My True Family

1 - A Broken Family

Namikaze Naruto was running across rooftops to get home in a rush. Being 11, he was running home from the academy after a long and boring day. He entered his house and went straight to his room. He knew his father wasn't home and he left school before Menma did, so he went to his room, got some gear to train with, and left for a training ground.

He hated staying at his home, so he tried his best to stay away from there as much as possible. Not that his father cared at all, he'd barely notice him if he was there. Hell, not many people even know he exists at all, they just assume the yondaime only had one child. That being Menma, a red-haired boy with whisker marks on his cheeks, and a face that more resembled Kushina.

Speaking of Menma, he was only younger by five minutes, but Minato gives all of his attention to him. Naruto often thinks that his own dad just...forgot about him, as much as he hates to admit it. He wants to be recognized by him, to be seen as his son, instead of a nuisance.

Naruto made it to his favorite training ground, or as others like to call it, the Forest of Death. He was chased there by some ANBU one time after one of his pranks he likes to pull. Ever since then, he has used this area to get stronger for the recognition of his father.

Naruto opened his backpack, took out a notebook, and began reading. He was never trained by Minato, but Menma was, so he stayed close by and listened in to what Minato said in his lessons and wrote them down. This time, he overheard his dad talk about a technique he himself developed: the rasengan.

He talked about how you needed to concentrate your chakra into a single point while simultaneously rotating it to create the sphere it's known for. Naruto put the notebook down and tried it himself. He gathered chakra into his palm, and he could feel it getting unstable. Quickly, he lost control of it, and it exploded in his face, sending him back.

He tried again with the same result, and again, and again, and again. Each and every time, he made it last a little longer than before. He put the rasengan training on hold as he went back to his notebook to train with something different.

It was almost night by now, and Naruto was tired from his training. He made his way home without gaining to much attention from the citizens. Making it home safely, he opened the front door and entered his house, seeing that Minato and Menma were already eating dinner.

"Huh? Naruto? Where the hell have you been?" Menma asked, getting annoyed already. Minato looked up at his second son. "I was, uh, training." Naruto said nervously.

"Training? Who's training you?" Minato asked. "N-no one, I'm training myself." Naruto answered. Minato just hmphed and went back to eating. "You're training yourself?" Menma asked mockingly. "HA! That means no one even wants to train you!" He continued to laugh before being interupted by Minato.

"Calm down Menma, you know I couldn't train you today due to a meeting, so you were training yourself today, too." He said. Menma stopped laughing and muttered under his breath.

"Anyway, Naruto, you don't need to train by yourself, I'll train you soon." Minato said. Naruto would've been exited if it wasn't for the fact that he's heard this line from him before. Dozens of times.

"When?" Naruto asked sternly. "What do you mean? I said soon." Minato said in response. "That doesn't give me an answer, I don't know when 'soon' is. Why can't you train me now?" Naruto's voice started to break.

"Because I'm training Menma right now, and as the hokage, I don't have enough time to train you both." Minato tried to reason. Tears fell from Naruto's eyes. "Then why not at the same time! You can easily do that! Aren't you the fastest person in the world?!" He yelled.

Minato slammed his hands on the table, making the entire table shake. "Because I can't stand looking at you! You remind me of the kyubi too much! And the kyubi is the thing that took Kushina and the third away from me! You took them away from me!" Minato yelled out. His eyes widened at what he just said. He covered his mouth with his hands and stared at his son's shocked face.

Naruto stood there shocked. His own father just said he basically hates him. And his eyes, all Naruto could see was the hatred behind them. Menma was also shocked, but it was the fact that Naruto was the reason that his mother is dead.

Naruto was about to break down cry right there, but he gathered himself and ran out of the house. Minato stood at the door with a face full of regret. "What have I done!"

Naruto ran through the village, not caring if he ran into someone. He saw an empty alley ahead of him and ran in to hide. He sat down and began crying loudly, luckily, no one was around to hear. He curled into a ball and hid his head under his arms.

Suddenly he heard footsteps from outside the alley, and stood up. He saw someone standing at the end. He turned around and saw the the alley was a dead and, so he had nowhere to run.

The man at the end lifted the straw hat he had on, showing his big round eyes. "Hi! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be king of the pirates."