Tsuchigumo

Find Him

In many stories depicting the night of 10th October, Konoha was attacked by the rampaging Kyuubi and lost their beloved Yondaime Hokage. But on the night of 10th October in this fold of reality, Uzumaki Kushina safely gave birth to a healthy young boy with golden hair. Due to his close proximity to the Kyuubi held within her as he formed inside her womb, the chakra of the fox had affected the boy to have whiskers on his cheeks as if possessed by the fox. But neither her nor her husband the venerable Hokage, Namikaze Minato, cared for such a superficial thing. For both parents, Uzumaki Naruto is perfect.

He lovingly cradled the tiny boy, "You're beautiful," He shared a teary look with his wife, "Kushina, isn't he perfect? Look, you made him. He was inside you,"

Kushina laughed at his sentimentality, "We made him, of course he's perfect, dattebane,"

Minato laughed happily as he cooed at his newborn, "Welcome to our life, Naru-chan,"

Kushina watched tiredly as Minato acted all silly with their son, still red and all wrinkly after being squeezed out of her. Sarutobi Biwa, having had enough watching the most feared man in the continent acting the fool, snapped at him, "Enough with the silly faces! He can't see you! Now be a good man and let your wife and son rest!"

Minato pouted as he handed his baby to the veteran medic, smiling as he bid his wife goodnight for her eyes has started to droop from fatigue. He whispered to her, "I'll see you both tomorrow, alright? Sweet dream,"

The man then disappeared into his office to register his new family member...

While Minato was busy at his office to finish adding his son's name into Konoha's archive, Kushina had blacked out in utter exhaustion. As everyone in Konoha lowered their guards in relaxation, a shadow flitted into the hospital room where the Hokage's heir was held. Greedy hands reached into the cradle and the thief's belly opened, revealing an empty space under the human facade to seal the sleeping child within.

As the insidious act was committed, a gentle but determined soul discovered the crime and the up and rising medic shouted bravely;

"Stop!"

The puppet looked behind to see one of the Hokage's student, Nohara Rin, rushing to intercept their insidious plan. Unfortunately with the infant inside the puppet, she could not attack them with full strength in fear of hurting Naruto. She desperately tried to buy time for more people to notice them, making as much ruckus as possible. But even after she cut off the kidnapper's head, their body continued to move. Worse of all, the cut off head began to glow with explosive seals.

Uchiha Obito arrived just in time to see the head revealed more mechanism that revealed spider-like claws that latched onto Rin. He screamed as his Sharingan recorded her violent death. In the confusion, the kidnapper was lost to their pursuers. Obito was taken out as his entire right side was badly injured from his hopeless attempt to tear the weird explosive head away from Rin. The two lovers shared a wretched look of goodbye and despair before the explosion rip them apart for life.

By dawn, Konoha was awake with grieve. Hatake Kakashi was begging Minato to let him take on the mission to find Naruto, "Please Sensei! I could still track him! The scent should still be fresh!"

Minato's face was dark with fury as he looked at Kakashi, "Make sure you report in every other week. I want to keep track," He grasped the boy's shoulder, "He could be in Iwa or he could be in Kumo. We just need to keep an eye on them. But considering that a puppet of such caliber was used, he could also be in Suna. I will send a message to Suna to ask for their cooperation. They owed us as their ally after all,"

Kakashi nodded, "I promise I will find him, Sensei!"

By the next hour, his loyal student was already halfway to Iwa...