed into little Naruto. The Yin chakra was in the process of being sealed into the Shinigami, but Minato was faltering. A bit of the Yin chakra was sealed into young Naruto as well. Minato's face grew anguished. Kushina had already passed out, but he could still feel her life force faintly.

He would not let his son be tainted by the fox's malice. Drawing on the power of the seal, he tried to pull out the Yin chakra sealed in Naruto forcibly, but to his horror he was drawing out Naruto's soul as well.

Hastily he released the sealing technique and Naruto's soul snapped back into its body. The seal was somewhat changed from the traditional reaper death seal.

He looked at the Sandaime one last time, and secured the SHIKI FUUIN with the Eight Trigram Seal. It would allow Naruto the Kyuubi's chakra with purification. He felt himself fading into darkness.

"Good luck, Naruto"

The protective dome wavered and the Sandaime rushed in to gather Naruto in his arms.

"Kushina-sama is alive, Sandaime-sama!"

The Sandaime felt relief on hearing this. The child would not be alone.

"Get her to the medics, NOW! I will take Naruto myself!"

The consequences of this day's events would be beyond comprehension.

THIRTEEN YEARS LATER

Uzumaki Naruto was currently bored. So bored in fact that he had his head lying comfortably upon his desk, drooling on to the floor: A clear indication that he was drifting off to sleep.

Naruto was predictably reaching for one of the multiple bowls of miso ramen floating around in his dreamland. His drooling increased to what one might call gross levels and he let out a rather happy snore. The food of the gods....

...

..

"NARUTO!"

Naruto was rudely awakened from his fantasy land and excitably jumped onto the table. He looked around energetically before fixing his gaze upon the one jutsu dreaded by all academy students.

Iruka-sensei's demonic giant head jutsu.

"NARUTO, YOU INATTENTIVE LITTLE BRAT! TELL ME, WHY WAS SENJU HASHIRAMA THE MOST FEARED NINJA ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF THE FIRST WAR?"

Naruto scratched his head..."Well, he could do a lot of powerful jutsus?"

A tic mark appeared on Iruka's visage. The class sniggered at Naruto, Kiba Inuzuka taking particular pains to mock the dead last.

"Idiot! He could do a lot of powerful jutsu..." he mocked in a singsong voice.

"SHUT UP DOGGY!" Naruto yelled. Iruka blew up yet again: "QUIET!"