A/N - So, this was an idea I had some time ago that I thought needed to be written. Just messing around with a way to get Naruto's dad into the Naruto story line without being completely out there with it. I think this works, though 'this' won't actually happen until chapter two. XD

Anyway, here's chapter one, chapter two will come soon-ish. Right now I only have three chapters written and if anyone would like to steal this plot/jutsu hack, or whatever, let me know and I'll gladly see what someone else can do with it.

Yay Minato and Kushina! On with the story!

Chapter One: Being Dead Sucks

Twelve year ago, if anyone had thought to ask Minato what he thought his life would be like in twelve years, this was not how he would have ever pictured it. Being trapped in the Kyuubi's seal while watching his son live his terrible life sucked. Not to mention more than a little boring.

He wasn't even sure he was himself, wasn't his soul supposed to be trapped in the belly of the death god or something? He did vaguely recall storing a piece of himself in the seal, was that him? A small part of himself, but not actually himself?

It was all rather confusing, and not something he would have normally dwelt on if it weren't practically the only thing there was to do. Think. Watch through Naruto's eyes. Get mad at the villagers. Think some more. Plot with Kushina on the best ways to get revenge on the most vitriol of Naruto's persecutors. Oh, and think.

Yeah, Kushina was here too. At some point while they were both impaled and dying on the Kyuubi's claw, she'd tied her own bit of self into the jutsu as well. At least he wasn't alone, but of all the people to be locked in tight quarters with for years, Kushina was not exactly on the top of his list. Oh, he loved his wife dearly, and before this whole seal fiasco she had definitely topped that list, but now that he'd actually spent twelve years locked up with her... well...

Let's just say Kushina had significantly less patience with boredom and monotony than Minato did, and he'd never been known for patience.

They did agree on quite a few things, though, like how Kakashi and Jiraiya needed a stern talking to. Especially Jiraiya, Minato had named the toad sage Naruto's godfather for a reason, where was he? Why had his son been raised in an orphanage until he'd been kicked out at age six? At least the sandaime had found enough time in his busy schedule to set the boy up with an apartment and enroll him in the academy. Minato was grateful for that much.

And Kakashi. The boy he and Kushina had taken in after his parents had died. He couldn't have done the same for their son? The yondaime just couldn't understand how his old student and practically adopted son could watch his actual son be spit on and reviled by the village Minato and his wife had sacrificed their lives to save.

Part of him was beginning to think Minato had never had any real friends to begin with.

It was only a passing thought, but it disturbed him nonetheless. It didn't help that Kushina often complained along those same lines. Heaven help Kakashi or Jiraiya if his wife ever got free. She often expounded in great detail on the punishments she had planned for them should she ever get the opportunity to do so.

Which led to their current situation. Naruto had graduated from the academy. Oh, yes, they had watched every minute of that; and if Minato had thought Kushina had exhausted all her threats on Kakashi and Jiraiya, he'd been proven wrong when she let loose another flood of graphic imagery that had Minato wondering how she'd never pursued a career in the T&I department in regards to Naruto's Mizuki-sensei. Not that Minato hadn't agreed with every word of it, nor kept himself from adding his own suggestions.

But that had all happened last night; and, while they still wished to impart much bodily harm on Mizuki, they'd been distracted from such fantasies by the appearance of the subject of one of their other enigmatic ponderings. Namely one Hatake Kakashi.

'That... that...!' Kushina was sputtering, 'lazy, no good, deadbeat, one-eyed... ! How dare he! How dare he show his face -four hours late, no less!- to my son after what he's put him through!'

'Kushina...,' Minato tried, in a halfhearted attempt at calming her down. He was pretty upset with the Jounin himself.

'Shove it, Minato! He deserves it, and don't you even pretend you don't agree with me! He let our son be raised in that cold place by those horrible people... and did nothing when he was kicked out? Stood by while the villagers threw rocks and refuse at him? He deserves it!'

'I'm not disagreeing, I just think that maybe we should give him a chance to explain himself,' Minato said diplomatically.

The white-haired jounin looked up from where he had been staring contemplatively at the chalk eraser Naruto had placed in the door jam to punish their late teacher (Kushina was proud of their son's penchant for pranks, Minato found it amusing if a bit immature) and spoke in a calm voice, "My first impression of you: I hate you."

'What?!' Minato demanded, his own anger over-powering his previous diplomatic countenance.

'You hate my son?! I'm gonna disembowel you with a rusty spoon and use your rib cage for a ramen bowl, Hatake! He should hate you!' Kushina snarled.

'But then he'd be dead, Dear. Kneecaps, they're much more painful and won't kill you,' Minato offered in his own growl.

'Make an awfully small ramen bowl, wouldn't they?'

'Eh, you can always refill it and then there'll be one for each of us.'

'... Did you just suggest we dinner date over Kakashi's kneecaps?'

'... Well, I didn't not suggest it.'

'Ha! I knew there was a reason I married you. Kneecaps it is then,' Kushina mused, sending her husband waves of affection. 'Seriously though, guy ignores our son for twelve years and the first thing he says to him is 'I hate you'? As if Naruto didn't get that enough from everyone else. You'd think he'd have learned manners from... well, not from me, but from you, certainly!'

Minato frowned as he watched Naruto climb the stairs to where they were to meet Kakashi, their new jounin instructor, on the roof. 'It is rather out of character for him. Maybe with the combination of Obito and our deaths he took a hard turn? It might explain why he's ignored Naruto for so long.'

'Oh, no you don't, Namikaze! Don't you dare go be all 'Mr. Nice Guy' and start giving him the benefit of the doubt! This is our son! The one we gave our lives for! The one that protects the village every day just by living! The child I never thought I'd have!' Kushina raged.

Minato winced at the last part. She had warned him, about having a child. How the birthing process weakened the seal and made it too risky for the Uzumaki jinchuuriki females to ever have children. Kushina had been the prison for the nine-tailed fox demon before Naruto had been born. Minato had assured her that he'd studied it out and could make it work. That they could have had a family. It would have worked too; who could have predicted that stranged masked person (who he was fairly certain was Uchiha Madara, he just didn't have any proof.) that wrenched control of the demon at the last minute and set it loose on Konoha?

Minato still felt guilty for it. Not that he ever regretted having a son, no, he just wished they had... done something to prevent it.

'Argh! Stop it, Minato!' Kushina snapped at him. 'It wasn't your fault. I can feel your guilt from here. You won't allow me to blame myself, I certainly won't allow you to blame yourself! Besides, we're clearly blaming Kakashi right now!'

Minato wasn't sure how she'd managed to do it, being an incorporeal spirit, but she'd somehow developed a way to spiritually 'poke' him in a highly irritating manner. Trust Kushina to find some way to annoy people from the dead. 'Alright, I'll stop. Quit that. What are they doing now?'

'Eh, something about getting to know each other. I wasn't paying attention beyond being annoyed at Kakashi for not giving any real answers.'

'That actually is in character for him, you do realize, right?'

'That doesn't mean I can't get angry at him for it. He suggested the 'getting-to-know-you' game, he better darn well give a better example than 'that's none of your business'. Feh.'

"My goal is the resurrection of my clan and... to kill a certain man."

'... Well, someone's got issues,' Kushina snorted

'You know, that Sasuke kid is really making it hard to refute that 'all Uchiha are crazy' nonsense left over from Nidaime's reign,' Minato sighed. 'Besides, I hardly think you have any room to claim someone else has issues when you were just discussing eating out of someone's kneecaps.'

'Not 'someone's' kneecaps, Kakashi's kneecaps. And only because he deserves it.'

The introductions ended, and Minato watched in growing amusement as Kakashi left the oh-so familiar instructions for the next day. 'Ha! I can't believe he's continuing with the tradition of the bell test. He's probably using the same bells I did.'

'The bell test?' Kushina asked, and Minato could just feel the raised eyebrow.

'Yeah, it's a tradition passed on from my sensei's sensei to my sensei to me. And now Kakashi. This'll be fun, though I bet it's either Naruto or the pink-haired girl-'

'Sakura,' Kushina interrupted with an implied eyeroll.

'Sakura, right. I knew that. I bet it's either of those two tied to the log at the end.'

'Log.' It was less of a question and more of a not-so-subtle reminder to her husband that she was lacking a lot of context.

'Oh, right. So, the object of the bell test...' he went on to explain the tradition passed down from probably the Nidaime down to their Naruto. Kushina interrupted frequently to remind him to give more details at certain parts, but he didn't mind. It wasn't often they found a topic they hadn't already talked to death. In fact, Kushina took great pleasure in 'adapting' the bell test into some form of torture for Kakashi and Jiraiya. Then she went on to figuring out how she would do at it (amazingly awesome, of course), and how she might give it had she a three man genin team to test.

It kept them entertained through the otherwise torturously boring night. Was it bad that they actually hoped a burglar might sneak into Naruto's apartment some nights just so they'd have something interesting to watch? Probably, but Minato chalked it up to the madness of prolonged confinement. He was pretty sure it would have been much worse if Kushina hadn't been there.

Slowly, the night sky lightened and dawn came. Soon, Naruto would find out if he truly became a ninja.

A/N2- So, I usually put my A/N's at the end, but I felt the beginning needed a bit of an explanation, so you get two! Yay?

Anyway, what do you guys think? I'm trying to see if shorter chapters will let me post more frequently, probably not but it's worth a shot? Minato's going to life hack next chapter, I promise. Writing these two is so much fun in the mean time. XD

Welp, see you next chapter. Review, if you please. :3

-Py