Opalescence

Favoritism or Something More?

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Jiraiya and Tsunade blinked ... and then their jaws dropped "are you saying our little Minato has a crush!?"

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Minato Senju Namikaze, son of Tsunade Senju the fourth hokage and Jiraiya Namikaze the toad sage. He is a newly minted jonin and is considered a prodigy. At the moment he was sitting on a building watching the mystery known as Naruto Uzumaki help his landlady with the chores. Several questions were going through his mind. The most important one was 'Who are you?' ...

It didn't matter what he did he just couldn't take his mind off the younger blonde. He felt protective of Naruto, which is why he told his mother about the possible neglect, but he never mentioned what he saw. That weeping willow for instance. That was not his secret to share so he kept quiet.

He listened to every shred of information his father could collect, but it was not a lot and if anything it just brought up more issues, like Naruto's real origins. Was he an Uzumaki or was he from somewhere else like Demon's Gate?

Demon's Gate ... it wasn't actually a gate really, but a village. It's named that way because the people in that place go to great lengths to keep everyone out even decorating the entrance with bones. The bones are from the people who they've kidnapped or caught trespassing. His parents mentioned going there for a mission with his godfather Orochimaru and they barely survived.

Naruto left the apartment with a list of things to buy and Minato followed at a distance as he continued pondering the cute enigma. A lot of things puzzled him like why would Kakashi Hatake, his mother's former student, treat Naruto like that? That bugged Minato because he grew up with Kakashi babysitting and taking care of him ...

(Why would Kakashi treat Naruto in such a way? Is it hate? ... actually, it might not be ... if he hated Naruto then he would probably be more involved in Sakura's training, but he isn't ... it like he's only interested in Sasuke and leaves everyone else by the wayside and Sakura being a fangirl actually approves of the treatment, but when Naruto tries to get training he gets pushed away because Kakashi is only interested in one student and Naruto is in the way. This may not be hate, just favoritism at its worst and it needs to stopped.) Minato looked up and saw Naruto holding a bag of groceries. Suddenly, he realized he has been following Naruto for over FOUR HOURS!

The blonde clutched his head, "I'm turning into a stalker." He sighed making sure to keep his chakra suppressed to avoid being found not that it mattered ...

"Minato?" The Namikaze turned around and saw the very person he's been watching, "Hi, it has been a while. How have you been?" Naruto smiled completely unaware of the effect he had on the older shinobi.

"G-good." Minato's heart was racing, (Why am I so nervous? ... he's so cute.) The jonin's heart skipped a beat as he gazed at the little blonde in front of him dressed in civilian clothes. Naruto was lean and slender with full pink lips and a beautiful smile. Minato wanted so much to touch that soft smooth tan skin or touch those cute whisker marks or run his fingers through those long curly golden locks that were usually pulled back into a braid.

"That's good to hear ... do you know when Kakashi-sensei will be back? I don't think he knows about a test we had just yesterday otherwise he would not have left." Naruto mumbled the last part, but Minato still heard it and saw a flash of sadness in those big blue eyes.

"Today actually ummm ... what do you mean?" The jonin asked.

Naruto shook his head, "Nothing, it's nothing for you to worry about. It was great seeing you again, bye."

Minato pouted slightly as Naruto left, (Please wait, you can confide in me, Naruto.) He pleaded mentally.

"Ahhh young love." Minato jumped and spun around to see his godfather behind him, "You're jumpy today, Minato." The snake sage laughed.