Zenko; Guardian

Divine Punishment

Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato didn't really understand how over his head he was when he first created the Death Reaper Seal. The Shinigami did not deal well with the living and tended to mess with them on principle when summoned. So when he used the seal in a desperate move to save as many as he could, he didn't expect to be fused with the Yin Kyuubi and even more to be the one sealed inside his newborn Naruto who was supposed to hold the Yang Kurama.

Now his son had become a strange bijuu-human hybrid. It took him a few months of thinking behind the bars he built, staring at his human chakra who was just as confused along with an almost out of her mind Kushina, before he finally understood what had gone wrong. The Yin represented the soul and that was the reason why he was going to seal the Yin Kyuubi along with his own soul inside the Shinigami. The Yang represented the body and it dawned on him that it was precisely that which caused his son's unexpected metamorphoses.

But then he's busy trying to calm his son from within the prison he created with his own hand as the boy was avoided and neglected. He slowly grew to hate Konoha for their treatment of his kit but most of all he had grown to hate himself. He didn't want this life for Naruto; he only wanted his son alive and able to find his own happiness. Not trapped deep within the bowels of ANBU Headquarter, hidden from the world.

It took him awhile but soon he managed to call Naruto to their shared soul space. The one years old looked at the cage and found him, a large golden fox with nine tails and blue eyes. Minato smiled at the sight of his son, blond fox ears almost half the size of his head twitching among messy golden locks and wide blue eyes staring wide eyed at him.

The whisker marks added to his adorableness and he couldn't help crooning, "Naru-chan,"

The boy sucked on his fist in confusion and Minato knew he never learned how to speak. The boy interacted the way a baby would, screaming and crying for attention but remained confused when they didn't attend to his need but instead ignored him in icy annoyance. The ANBU were not a place for a growing child, cold and unfeeling place that it was...especially when most were reluctant to even be in the same wing as the boy. But now that he can speak to Naruto, he started to talk to the boy often. He shared stories of when he was human, he didn't see the need to hide who he was to Naruto, and told tales of his mother and him as bedtime story. He had even showed Naruto Kushina's slumbering chakra form.

He taught Naruto the basic of the academy because there was little else to do. He started sharing the history of the Elemental Nations because he had ran out of stories to share. He shared his regrets and his failures when he ran out of happy stories. He grieved when he ran out of words and his son would grieve with him. Naruto copied him as best as he could because Minato was the only one there, trapped together but happier. But Minato didn't want Naruto to be exactly like him. Sage knew he screwed up for the both of them.

In the outside world, Naruto's basic need was seen to; he was given enough food and warm clothes. But they didn't do anything else, treating him as though he's just another secret relic best left forgotten. So it was Minato who taught him the importance of hygiene, he was the one who taught Naruto manners and etiquette, he was the one who taught Naruto how to properly walk even! Naruto's hair, never been cut since the day he grew them out, was wild and long so Minato taught his son about grooming so that they won't mat and tangle, settling with combing because they won't give the boy anything that could cut.

During the long silent days, Naruto will learn his alphabets and used his drinking water to practice his writing. He hid this because Minato didn't know how they would react to Naruto already knowing how to read and write at the age of 3 when he had never been taught before. He had also started to teach the boy about chakra but Naruto astounded him with his instinctual chakra control. So he taught the boy basic physical conditioning, making the boy zoom around his empty but expansive room like a yellow streak. He easily pretended to be asleep whenever his ears caught the sound of someone coming near his room.