Dreams

"That brat is..." A passerby eyed him with contempt.

"Don't go near him. You mustn't get close to him!" Another passerby pulled their child behind them, looking at him in disgust.

"Damn it, why did Lord Hokage have to bring that brat out of the Orphanage..." Even a Konoha ninja wearing a forehead protector made no attempt to hide his loathing.

The sun was so warm, so very warm, so why did I always feel cold?

Little Naruto walked down the street with his head lowered, bewildered and confused by the reactions of the people around him.

He didn't understand. He hadn't done anything wrong, so why did everyone in the village seem to hate him so much?

Just then, a somewhat dirty ball rolled to a stop at Naruto's feet.

Naruto looked up in the direction it had come from. A child about his size was waving at him, gesturing for him to pass the ball back.

A faint smile appeared on Naruto's face. He was about to pick up the ball and walk over when the child's mother suddenly appeared, grabbed the child, and vanished from his sight, leaving his smile frozen on his face.

He stood there holding the ball. When he looked around, he found that the people making snide remarks had disappeared at some point, too. It was as though he was the only person left in the entire world.

The bewildered blond boy lowered his head to look at his hands. They were empty.

Even the ball was gone. He stood there all alone, with no one around...

"Naruto."

A vaguely familiar call suddenly came from behind him. A blond man stood at his back, calling to him with guilt and love written across his face.

But Naruto seemed not to hear him. He simply stood there in a daze.

"It's no use. This is his dream," the Nine-Tails said, explaining to Minato Namikaze. "He's never seen what you look like. You can't appear in his memories or his dreams."

"I see." Minato Namikaze nodded, but his gaze never left the Naruto in the dream.

The Nine-Tails wasn't human. It knew perfectly well that it couldn't understand Minato Namikaze's complicated feelings at that moment, nor did it intend to try. It merely reminded him again, "Just as I told you before, transform into someone Naruto recognizes. Only then can you approach him in his dreams. You have to get him to react to you in the dream first. Only then can you actually influence him and start teaching him things..."

Minato Namikaze nodded again, but he remained behind Naruto without taking the Nine-Tails' advice. He simply called Naruto's name once more.

This time, however, after calling Naruto's name, Minato Namikaze added, "Your mother, Kushina, loves you very much."

As though Naruto had heard a particular word, two more figures appeared in front of him.

It was a mother taking her child out for Ramen. She and her daughter walked in front of Naruto with radiant smiles, while Naruto stayed where he was and watched them disappear.

He still hadn't heard Minato Namikaze's call and gave no response.

But the Nine-Tails seemed to understand what Minato was trying to do, and this time, it stopped urging him.

Within Naruto's dream, people and events kept appearing around little Naruto, then disappearing.

There were passersby who treated him coldly,

groups of nasty children who mocked him,

and the Third Hokage, who only appeared occasionally, one of the few people who could offer little Naruto a little warmth.

But what appeared before him most often was himself, hiding in a corner and crying.

Minato Namikaze stood behind little Naruto, watching every person and every face that appeared. He even saw people he had once known. In his memories, those people had never worn such expressions; they had always looked respectful. But in front of Naruto, he could see their genuine malice. Perhaps it wasn't aimed at the three-year-old Naruto himself, but its weight still fell upon him.

Minato Namikaze stood behind little Naruto, repeating similar words, though each sentence differed slightly. Every word Minato spoke carried love, guilt, and encouragement.

The Nine-Tails watched the father and son like this until, some time later, it spoke. "Time's up."

As its words faded, the scenery before Minato Namikaze changed. Little Naruto vanished from his sight, replaced by a dark, cavernous enclosed space and the Nine-Tails' enormous body behind the bars.

"Is it over?" Minato Namikaze closed his eyes, seemingly recalling everything he had just seen, and asked.

"People perceive time differently in dreams. You might feel that only a little while has passed, but it's already morning in reality." The Nine-Tails yawned and looked at Minato. "Naruto is awake now."

"Is that so? Time really does fly." Minato Namikaze made no attempt to hide his sorrow.

"So what exactly was the point of what you did all night?" With its eyes half closed, the Nine-Tails asked Minato Namikaze with a hint of mockery, "You haven't forgotten that you're already dead, have you?"

"..." Minato said nothing at first. After a moment, he asked, "Sorry for the trouble, but could you watch Naruto's reaction now that he's awake? Has anything changed?"

"Hmph. He's sitting in bed in a daze... He muttered 'Mom,' and then..." As though realizing something, the Nine-Tails added, "Then he said something about 'Hokage' and 'acknowledgment,' and got up to find some breakfast."

"I mentioned Kushina's name twenty-six times in total, the word 'mother' seventeen times, and Hokage once..." Listening to the Nine-Tails' account, Minato spoke evenly, comparing the words he had said with its description of Naruto's current state.

After a while, he reached a conclusion.

"Less than twenty percent. For this one night, it seems I didn't even achieve ten percent. An entire night wasn't enough to get his mother's name across." Minato Namikaze sighed. "I'd hoped I could at least comfort him in his dreams. Kushina would certainly have done that."

"...After all, Naruto has no memory of what you or Kushina look like," the Nine-Tails said, as though trying to soften the blow. "You keep mentioning her, but she means nothing to Naruto as he is now. It's the sort of thing he'd easily forget right away, even in a dream... Huh?"

The sudden surprise in the Nine-Tails' rising voice caught Minato Namikaze's attention.

"What is it?"

"..." The Nine-Tails didn't answer.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Naruto was preparing instant noodles. Bored, he dipped his index finger in a little water and doodled on the table, muttering to himself, "Ku... Ku... What was it before the 'na' again?"

"Maybe it's not as bad as you think." The Nine-Tails glanced at Minato Namikaze and grinned.

For the first time since appearing in the sealed space within Naruto, Minato Namikaze smiled from the heart, unable to stop himself from murmuring, "Kushina, Naruto really is a good boy."