He's running through a forest, dragging his crippled leg along. A tiny bundle in his arms. So small it can fit in his own bony hand. The scruffy man continues to force himself to run, not chancing to stop lest he be caught by the raging war all around him. Not to mention, his baby...

"Promise me you keep him safe, Enkai. Promise me,"

Enkai, the man's holding the tiny newborn, mumbles to himself, "I'll keep him safe, I promise, Miku. I promise I'll keep him safe,"

But even Enkai can feel it...his waning life. Stray arrows and knives had found purchase of his back. He had used his body as shield to keep his only child safe. Miku died a few minutes after birthing their treasure. His poor baby had to drink milk from his mother's cooling body. Enkai hates that he's not like other men. Proper men. Men that can fight back and think beyond what was told to them.

He's aware that he's different. Miku was the only one to treat him like a person after finding him in her chicken coop stealing eggs. She have been taking care of him too, just 2 orphans against the world. He fish, she sell, that was their life. Then the ships arrived and they have to run. Many died around them and Miku is pregnant with their child. The running forced her into an early labor.

Had Enkai known, he would have never accepted Miku's love for him. Had he known, maybe he would have pushed the girl away and told her to find a stronger man with proper legs. He didn't understand why she cared for this sick, crippled, and touched in the head man. All he was good for was fish and fix their tiny hut by the sea. Not...not be a father. Not be a husband.

Now, the world is on fire and his baby is hungry.

He can feel his baby growing weak. Miku's milk long gone from his tiny tummy.

When Enkai finally stumbles on a trio of teenagers in armors, he was ready to die with regret. Instead, he found hope. Even though his head is a bad egg and he have a lame leg, Enkai have good instinct. It was what kept them alive for as long as they did until Miku go into labor. He runs straight for the boy with wild white hair and lines on his face.

The boy have a weapon in his hand but Enkai doesn't care. His body is cold and it's getting harder to run. His baby need milk. He needs to...he promised.

"Save...my baby...need milk. Save him..."

He grips the other boy's armor tightly, ignoring the other's threats. His blue eyes wild under his messy black hair. The boy finally kneels down, "What can I do for you?"

Enkai hands him his tiny treasure, "My baby...safe him..."

He can feel himself slipping away. Just this one thing. Please. Just this on thing. He stares madly at the white haired boy who gasps at the little baby in the bloody cloth that he's been cradling. The boy looks at Enkai and Enkai sees compassion in his dark gaze. The boy nods, "Okay. Okay, I'll take him,"

The blond girl frowns, "Jiraiya! We don't have time for babies!"

The pale one nods, "We cannot be hindered anymore than we already are,"

Enkai screams, "PLEASE!!" He bows down, banging his head on the ground, "PLEASE! PROMISE! PLEASE! MIKU, PROMISE KEEP SAFE! PLEASE!"

Jiraiya scolds the others, "Stop that! He needs help and we are more than just weapons of war!" He looks at the begging father, putting his hand before he can continue to bash his head, "I'll take the little tyke," Enkai looks at him, eyes wide with hope. Jiraiya smiles, "What's his name?"

Enkai smiles as life slowly drains away with his adrenaline, "Minato. Nami...kaze...Minato,"

The family name is where they were supposed to be happy. He hopes that...Minato know that he is loved.

~

Danny gasps as he comes around. He grunts as he pulls himself up and leans against his bed frame. He feels sick and for a moment, his left leg feels numb. There are twinges of pain on his back like he had been shot with...something. He isn't sure.

Life have been stranger since that Elder God shattered him to little pieces. Pieces that are still missing. But he doesn't dwell on it much. It doesn't do anything and he have a job to do.

Standing up, he ignores the scarring on his body that glows green and blue. They are remnants of when he was shattered like he was made of glass. Even his face have a 'crack' along his left jawline. Their glow 'beats' with his core. He looks at his left leg and notice that large crack on it looking brighter.

As he puts on his clothes, a stylized light armor that also work for formal events, he cannot help but look at his hand. Was he holding onto something?

Danny shakes his head, "Focus, Phantom. You need to focus on the here,"

~

His head pounds each time pieces of him returns with their 'death'. It is dangerous for him as some deaths are so violent that he curls up on himself and become unresponsive. Due to this, his sons have been hovering around him like mother hens. It isn't that he doesn't understand them. He gets it.

He's broken. Still is. He isn't sure if he'll ever be 'solid' again.

Still, he hates it when it feels like he just have his chest pierced through by something both sharp and large, slowly choking on his blood and crying...

~

Namikaze Minato is a celebrated war hero. But that's doesn't matter.

Namikaze Minato is hailed as the Perfect Shinobi. Still, that doesn't matter.

Namikaze Minato is a once in a lifetime genius. That doesn't mean anything to him.

Namikaze Minato is a dangerous man that received the first 'Flee On Sight' order from across the Hidden Continent. That's just a result of him doing what needs to be done. So what?

Namikaze Minato achieved his dream to become the Hokage of Konoha. That means little to him.

Namikaze Minato is a husband. Yes. Now they're getting somewhere.

Namikaze Minato is a father. Finally. Something that is worth everything.

And he gave everything for that little boy. Because if Konoha is destroyed, then his precious will not survive the night. If that masked enemy got their hand early on the Kyuubi, his baby will be just another collateral damage. Minato doesn't care if his boy hate him upon learning what had been done. All he wanted was a chance for his precious Naruto to find happiness.

Hero or villain doesn't matter to Minato.

Just live. Be happy.

It is with this thought that he made his boy the next Jinchuuriki. Even Kushina, despite hating the idea, understood that becoming Jinchuuriki is the greatest chance to live and survive for their son. They can only have faith that there are more of them in him than the world could break.

Isn't that is the hope of all parents? For their child to live and thrive even if it means being hated?

"I'm sorry, Naruto,"

On October 10th, on the night he became a father, Namikaze Minato died knowing that his son will hate him for the path he had forced the boy on.

Still, "I love you,"

~

When Minato was young and still Jiraiya's apprentice, he asked the man, "Why did you pick me as your apprentice, Ero-Shishou?"

Jiraiya grumbled at his well earned nickname but answered, "Because you reminded me of your old man,"

Minato eyes widened, "You...you know my father?"

Jiraiya shook his head, "Not know him. Met him? Yes. Accepted his request to take you someplace safe? Yes. But know him? I don't think I can claim that," He looked at Minato, "I didn't expect for you to become a Shinobi really. Your old man seemed like a simple civilian. Fisherman, maybe. Nobody special, really. If anything, he had a lame leg and a bit touched in the head. A crippled simpleton,"

Minato deflated, "Oh..."

Jiraiya then smiled, "But you know what? There are fire in his eyes. You have his eyes, now that I look at you. That unbreakable will to see things through even on the doors of death. He clings to me, begging me to take you to someplace safe. He only...died after I make that promise," He laughed, "I don't know why he cling to me though! I mean, Tsunade was there! I thought that a man with a baby would look for a woman to take care of it, not a dude! I don't know anything about kids outside mission!"

Minato hummed before asking, "Do you...have his name?"

Jiraiya sighed, "Sorry, brat. He died without being able to give me anything beside your name. He looked so happy, just knowing that you have a chance," He smiled at the blond, "He have black hair and pale skin. But his eyes are a striking blue. I can never forget those pair of blue flames. Even more now that you have it," He patted the teenager's back, "But I think you should know. He loved you...even in death,"

Minato smiled, "I see,"

Maybe, one day, he'll be able to love a child of his own...even in death.

~

Minato is on fire. His body feels both big and small.

Someone is holding him. No. Cradling him. He had not been cradled since he outgrow Jiraiya and even then, Jiraiya will carry him on his back. No, he had not been cradled since he entered the Academy. He opens bleary eyes to see bright greens looking down on him.

His first thought is to fight and escape.

But...his instinct is telling him that this man is safe.

He pulls Minato closer, filling the blond's vision with his neck. Minato spies the beginning of a tattoo under his jawline. However, what catches his attention is the scent. Minato have a sharp sense of smell. It is why he can help train Kakashi with his preternatural nose. But that isn't important.

It is that his body relaxes completely upon smelling that scent of sweat and musk and...something else. It smelled a lot like death but...clean. Peaceful.

That scent screams safety to him. It isn't an incense or drug either. Rather, it smells like something that he smelled once before. A long time ago. Beyond the reach of his cognitive memory. And this scent is telling him that he is safe. That this man is someone that will go above and beyond to keep him safe.

Then, against his better training, Minato closes his eyes.

He really should stay awake and fight but...

This man...

"Who...?"

Who is he? And why does he smells of safety and comfort and...familiar?

~

Danny stares at the blond man on the bed. He is clearly dead. But Danny's gene brought him back as a Phantom. Frostbite had taken blood samples and revealed that this man is his son. The other three older boys are clearly curious but Danny had told them to behave. Meanwhile, he cannot help but study the man's face.

Around his mid-20's and clearly he died a violent death.

What Danny had felt wasn't another piece of him returning but this man's death. A violent death. His death echoes through Danny's own frame and Danny can feel each pain of his life draining away. And when it is finally over, the man forms before him as if being reborn. Also, it seems that he had made a contract of sort with the Grim Reaper of his own reality. His pot of World Tree. Danny isn't even sure which one he's from.

He can see glimpses of his moment of death.

There was someone with red hair...or maybe bloodstained head...before him.

Danny can hear the sound of screaming and pain but also the innocent cry of a child.

Danny can feel his 'spirit' being dragged out of his body, clinging to his shell just enough to complete whatever ritual he was doing.

He can see a giant claw stabbed through both the man and the person before him, stopping it shy from piercing through a baby crying on a tiny altar.

Danny sighs, "What happened to you?"

The man takes that moment to come around, whimpering in pain despite the pain killers that the medical staff have been pumping through him. He gasps, "Kushina? Naruto?"

Danny calls for Frostbite. Being the King means that he can order for the best doctor to attend, even if that doctor is a ruler of their own right. He looks at the man, "Calm down. I got you,"

The man looks at him and Danny catch sight of his own human blues staring at him, "Who...?"

At that moment, Frostbite walks in and the man freezes at the sight.

Danny almost laugh at the incredulous sight...almost.

~

Minato stares at the bizarre sight of the garden he's in. His medic, a large Yeti named Frostbite ordered him to take it easy. When asked if he can go back to Konoha, the Yeti looked at him in confusion and told him that he's still too unstable to visit the living. Minato is not stupid, just in denial. But still, he had not expected Danny. His father. One that Jiraiya said died upon handing him over to the Sage.

Loki, the third oldest, just laughed at him and said that he gets it. Apparently, this isn't the first time Danny had a child outside his knowledge. The worse part is that the man is not even a player like Jiraiya. He's just...unfortunate. And part of the misfortune includes getting into a fight with a monster that can shatter his very being, one which ended up becoming his father.

Upon being 'fixed', however, Danny's shattered mind cannot process much of his many lives across realities and ended up suppressing most of it...until he apparently shared Minato's last moment.

Minato stares at the green and gold sky, one that turns indigo and purple at 'night', promising to find a way back to Konoha. He isn't as worried about the village as he does Naruto. His son. He knows that unlike with Kushina, chances are Konoha will know that Naruto is their Jinchuuriki and Kushina had not wanted such a life for his son. Their previous comfort was that Naruto will have a chance to grow up like every other child before Kushina is forced to hand over her role to him. Maybe not even him but a descendant of theirs. Life have a different plan, apparently.

Danny sits beside him and looks at Minato, "Naruto?" At his nod, Danny nods along, patting his arm, "Don't worry. We'll find him," There are too many World Trees out there but, "We'll find that world. I promise,"

Minato smiles, "I know,"

They shares the same unbreakable will, after all.