Minato Namikaze, Part 2
Background History: To some, becoming a parent at the age of sixteen would be considered the end of the world. But to Minato, it was merely the completion of his. He had a job he loved, the woman he loved,
an amazing car, a decent place to live, and now...a wonderful baby boy.
Having grown up on the not-so-great side of town, young parenthood wasn't anything shocking to Minato's family. ...Except that is was
him. Since he was a child, he'd shown a form a genius rare to his upbringing. He was superbly intelligent, and his family made sure that he got the best they could get him for it. Not necessarily for his own benefit, but more so that one day he could pull them out of the gutter they'd dug themselves into. After so many members of his family had landed themselves in trouble with the law or worked in dead-end jobs because they didn't have the smarts or skills or schooling necessary to move up in life, he was supposed to be the one who would work his way up while they clung on to his coattails. For years, he gritted his teeth and accepted it - they were his family, so he should do well by them. It was because of this that they tried to convince him that he should simply leave his girlfriend and deny the baby - or better yet, just get her an abortion, since then she could never even try for child support.
...Which ended up being the last in a long line of grievances for him, so the day they came out and suggested it was the same day he moved into Kushina's cozy little house. On his way out the door, he rattled off a disturbing list of things he'd be
more than happy to inform the police of if anyone in his family cared to report him as a runaway. Needless to say, no one called.
He was sad to give up on school, but it was in the best interests of his child. He'd give his offspring the best he could give them - for his, her, or their betterment, not his own. He finished tenth grade and then studied hard to get his GED while working, though, in the hopes that maybe one day they'd be successful enough he could go on to higher education. Being a photojournalist was tough, but both he and Kushina loved it and were skilled (and lucky) enough to make a decent living at it.
Kushina was a couple years older than him and had just graduated and was living in a house she'd inherited from her grandfather. They'd known each other since a heated debate in the main hall in middle school - that had amused all of the students present and had teachers dithering over whether to break it up or not since they weren't exactly
fighting and they both argued so
well - that somehow landed them both on the debate team. They'd kept in touch the two years they went to different schools, and were pretty inseparable once Minato started high school. After realizing they'd been making out for an hour in the back of someone's car at a party, they laughingly began an actual relationship. Both were highly intelligent, and they balanced each other nicely. Minato's calm gentleness and Kushina's energetic brashness helped to offset their age difference. All was well until two months after a friend's birthday party - where they
might have gotten a
little too inebriated to have thought about protection - Kushina realized that she was late. They were terrified, but excited. They were certain, however, that they could build a family for themselves better than their own families had been. Working as much as they could during the pregnancy was a harrowing experience, but they persevered. Once the baby was born, they alternated their schedules so that they wouldn't have to waste money on a sitter and would get to spend as much time with him as possible. The first year was hard, but they pulled through. They tried hard not to spoil him, but they also did their best to lavish as much loving attention on their precious baby as they could.
