Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Naru is fast. She’s fast and slippery and sly; she zips through the marketplace on small feet, weaving through crowds like it’s nothing on her worst day, sending tinkling giggles in her wake as she dives and pivots away in chase. It’s a game, a rather fun one, really, that she’s enjoyed for the past year or so - ever since her steps grew to be a little more nimble and sure. 

Today, however, the game is not fun. 

Distantly, she remembers that the day of the festival is always bad, real bad. Still, she doesn’t really keep track of days and months and she had no idea that the festival that left her with nightmares last year was happening today. If she’d known, she would have stayed home. 

But she hadn’t. 

Her steps pound down the dirt road, head bobbing and darting from side to side in search of the safety she’ll find in shadows. Echoes of the festivities submerge in her mind, blotted out into the background by the crippling fear rising to the forefront. She’s smelled men like the ones behind her before. They’re the unruly ones, the most physical ones, the ones who don’t just hit, but squeeze and grab and so she runs. She runs toward home, cutting through the narrow alleys hoping to lose them in the park between the market district and her own. 

But she knows her legs are short and theirs are not. 

A sting bites in her eyes and she can’t tell if it's from the running or tears, her chest rising and falling with a deep burn of exhaustion, but she can’t stop. They’re gaining on her and she needs to be quick, sharp, light. When the mouth of her alley opens up to the darkened green of planted park trees, she forces more from her legs, her lungs. Her vision blurs and she darts out.

A hand snatches her by the arm, whipping her back with a bright pop of her shoulder and she cries out in pain. The man covers her mouth and tugs her against him, stepping back into the private alleyway with mumbled curses about a demon but she can’t hear him. Her body racks with her sobs, tears freely falling now as the rest of the world starts to fade away while he pins her, touches her. 

And then he stops. 

Blearily, she blinks and blinks until she can see something golden in the evening shadows. The man who grabbed her is gone, tossed aside in a pile with two others further into the alley. She shrinks, crawling back into the wall behind her, curling herself in a protective ball as she turns her eyes up to the golden light. 

It’s a man, no, a boy, maybe. Much older than her, but not old like Jiji. 

He glows like a god, an angel, and her eyes bloom wide when he smiles down at her sadly. He bends, crouching down in front of her but keeping a distance. His face is so pretty, so nice, so warm.

She’s never seen anything like it. 

“Hey,” he says, quietly before looking away with a small frown that he quickly hides. “Are you alright?”

No. 

She nods her head slowly, sniffling. 

“Good.” He smiles again, this time bigger, real, and she relaxes just a little. “I don’t have long, so I can’t explain everything to you, but I was hoping that you might help me save the world?”

Her lips part, the shaking in her ribs suddenly stopping before she even noticed it happening. 

“You’ll have my friend Kurama helping you and he’ll protect you like family,” the boy continues, his golden light starting to flicker. “You won’t ever have to worry about guys like that hurting you ever again.”

A cheer goes off in the distance, the dim light of the celebration casting light on the park beyond them. Naru watches the angel boy carefully and whispers, “Family?”

This time his smile is soft and crinkles his eyes. “Yes. Family.”

Then, he holds out a glowing golden hand.

When she takes it, the world turns red and then black. 

The summons came while she was three bowls deep at Ichiraku’s. 

Kushina’s let into the Hokage’s office by a stationed Anbu guard who barely nods behind his mask at the quirk of her lips in a greeting. The Sandaime is frowning particularly low today as she steps up to his desk. 

“Hokage-sama, my esteemed presence has been requested,” she grins cheekily, despite his mood, tipping her head so her long, red tail of hair brushes her shoulder. 

Sarutobi-sama ticks a finger atop his laced hands beneath his chin, finally lifting his eyes to hers with a darkness that straightens Kushina’s spine. “I wanted to wait for Minato’s team to return for this meeting,” he says and she shifts on her feet. “He should be here for this too, but we’ll just have to catch him up when they return.”

Caught somewhat off guard by his serious tone, she simply says, “Of course, Hokage-sama.”

He sighs, a weight dispersing around him with the heavy breath as he reclines back to look at her, his eyes turning soft, sad. “I’ll jump right into it then. Do your best to save your questions.” When she nods, he goes on, “Yesterday a civilian found an unfamiliar orphan heavily injured in an alleyway and brought her into the hospital. After reporting this to the orphanage, they confirmed that the girl has never been a resident there. Tsunade’s protocol then turned to a blood sample, suggesting that even if she’s too small to be in our system, one of her relatives should find a hit.”

Kushina swallows, her brows lowering at the implications of his statement, but she forces herself to refrain from making assumptions. It’s one thing for her to have been a familial hit for the child, but Minato’s presence debunks that theory quickly. Perhaps there’s a mission coming from this.

“The medical team’s findings were peculiar, so Tsunade requested Orochimaru verify the results,” the Sandaime continues, reaching for his pipe settled on its ashtray to fidget with. “The two of them have only been able to confirm the strange results. I wanted to inform you and Minato together, but it seems the girl is healing at an unparalleled speed and I find it best to have someone, preferably one of the two of you, there with her when she wakes.”

Her hands tighten into fists before relaxing almost instantly. “Pardon me, Hokage-sama, but what exactly are you getting at?”

Sarutobi-sama sucks in a deep breath and Kushina’s nerves rise to the surface, prickling with anticipation. He levels her with his eyes. “Her blood results show a very distant relation to Tsunade herself, however, they also show you and Minato as her closest blood relatives.”

Kushina’s eyes widen before she frowns and her lips part, but the Sandaime waves a hand to silence her.

“As unbelievable as it may be, the results show that the two of you are her parents.”

Kushina approaches the stark white door with raging emotions. Mostly, she’s pissed. She’s pissed because her stupid boyfriend is on a mission out of the village and she’s here alone to face whatever the absolute hell is going on here. She’s pissed because this doesn’t make sense in the slightest; she would remember giving birth! She’s pissed because there’s a four year old girl inside this room who is also alone and she has no idea where she came from or how on earth she got here or who she even is and why does her heart hurt so much thinking about her . 

Lightly gnawing at her lip, she raises a hand to knock quietly before steeling herself and stepping inside the hospital room. There’s an Anbu standing in the corner in plain sight, generously offered by Sarutobi-sama in light of the girl’s bizarre circumstances and Kushina has an equally bizarre feeling of gratitude.

Motherly is not a term Kushina would use for herself. Not even close. She’s too rough, too loud, too brash, too reckless. She didn’t ask to spontaneously be scientifically proven a mother to a child she most definitely didn’t give birth to and the likelihood that she’ll screw up this little girl in whatever time they spend together before this whole mess is sorted out is quite high. She’s not ready for this. Minato isn’t ready for it either. They aren’t ready for it. 

She’s loved Minato for most of her life now, but they haven’t even spoken about marriage let alone children . This whole debacle is going to blow up in their faces, she’s sure of it. 

And then she spots the little girl on the too-big hospital bed. 

Her steps take her across the room without thinking. 

The girl is so, so small. 

The Sandaime said she’s about four years old, but she looks even younger.

And she looks like Minato. Very recognizably like Minato. Her blonde hair is long and splayed out beneath her, freshly brushed from the nurses. Her lashes are long like his, damn him, and her nose… her chin… 

But her cheeks, though a little too sunken in to be healthy, are rounder, more like… hers. 

Like Kushina’s. 

The Anbu must have pulled a chair up behind her while she was dazed and she sits with a mechanical motion, her hands already reaching for the small tan hand of the little girl. Her thumb rubs across the tiny knuckles, over and over, while she takes in the little girl’s appearance again and again and again. 

It’s not possible. It’s completely one hundred percent no chance in hell not possible.

And yet, looking at her, this little girl is so obviously a part of her that it hurts. 

Kushina loses track of time, her eyes never leaving the sleeping girl on the bed and only vaguely hearing when a messenger comes to tell her Minato’s team will be back tomorrow. Good , she thinks, but still her eyes never leave the girl. 

Some time after she’s refused lunch, the girl stirs. It starts with a twitch of her nose and then a frown and Kushina finds herself holding her breath until the little girl blinks herself awake.

And then Minato’s wide, bright blue eyes look over at her and her hands tighten around the girl’s. 

Something catches in Kushina’s throat. 

The girl shifts beneath her hospital sheets, and though she apparently lets Kushina continue to cling to her hand, she sits up and tucks the rest of herself into a tight ball. Minato’s eyes watch her warily. 

Kushina doesn’t notice her tears until she blinks before she quickly brushes them away, releasing the little girl. 

“Hi,” Kushina weakly manages, mentally berating herself for completely losing all sense of herself. “My name is Uzumaki Kushina.”

The fear in the little girl’s eyes wanes a bit at that and her legs fall away from her. “Really?”

Kushina nods, a flood of questions barraging through her mind. 

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!” the girl declares proudly before seemingly remembering herself and shrinking back down. 

Kushina, however, is simply trying to force back a whole ass sob because this adorable, perfect, tiny little human has a verbal tic just like her . If she held any doubts before that moment, they are all now firmly wiped away. 

Centering herself, she asks, “Are you feeling better, Naruto-chan?”

“Naru,” the girl whispers, correcting her before shrugging. “I don’t ‘member feeling bad.”

This brings a small smile to Kushina’s lips. “I’m glad you weren’t in any pain, Naru-chan. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Naru really contemplates that, going so far as to bring a finger up to tap her chin and Kushina can’t stop herself from grinning at her cuteness. 

“I was running from the big party,” Naru says, slowly at first before picking up speed. “I didn’t know it was s’pose to happen today or I’d’a stayed home, promise! But some guys found me and I ran fast as I could, dattebayo! But… they caught me. Then! Then a gold angel saved me and said he’d give me a family and we would save the world! Believe it!” 

A silence creeps in following her words and Kushina tries, really tries , to wrap her head around what Naru was saying… 

“Big party?” she tries, wanting to start understanding step by step. 

Naru nods. “The demon festival,” she says, slurring the word festival a bit. “Everybody chases me then ‘cause they say I’m a demon too, but I’m not! Really, dattebayo!” 

Something strange and stiff coils in Kushina’s gut, both from the fact that no such festival exists and the knowledge that the only demon she knows of currently resides in her own body, carefully sealed away for the last twelve years. 

Suddenly, Kushina thinks maybe certain questions can wait for the time being. 

“I believe you, Naru-chan,” she says, pulling a smile up on her lips and hoping it reassures the girl. “You said the angel was going to give you a family… does that mean you don’t already have one?”

Naru shakes her head briskly enough to throw long strands of blonde hair over her shoulders.

Kushina tips her head. “Where do you live?”

“Hokage-jiji gave me an apartment this year, but I don’t like it. I’m always alone,” she says quietly.

Kushina aches . 

And adds more questions to her mental list while also resolving herself to a decision over Sarutobi-sama’s request. 

He wanted to give both herself and Minato the chance to decline a relationship with the little girl, especially after Kushina adamantly denied having any knowledge of her existence, but he also offered her the opportunity to claim the girl if she chose to. 

Well, seeing as Minato is otherwise indisposed, Kushina will gladly do the deciding for the both of them. He’ll thank her, really. Probably. Actually, who is she kidding, Minato’s gonna weep when he lays eyes on her, Kushina already knows. 

So when she smiles down at the girl another time, it’s the largest and most authentic yet. 

“Well,” Kushina says, “did you know that hospitals can read your blood?”

Naru’s eyes widen and she plants small hands on the mattress beside her. “Read blood?”

Kushina hums. “Mhm. And they can tell if you have family with the same blood, dattebane. Know what they found out when they read your blood?”

Naru is gaping open mouthed when she shakes her head. 

“They found me and my Minato,” she says, powering on, the words falling from her lips as if some other force is leading her forward. “Your mom and dad, Naru-chan.”

There’s a long pause and Kushina even feels like the Anbu guard stiffens somewhere behind them. Naru freezes, her eyes - Minato’s eyes - flickering over Kushina with a gaze that’s somehow more damning and more pure than any Kushina’s ever faced. 

And then tears bubble up in them.

“Kaa-chan?”

Kushina doesn’t think, she just rises, arms extended, and Naru practically tackles into her. The girl folds into her chest with quiet sobs that quickly soak through the collar of her shirt, but Kushina doesn’t falter. Something instinctive washes over her, something in her blood that can’t be named and can’t bear rejecting this fragile thing between them. Wherever Naru came from, Kushina suddenly doesn’t care at all. 

Naru’s here now. Naru’s hers. 

After some strategic wrestling with Sarutobi-sama during Naru’s next nap, Kushina manages to not only get Naru released to Kushina from the hospital, but also delay the inevitable interrogation until Minato’s return. Not willing to leave the girl for a moment, she requests for someone to bring her a change of clothes and is pleasantly greeted with a familiar, bandana wearing jounin handing her a small bag outside the hospital room. 

Genma raises a brow at her, but Kushina only smiles secretively in return. Minato’s likely to tell him eventually, but spreading this news isn’t high on her priority list for the time being. 

An hour later, after discharge papers are all signed and squared away, Naru wakes up again and nearly lunges from the bed toward Kushina. 

Catching her, Kushina laughs heartily, something warm blooming in her chest. “Easy now, little one. You’re still recovering.”

Naru nods into her shoulder, but doesn’t relent in her hold. With a little prodding, Kushina finally manages to wrangle the girl into her new outfit: a small pair of shorts the color of Minato’s jounin blues and a white tee with the Uzumaki clan symbol proudly on front. 

Dressed and ready, Naru beams up at Kushina.

Kushina curses Minato because his girly ways must be finally rubbing off on her as she fights another weak bout of tears. 

“Naru-chan,” Kushina starts, reaching down a hand that the girl gladly takes. “I didn’t really ask you yet, but is it okay if you come stay with me and Minato?”

Naru blinks up at her with a bewildered look for a moment and Kushina wonders if something she said didn’t make sense, but then the girl quietly says, “Tou-san too?”

Something about her referring to Kushina’s boyfriend as tou-san warms a different part of Kushina and she quickly stores that information away for later.

“Mhm,” she hums, leading the girl out of the hospital room. “We have a little apartment.”

Naru is quiet for a while and they make it down to the first floor before she finally says, “Okay.”

But it took so long and is said so softly that Kushina’s a little nervous all of a sudden. “Do you not want to?”

“No, I want to,” Naru says quickly, still subdued. When they come to the entrance doors Naru slows down before she stops completely and Kushina turns to look down at her. Naru averts her eyes, the girl’s forehead wrinkling with worry that looks so wrong on her smooth, young face. 

“What is it, Naru-chan?”

“Are you sure it’s okay?” the girl says, her voice a small squeaky whisper. 

Kushina tilts her head. “Of course. We want you there.”

Naru looks at her then, looks at her with Minato’s wide bright eyes. “Even though I’m a demon?”

Kushina’s stomach sinks and she drops into a crouch, putting both hands on the girl’s shoulders. “Naruto, you’re not a demon,” she says as firmly as she can. “You’re… You’re my daughter.”

The words feel so foreign and so surreal and so right and so much that her heart flips in her chest. 

Naru’s eyes gloss over again and Kushina scoops her up in time to soothe the first batch of shakes that rattle through the girl. “If we go outside they’ll be mean to us,” she whispers, her voice balanced between crying and steadiness. “I don’t want you to hate me too, Kaa-chan.”

“Oh, Naruto,” Kushina sighs, suddenly fighting the gloss in her own eyes and she sends another curse to Minato. “I could never hate you.”

“B-but-”

“No buts,” Kushina cuts off, stepping away from the doorway. “Trust your Kaa-chan, okay? I’ll take care of you.”

Naru sniffles a little before nodding into Kushina’s neck. “Tou-san too?”

“Mhm, but I’m stronger than he is, dattebane! He’s a big sissy,” she says with a diffusing laugh that mercifully works and earns her a little smile from Naru. “Now, let’s go home and I’ll make us some food. What do you say?”

Tentatively, Naru agrees, but she doesn’t let go of her tight grip on Kushina until they’re across the village and settled inside the apartment. Unfortunately, between Minato and herself there are very few child appropriate play things inside, but Naru seems satisfied watching Kushina cook and listening as she commentates everything she does. When Kushina plates the modest, healthiest meal she’s made in a long, long while, Naru stares at her portion with stars in her eyes. 

Kushina smiles at her from across the table. “What is it, Naru-chan?”

“This is the most food I’ve ever seen!” Naru declares with a grin, diving in without any formality, but Kushina is too struck by her words to try and correct her manners. 

Just what kind of life has this girl lived until now?

After a few hours of Naru elaborately telling a few tales of minor pranks and escape attempts from the people in the ninja masks the little girl happily “helps” Kushina push the desk in their spare bedroom turned office to make space for a futon for Naru to sleep on for the time being. Idly, Kushina contemplates the merits of turning the spare room into Naru’s permanently versus moving somewhere with more space. 

Kushina tucks the girl in for bed, a novel experience that makes Naru look at her like she’s hung the fucking sun and adds more questions to Kushina’s ever-growing list. Sleeping seems far away for Kushina after that, but she settles in anyway, cursing Minato for the umpteenth time today while she glares at his empty side of the bed. 

Four years ago she and Minato were only seventeen. Kushina had just become a jounin and Minato had been putting the finishing touches on his Rasengan. They were loosely dating, but they’d been loosely dating since they were practically twelve though, so that hardly meant anything. Kushina would remember being pregnant . 

Then there’s the fact that Naru had mentioned Hokage-jiji, while the Sandaime had made no mention of knowing the girl. That question would have to be addressed during their meeting with the Hokage himself. 

This biggest problem, aside from the blaring question of where the hell did she come from and how does she exist, would have to be all her talk of the demon. Shifting in her sheets, Kushina touches a hand to her stomach. The only demon Kushina knows is the Kyuubi, but how would Naru know of the bijuu? Could Naru be talking about another bijuu? The possibility of the little girl - her little girl, she mentally adds - being another container fills her with dread. She needs to check for a seal sometime tomorrow, as subtly as possible-

A sniffle sounds in the darkness and Kushina perks upright. The shadowed silhouette of Naru stands in the doorway, one hand reaching out to the wall guiding her in.

“Naru-chan?”

There’s a silence and then, “Can I sleep with you, Kaa-chan?”

A flash of the fear in little Naru’s eyes at the hospital doors sails through her mind, cutting at her heart, and Kushina opens her arms. 

“Of course.”

Minato comes home earlier than Kushina expected and she couldn’t be more pleased. Naru is still sleeping, dawn having only passed an hour or two ago. Kushina drops what she’s cooking and bolts for the front door the second she hears the key turning in the lock and before he can finish his bright Tadaima! she tackles him, covering his mouth with a hand. 

Blue eyes widen, questioning, but also searching for a sign of alarm. 

Kushina backs off, hands waving dramatically between them before she brings a finger to her lips to shush him. 

He raises a brow. 

“Have you spoken with Sarutobi-sama?” she asks, whispering fervently. 

Minato frowns, furrowing his brows at her. “Um, no. It was only a brief C rank. I’m having Kakashi write up the report for practice.”

Grateful that he’s being quiet, Kushina nods emphatically, distantly aware that she’s being weird. “Okay, okay. Good, good…”

“Kushina,” he says, hands rising to her elbows as if to steady her. “What’s wrong?”

Her gaze flickers over his face finding Naru’s hair, Naru’s eyes, Naru’s face and then she feels the mist in her eyes again and she wants to punch him or kiss him or scream out all her new emotions she’s accumulated in the last twenty four hours. The memory of little Naru looking up at her with big blue eyes saying Tou-san? rings through her skull and she just-

She just loves this man so much. 

Dropping her head onto his chest, she lets out a long, heavy sigh. “You won’t believe me when I tell you.”

Suddenly, Minato stiffens, his grip on her arms tightening and she pulls back to see him staring off behind her. She turns and there, standing at the edge of the hall in one of Minato’s shirts that swallows her whole, is Naru. Her blonde hair is still in the braid Kushina put it in after her bath last night and the blanket from Kushina and Minato’s bed is draped over her head like a massive hood that trails behind her on the floor. 

Minato still hasn’t moved and Naru stares right back before blinking and then, “Tou-san?”

Suddenly terrified that Minato will somehow screw this up, Kushina pushes away from her boyfriend and dashes across the room to Naru who welcomes being scooped up by Kushina and settled on her hip. Kushina turns to Minato with fierce eyes, begging him to understand to just go with it while Naru is here.

Luckily, Minato is not called a genius for nothing. 

“Hi there,” he says after a horrifically long pause. 

Naru can’t seem to take her eyes off him. She dips her head down onto Kushina’s shoulder before raising it back up not a moment later. “You look like me.”

Minato’s nod is stiff. “You look like me,” he says back.

Then Naru turns in Kushina’s arms, drawing close to her ear. Her whisper is nearly as loud as her speaking voice when she attempts to confide in Kushina with, “Kaa-chan, what if he doesn’t like me?”

“Oh, Naru-chan,” Kushina answers. “Of course he’ll like you. He’s your tou-san.” Eyeing a still frozen Minato at the door, Kushina sends him a purposeful near-glare before turning into the kitchen, narrowly salvaging her cooking with Naru still on her hip. “Here. How about you eat at the table for a bit while Tou-san cleans up from his mission, ne? I’ll be right back with you, okay?”

Tentatively, Naru agrees and Kushina settles her in with a plate of food before returning to where Minato hasn’t moved an inch. She drags him away from the door, closing it behind them before tugging them away into their bedroom. 

He stares at her, his eyes looking somewhere beyond her. 

“It’s a long story,” Kushina says quickly - too quickly - but she needs him to understand this and needs him to feel what she feels about Naru, because no matter how crazy all of this is, it’s also undeniable and Kushina can’t breathe thinking that Minato might not be accepting. “She’s an orphan someone found wounded on the street and they couldn’t find where she belonged so Tsunade ran a blood test but it came up that we’re her parents but that’s not possible right? So they brought in Orochimaru but he only found the same results and there’s no way they’re both wrong and I mean look at her and I got Hokage-sama to agree not to question her until you were back so we still don’t know much but she says that an angel saved her and promised her a family and then she just… appeared here and I’ve never thought about fate much Minato but I just can’t let her go now and please, please I hope that you-”

Minato cuts her off with a quick grab of her hands. Her eyes snap up to his and there’s an emotion in them that she’s never seen before, but it looks as stormy and full and heavy as her heart feels and she just wants to explode . 

“That’s my daughter?”

The tears prick beneath her cheeks and she slams her eyes shut. “Dammit Minato, your stupid girly emotions have finally gotten to me and I’ve cried more in the last twenty four hours than the whole year before that a-and you weren’t here and…” She stops herself, swallowing hard before opening her eyes again. “She said she’s always been alone. Never had anyone taking care of her… The last thing she remembers other than the angel thing is being chased by grown men into an alley in the dark Minato. She said they ‘were the mean squeezy kind because those always have the same smelly breath’. What the actual fuck Minato. We can’t- We can’t just abandon her. She has our blood . I can’t abandon her-”

A hand comes to her cheek, brushing away a streak of tears. Minato looks down at her softly. “We’re not abandoning her. It’s… a lot. But of course we’ll help her. And…” he pauses, looking away. “And it’s not like I’ve never thought about it. One day, eventually, I mean… Well, I’ve always wanted a family with you.” A tinge of pink rises on his cheeks, but he turns back to her. “We’ll help figure out what’s going on with her and just take it one day at a time?”

A sob of relief cracks through her before she reins herself in, wiping at her face until it’s clear. “Thank you,” she says quietly.

Minato kisses her hair, his lips lingering there. “We both know what it’s like to be young and alone. We’ll do everything we can.”

And because she can’t hold it in, she says, “I love you.”

He smiles. “I love you too.”

When the waves of emotion finally recede enough for a little breathing room Minato suddenly startles. “Oh my god,” he whispers. “I’m a father.”

Kushina chuckles deep in her chest. “We need to go check on her.”

“Oh my god, what if she doesn’t like me?” he asks, his voice panicked as he follows her out the door. 

“She’ll love you!” Kushina says cheerily, pleased that their proper emotional dynamic has returned. 

“Oh my god she’s so adorable. I’ll have to kill every boy in Konoha.”

“She is pretty cute, huh?”

“She’s gorgeous! Oh my god, I need to finish the Hiraishin… I’ll need one on all her clothes just in case… Wait a minute, you said grown men chased her into an alley? Who are they?” 

“We’ll worry about that later,” Kushina snaps as they emerge from the hall to see Naru still sitting at the table, her food barely touched. Kushina frowns with concern. “Are you feeling okay, Naru-chan? You haven’t eaten.”

Big blue eyes look up at them both, the girl’s lower lip trembling, and Kushina steps forward. “Do you guys want me to leave now?”

“What?” Kushina says quickly, automatically. 

Minato steps up to the girl, crouching down to her level. “Of course not.” He glances back at Kushina before continuing, “Kaa-chan was just letting me know about your hospital visit is all.”

“Oh,” Naru answers, shifting nervously in her seat.

“My,” Minato says with a sigh. “You’re so pretty, Naru-chan. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Namikaze Minato.”

Naru blinks at him, her cheeks blushing the same way Minato’s had in their room and Kushina smiles at the sight. “Tou-san?” she asks quietly and even without seeing Minato’s responding beam of a smile, Kushina can already see her becoming quite the daddy’s girl. Minato hums inquisitively and Naru chews her bottom lip - much like Kushina does when she’s nervous, the thought sending her heart into another flip. “Why do we look the same?”

Minato makes a show of thinking over his answer while Naru grips the edge of her seat, little legs dangling beneath. He turns back to her and smiles. “Because kids look like their parents,” he says, then adds, “And because you’re mine, little one.”

Her eyes widen further than Kushina’s seen since the girl woke up yesterday and Kushina can practically see the hearts bursting inside them. Then Naru jumps out of the chair, tackling into Minato not unlike Kushina did at the door earlier. Minato catches her with a pause of surprise before he laughs, a light, strange laugh Kushina’s never heard before but doesn’t mind in the slightest. 

Naru clings to Minato with a whispered, desperate, “ Tou-san ” that makes Kushina’s heart glow and break and build itself into something brand new and bigger than it's ever been. 

Naru doesn’t let go and Minato doesn’t even try to make her. When the three of them sit down to eat breakfast together, Naru is settled on Minato’s lap, sheltered between his arms and Kushina can honestly say she’s never seen anything better.

Chapter Text

Naru doesn’t let go of Minato until she needs a potty break and turns to Kushina for help, something that, a few hours ago, would have been totally foreign to Minato and possibly even a little uncomfortable, but now it was precious . Even with the waves of emotion still rolling through him, Minato has managed to guard himself somewhat to prepare for the less than optimistic outcomes of whatever strange happenings led to Naru’s presence here with them. And yet that fact only adds to his fears; if this is what he feels like when he’s holding back his emotions from fully caving to the unreal possibilities, what will he feel like fully unleashed?

He uses the time apart to race to the Hatake compound to ask Sakumo if he can borrow some of Kakashi’s old clothes with little explanation. Luckily, Sakumo is a seasoned shinobi and, though curious, he complies and accepts Minato’s appreciation so he can return home as quickly as possible. His presence isn’t unusual at the Hatake home ever since accepting Kakashi as a young apprentice based on the close friendship between Sakumo and Jiraiya, but him barging in without lingering to be social is a little bizarre, even for Minato. 

He flashes across the village without a goodbye and when he steps back into the apartment it’s quiet and then-

“Tou-san!” 

A tiny figure flies across the room, crashing into his legs, and he’s proud of how smoothly he scoops her up into his arms. She latches onto him, burying her small face into his chest. 

“I thought you were gone.”

His eyes fall shut at her weak admission, barely catching a glimpse of Kushina stepping into the room just before. He lifts a hand to run over her hair. “Sometimes I’ll have to go places alone, Naru-chan,” he says, hoping he’s not upsetting her more. “But I’ll always come home.”

A part of him flinches internally at the recognition that he’s a shinobi and such promises are impossible for him to make, but how can he tell her anything else?

He’s still reeling emotionally. A few hours ago he was just a fairly fresh jounin sensei returning from a routine, easy mission with his student, happy to see his girlfriend again after a couple days apart. If someone had told him that he’d come home to having a child he would have never believed them. Maybe he’d even have laughed. 

But now…

She’s a mirror image of himself in almost every way. He can still see some of Kushina’s bone structure, the wild thing behind her eyes, but it’s obvious she takes after her father.

Her father.

He is her father . 

He holds her a little tighter and she nods her head against him. 

Kushina approaches them, raising a hand to rub gentle circles against the girl’s back before looking up at him. “We need to meet with Hokage-sama.”

He dips his head to agree and then tries to meet Naru’s eyes. “Hear that? We’re gonna go talk to the Hokage real quick, okay?”

She peers up at him, glancing at Kushina and back. “All of us?”

Kushina hums a yes before grabbing a few things and meeting them back at the door to leave. Minato happily carries Naru down to the path below. 

“Do you know what the Hokage is, Naru-chan?” he asks as they walk.

The girl watches Kushina, but answers him very quietly, “Yeah, of course I know Hokage-jiji...”

Kushina smirks at her, raising her brows and bending in close. “Naru-chan, why are you so shy for Tou-san?”

The word sends a flutter through Minato. 

Naru grips Minato’s shirt a little harder. “Cause,” she says, almost whining. “He’s my tou-san.”

A second flutter that feels more like a wind jutsu wrecks him. 

Without questioning himself, he leans in to kiss her temple and is rewarded with the brightest face he’s ever seen in his life and, not for the first time, he thinks that his life has been completely and utterly shattered and rebuilt into something entirely different. 

“Oh, I see how it is,” Kushina raises her voice in a joking manner, though Minato worries a bit that she might be genuinely jealous and files it away for later. “Choosing Tou-san over Kaa-chan already, ne?”

“No!” Naru shouts, garnering a few glances from passerbyers. “No, I promise! I love you both!” 

Ah, there’s that wind jutsu to the stomach again. 

The innocence of this tiny girl in his arms could break him, especially after hearing about those men who chased her and feeling how bony she is underneath the shorts and tee shirt Kushina bought her yesterday. Suddenly, he increases his pace toward the Hokage tower and Kushina doesn’t seem to mind, also eager for more answers. 

When they reach the top of the spiralling staircase up to the Sandaime’s office, Naru wriggles out of his arms, dropping down into steady feet before blitzing forward. She ignores the two Anbu standing guard and Minato spends a split second in panic trying to decide whether he should stop her or not, but she’s already thrown open the door into the Hokage’s office and charged inside. 

“Hokage-jiji!” she screams as Minato and Kushina follow in her wake. The two Anbu inside giving their report spin on her, but when they see her they freeze. Naru, totally unfazed, sprints across the room, curving around the Sandaime’s desk to stop before him with her hands on her hips. “Did you know I have parents this whole time?!” she demands. “You told me they died! That’s mean!” 

Silence falls over the room and no one moves for a long second. Minato’s eyes never leave Naru, but he catches the Sandaime dismissing the reporting Anbu with a gesture before leaning down to the girl before him. 

“I did? When did I tell you that?”

Naru pouts, crossing her little arms over her chest. “When the orph’nage kicked me out and you gave me the apartment. Don’t you… Don’t you ‘member?”

Minato sees the insightfulness in his little one’s eyes when she doesn’t find recognition in the Hokage’s face. She sketches a step back and, before Sarutobi-sama can say anything else, she runs back to Minato, arms raised and a sad look riddling her brows. He complies with ease, despite Kushina’s quiet snicker beside him. Naru rests her head on his shoulder and he can practically feel himself melting. This is worth a lifetime of teasing from Kushina or anyone else for that matter. 

“Naru-chan,” he says softly. “We’re here to talk about what happened to you before the hospital, okay?”

Naru hides her face in his neck. 

Kushina, mercifully, steps in. She tucks the girls hair behind her ear. “Remember how Tou-san was on a mission?” He feels Naru turn her face toward Kushina before she continues. “Do you know why he goes on missions?”

“Cause he’s a ninja?”

“Yup,” Kushina says, her voice big and full of comfort. Minato marvels at how naturally she’s taking motherhood on, his respect for her only growing beyond his expectations once again. “We’re both shinobi,” Kushina continues. “And when we finish missions we report to the Hokage and tell him everything that happened. Do you think you can report what happened to you like Tou-san and Kaa-chan do?”

After a pause, Minato feels Naru nod against him before pulling back to straighten in his arms and face the Hokage who gestures to a pair of chairs in front of his desk. They sit and Minato offers to let Naru have his seat, but she grabs his arm for dear life, so he lets her sit on his lap much like at breakfast. She keeps his arm around her, held close in both her hands. 

Naru looks to Kushina. “Where do I start, Kaa-chan?”

“Hmm,” Kushina hums dramatically, attempting to stay a little silly. “How about with your name?”

Naru grins. “I’m Uzumaki Naruto, the next great Hokage, dattebayo!” 

Minato can’t help but grin with her, glancing at Kushina to see her smiling too. 

“And how old are you, Naru-chan?” Kushina asks. 

This makes Naru pause. “I don’ know.”

“You don’t know?” the Sandaime chimes in gently.

Naru shakes her head. “Nobody told me.”

Silence.

Kushina manages to break it and move things along. “How about you tell us about what you remember before you woke up with me in the hospital?”

Naru nods and looks down, tracing lines over Minato’s arm with tiny fingers. “Well, it was fest’val day, but I didn’t know!” She jerks her head up. “I swear!”

Sarutobi-sama quirks a brow. “Is it bad that you didn’t remember this festival?”

“Yeah,” Naru says. “The village throws a party because the Fourth Hokage killed the demon fox, but everybody says I’m a demon so they come after me worse that day. I wanted to stay home this year but I forgot. I don’t know days very good, you know, Jiji?”

The entire room seems to forget to breathe, Minato included. 

Demon fox?

They come after her worse ?

The fourth Hokage?

“I see,” the Sandaime says slowly. “And who is the fourth Hokage?”

Naru shrugs against Minato’s chest, looking down again. “I don’ know. He died killing the demon.”

The conclusion building in Minato’s mind is almost as ludicrous as his four year old daughter appearing out of thin air and he’s quick to file it away. He brings his other arm around her, setting a hand atop hers that are still fidgeting along his skin. “So what happened after the festival?”

Naru looks up over her shoulder at him and her eyes - his eyes - shatter him again. “Well,” she says, turning forward again, “I was trying to run home ‘cause the smelly guys were chasing me-”

“Smelly guys?” the Sandaime asks.

Kushina answers, her voice icy, “The clumsy men whose breath all have the same bad smell.”

The Sandaime’s eyes widen but he simply says, “Go on, Naruto-chan.”

“I was so close to my shortcut through the park! But… they still got me.” She looks back up at Minato again, sadly, before looking away. “I… I cried, but he didn’t stop until the angel came.”

Something white hot flares to life in Minato that he’s never quite felt before. Maybe on another scale, but not quite like this. Suddenly he’s glad that Naru’s sitting in his lap or he might be leaking killing intent for all of Konoha to feel. 

“The angel?” Sarutobi-sama asks, casting a glance over to Kushina. 

She follows him up with another question for Naru, “What did the angel look like?”

Naru leans back against him and Minato settles a bit more, wrapping the hand of his arm she still has captured around her too-thin leg. “He glowed, like gold,” Naru says. “He beat up all three of the smelly guys and smiled at me… kinda like Kaa-chan smiles.”

Kushina smiles then, almost on cue. “And then what did he do?”

“He asked if I wanted to save the world with him and said he’d give me a family to help. He… He reached out to hold my hand but when I grabbed it…” Naru squirms a bit in his lap and Minato runs a finger over her hands encouragingly. “I don’ know. Everything just… turned black. Then I woke up with Kaa-chan! The angel did it! He gave me a family!”

She spins, turning bright hopeful eyes up to Minato and he can’t help but smile at her, running a hand down her hair. “That he did,” he says. “That was a good report, Naru-chan. Anything else you want to add?”

She hugs Minato’s arm to her chest this time, but looks up to the Hokage. “Um, well, nobody was mean to me in the village.”

“What do you mean?” Kushina asks, her voice a little too sharp as she leans toward them from her chair. 

Naru looks over at her. “When we left the hosp’tal and when we came here. Nobody was mean to me. Maybe they know I have a family now! So I can’t be a demon if I have Kaa-chan and Tou-san, dattebayo!” 

Minato shares a look with both Sarutobi-sama and Kushina before brushing his hand over Naru’s hair again. She looks up at him and he says, “That was perfect. Now, how would you like to go get some dango with Kaa-chan?”

Naru’s eyes light up and she whips her head over to Kushina who smiles indulgently and opens her arms just in time for the little girl to bound over to her. Kushina dips her chin in a quick bow to Sarutobi-sama and he dismisses them both. She sends him a quick look before carrying their daughter out of the office.

He has a daughter. 

It’s still surreal. 

Once they’re alone, the Sandaime reaches for his pipe, loading it with tobacco. 

Minato leans back in his chair and sighs. “My only theory is so preposterous I don’t even want to voice it.”

“Ah, yes,” Sarutobi-sama says, packing the bowl with a finger. “I think I’ve come to the same conclusion. Were it not for her young age and the blood tests I’d toss the idea right out the window as a fantasy. But with both Tsunade and Orochimaru confirming the science and her… age and general demeanor, I can’t find any other plausible answer - not to mention the fact that she clearly knows me when I’ve never seen her before.”

For a while the quiet puffs of a pipe are the only sound in the room, but eventually Minato runs a hand through his hair. 

“Is Naruto my jinchuriki daughter from the future?”

Minato leaves the Hokage’s office a little while later, once they’d both been unnerved by the possibilities Naru presents and changed topics to her legal documentation. Documentation that would officially claim her as the daughter of Kushina and himself. 

Surreal. 

He catches up to his girlfriend and Naru on the outskirts of the market district where they’re sitting on a bench, pressed together side by side. 

It’s a sight he takes his time walking up to, relishing in it. 

Then he notices the other woman on the bench and allows himself a brief wince with their backs turned to him. Their conversation is quiet, something unnervingly out of the norm for Minato, and Naru is pressed so far into Kushina’s side that she may as well be sitting in her lap. As Minato nears, he spots the dark head of a child approaching the trio of girls with his hands full of dango. He hands one over to his mother with a small Kaa-san and then one to Kushina before staring at Naru for a moment. He holds out the dango to the little blonde girl slowly and she edges away from her mother, scooting toward the edge of the bench. 

Minato sees her smile grow as she accepts the sweet treat from the boy and though it’s a precious adorable sight, something about it makes him narrow his eyes at the little boy. 

He decides it’s time for his entrance. 

“Aww, did I miss out on the dango?”

Kushina’s head turns expectantly, a grin on her lips. As does Mikoto’s, though her smile is much more feline and bemused. Naru, however, is instantly dismayed. She jumps off the bench, invading - who he assumes is - Itachi’s personal space before running up to him with her dango extended. 

“You can have mine, Tou-san!” 

He beams at her and crouches down on his heels to look at her on eye level. “That’s alright, Naru-chan. It was a gift from Itachi-chan. You should savor it.”

She blinks at him. “Savor?”

“Enjoy,” he corrects himself. “You should enjoy it. It shows you’re thankful.”

“Oh,” she says, barely nodding her small head before turning around, shifting back so she leans against Minato. She looks over at Itachi where he’s watching them from the distance he’d retreated after she jumped into his space. Then she bows too quickly and Minato steadies her with a hand. “Thank you, Itachi!” 

“Itachi-kun,” Minato whispers.

“Thank you, Itachi-kun!” she shouts, her cheeks turning a little pink as she rises. 

Itachi simply nods to her with wide eyes before looking to his mother for direction. They must be nearly the same age, though Itachi is a little taller. They both still have the pudgy faces of babies, but the longer frames of the beginnings of childhood. 

Mikoto smiles at her son. “Yes, thank you for going into the market for us, Itachi.”

“Yup!” Kushina chirps, her grin by far the largest of the group. “Thanks cute little ‘Tachi-chan!” 

Itachi blushes and looks at his dango. 

“Minato,” Kushina says, using The Tone. He snaps his attention to her as Naru takes her first tentative bite of dango between his arms that rest idly over his knees. “Mikoto here was telling me that Itachi-kun is about to have an early graduation from the Academy.”

His brows start to shoot up, but he wrangles them into a look of minor surprise. “Oh, really?” he asks, looking over to Itachi for his reaction, but the boy is happily eating his dango between glances at Naru. “And he’s how old?”

“Five,” Mikoto answers, tightly.

“I was just telling her how well you’ve done with Kakashi, dattebane,” Kushina marches on, her good spirits present but obviously feigned. “He just turned six the other day,” she nods to Mikoto. “But apparently Itachi-kun here is a real genius so they’re going to put him straight into the war without a teacher…”

The kids eat their dango messily as a pause of silence falls over the adults, both women staring at Minato expectantly. 

He sighs. “I’ll see what I can do,” he finally relents, “but you know as well as I do that there’s only supposed to be one apprentice per shishou. Maybe if we had a third kid around their age we could make a genin team, but I doubt the odds of a third prodigy in the village--”

“I can do it Tou-san!” Naru suddenly breaks in, turning a sugar-crusted smile on him. “I’ll be the best ninja ever, dattebayo!” 

A second silence falls over them and this time it seems like no one knows how to break it. But after a while her smile loses confidence and wilts into confusion and it twists something in Minato’s gut. He raises a hand to brush a strand of her golden hair behind her ear. 

With a small smile he says, “That’s very kind of you, Naru-chan, but you haven’t been to the Academy yet. If you want to be a ninja you have to study hard and learn the ways of a shinobi. It usually takes years.”

She pouts then and Minato fights the urge to squeeze her in a soul crushing hug because how adorable can this little girl be . 

After a breath passes of her simply staring at him her eyes widen and she tilts her head, almost like she’s listening to something. Minato heightens his senses, casting a quick glance to the confused women on the bench, but hears nothing. 

Then Naru nods her head and looks at him with fire in her bright blue eyes. “I can do it! Teach me for a little bit and then I’ll pass the test!”

“Naru-” he starts but Kushina jumps in.

“ Well ,” she drawls out. “We could ask the Hokage to put a hold on Itachi’s placement while the three of you work with Naru, ne? If she doesn’t pass that still gives us some time without Itachi on the frontlines, dattebane!”

Mikoto perks up, seemingly pleased with the possibility of a delay, even if that’s all she can get.

Minato, on the other hand, wants to drag his hands down his face in exasperation. Is this what fatherhood is going to be like? Constantly being ganged up on by his wife and daughter?

Oh god. 

It is. 

Mustering a guarded smile, he looks at Naru. “I’ll talk with the Hokage over it. But, Naru-chan, just because Itachi-chan and Kakashi are shinobi at five and six doesn’t mean you need to be one at four, okay? Most ninja are twelve or thirteen when they graduate.”

She leaps onto him and he falls back onto his ass, catching her in her hug while resoundly worrying that the last of her dango is in his hair. 

“Thank you, Tou-san! I can do it! Just watch! I’m Naruto Uzumaki after all! I’m gonna be the next great Hokage, dattebayo!” 

Naru doesn’t let go of him again after that. Mikoto and Itachi say their goodbyes and go home to the Uchiha compound while Minato battles with the idea that Mikoto is only one year older than Kushina but already has a son a year older than Naru in his arms. Arranged marriages in clans is not an unheard of thing by far, but the fact that a fate like that could have been in store for Kushina burns him a little. 

When they’re gone, Kushina rises from the bench and Minato smiles at her and Naru. “How about we all do a little shopping in the market before we go home?” he asks, somewhat eager over being able to buy his daughter things she’ll like. 

Kushina’s eyes widen dangerously and all eagerness is quickly snuffed out. She shakes her head in a slight panic but whatever damage he’s just caused is done.

Naru’s arms tighten around his neck, her legs squeezing his middle with more strength than her small body should have and he forces air through his throat and into his lungs. At first the gravity of the situation doesn’t quite register with him, then he feels the small tremors throughout her tiny frame.

He holds her protectively to his chest and wonders if maybe there was a reason that Itachi was the one to go into the market to get the dango while the rest of the group waited on the outskirts. 

Smoothing a hand down her hair, he tries, “It’s okay, Naru. Tou-san and Kaa-chan are with you. No one will hurt you here.” She whimpers a little into the crook of his neck and his eyes fall shut for a moment before opening to meet Kushina’s. 

She steps forward and rubs small circles on her back. “This village is different from your old village, Naru. Tou-san and Kaa-chan weren’t in your old village, but we’re here now. The villagers were terrible in your old village, but no one will treat you like that here.”

Naru leans back from him, and he feels, rather than sees, the little girl look at Kushina who offers her a gentle smile. 

“We can all go together, dattebane! We’ll keep you safe, but I’ll bet that you’ll see the difference for yourself.”

Naru seems to stare at her for a while, but finally she leans back further before stretching up to Minato’s ear to whisper-shout, “Can we get ramen?”

He can’t help it. 

He laughs.

“Of course!” Kushina practically sings, arms out wide in excitement. “Ramen is my favorite!”

Naru’s eyes sparkle as they look at her mother. 

“Ramen is my fav’rite too,” she breathes. 

Minato watches them fondly, his prior eagerness sneaking back to him.

Though now he gets to spend his money on his daughter and his girlfriend . 

Life is… so good. 

Kushina is firmly out of her element. 

Normally, this situation would be the complete opposite. Ichiraku’s is her comfort zone. Traipsing through the market district is a pastime for herself and Mikoto, sometimes even accompanied by Yoshino Nara and Mei Yamanaka. In fact, she’s well known for what the Uchiha Police would formally refer to as disturbing the peace though Mikoto’s small smiles, sharp as a shuriken, quickly shift those complaints into something more like, settle down please? 

Now, however, Kushina has an itch in her skin. 

Between Minato and herself, they managed to talk Naru into some light clothes shopping for essentials before gorging on their beloved ramen. Pleased to have learned that Naru enjoys the color orange and is already attached to them enough to have chosen a few shirts in Minato’s jonin blue and her own deep green dress she happened to be wearing today, they shifted through the crowded streets toward the fairly new ramen stand.

Kushina has eaten there at least once a week since it opened a few months ago.

Naru refused a piggy back ride from both Minato and herself after the clothing shop, instead clinging to Minato’s front where she can tuck her face into his neck and have his arms around her constantly. It’s precious and quite literally the cutest thing Kushina has ever seen, but it’s also deeply unsettling. She clearly doesn’t trust the villagers, not even enough to leave her back exposed, and it chips away at something in Kushina. 

She tries not to look at the villagers any differently. 

Her status as the container for the Kyuubi is classified and the generation that might remember the beast as more than a vague story is old enough to have experienced the safety provided by the seal Kushina inherited from Mito-sama all those years ago. It’s hard to imagine what they might treat her like if they had seen her seal break, if they had witnessed a bijuu loose on the village, if they had experienced loss from such evil incarnate. 

“Teuchi-jiji!” Naru’s bell-like voice rings out, breaking Kushina from the festering frown curling at her features. Minato has an arm up, holding the curtain into the small stall open, waiting for her to step through. Her eyes land on a grinning Naru who has leaned away from the safety of Minato’s chest for the first time since they entered the market.

Then she realizes what’s actually going on and pales, shooting a look at Minato, then at the definitely not old enough to be called jiji shopkeeper. 

Teuchi is magnificently graceful, smiling at the beaming little girl. “Why hello there!” 

Minato, ever the genius, swoops in. “Ah, Naru, you make friends so easily, little one.”

“Teuchi is the bestest, dattebayo!” she cheers, practically vibrating in his arms as they all approach the stools. She greedily hops into one between Kushina and Minato and bounces in her seat. 

Kushina waits for Teuchi to make eye contact with her so she can attempt to convey her plea to the man. His smile changes a bit, but he hardly misses a beat. 

“Well, how can I possibly say no to Naru-chan, ne?” he says in good humor, flitting his gaze to Kushina for a quick assessment of his actions. She nods to him in thanks.

After boldly declaring that she’ll have pork ramen today, rather than her typical miso, Naru settles in for babbling about how much ramen she can eat and how many different kinds Teuchi can make and how amazing he is, she dives in. Once her second bowl is down, Kushina feels that itch under her skin again. 

“Teuchi, Teuchi!” Naru grins over the counter, hoisting herself up with stiff arms. “You’ll never guess what happen’d!” 

“Oh yeah?” the man asks, not pausing in his ministrations, though he does angle himself to nearly face her so she can continue. 

“I found my parents!” 

The pride in her tiny voice almost keeps Kushina from panicking. 

So far, in her puny few hours as a mother, Kushina has discovered that Naru seems to understand the world similarly to herself-- a fact which has helped her in explaining things when Naru seems frozen in confusion or distress. This, however, is not one of those times. How is she supposed to explain this to her daughter? This is her daughter . From the future! Literally what the actual hell! There’s nothing in her repertoire of life experiences that has prepared her for how to help her four year old daughter from the future understand that she is in the past and that her appearance is a complete anomaly-- that people she once knew will no longer know her and that people will doubt the validity of her place in their family. 

Kushina feels the fine line between rage and grief. 

Minato, bless him, apparently does not. Or if he does, he at least hides it much, much better. 

His laugh is soft and he brings a hand up to stroke over Naru’s golden hair as she turns to look up at him with bright eyes. “Yes,” he says. “She finally found us. We’re signing papers to make it legal tomorrow, actually.”

Naru whips her head around to beam at her and Kushina can’t help but smile back. 

“Why, that’s wonderful!” Teuchi exclaims, holding up a large wooden spoon. “Next bowl for Naru is on the house!”

Naru gasps. “Really?!”

“Really,” Teuchi answers softly, and to Kushina’s surprise, offers all three of them a warm smile one at a time. “Family is worth celebrating.”

Kushina blinks away another bout of Minato’s sissy emotions and smiles back at him. 

“Yes it is.”

“How about these?”

Naru turns toward Minato’s voice, tugging on Kushina’s hand from where they’re perusing a collection of stuffed animals. He’s grinning, all teeth, holding up a bundle of multi-colored blocks. Naru frowns, but bites her lip. “Um-”

“Minato, I think those are for babies!” Kushina cuts in, briefly catching Naru’s relief letting out the subtle tension in her small shoulders. Inwardly, Kushina rejoices. Maybe she is learning some sort of motherly instincts after all. Letting Naru agree to all of her father’s suggestions just because she seems to worship his every move would not be wise long term. 

See, she’s great at this. 

Nothing to be scared of. 

Minato pouts. Like, actually pouts. 

Kushina glares at him until he retreats away in search of more toys. Naru starts to wander a little, anchored by her hand in Kushina’s, so Kushina grins down at her and tells her to lead the way. The little girl barely comes up to her hip, if that, as she carefully weaves her way through the store. Her eyes land on a small pack of crayons and a whisper of awe sneaks into her eyes. 

Kushina crouches down beside her. “You like to draw?”

“Um,” Naru starts quietly. “Kinda. I painted the Hokage’s once.”

Abruptly, Kushina covers her mouth, desperate to hold in the spluttering laugh sure to make its way out before nodding and clearing her throat. “That’s quite an accomplishment, Naru-chan. How about we get some of these for home though?”

Naru nods eagerly, watching Kushina with wide eyes as she bypasses the small pack Naru had been looking at for the largest one there. 

“We should probably get a few books of paper then too, ne?”

“How about this one?!” Minato bursts into their aisle with a new armful of wooden toys all bunched together in a netted sack. “They’re wooden-”

“Ninja toys!” Naru shouts, letting go of Kushina to sprint over to him and jump in place, reaching for the soft-wood kunai, shuriken, and round targets. “Yes! Yes! Please! Can I really have ‘em?!”

Minato’s eyes are suspiciously dewy as he nods down at her and the moment Kushina realizes that Naru let go of them for the first time all afternoon, hers are too. 

When they get home, Kushina expects Naru to leap out of her arms to tear open her new ninja toys, but she’s pleasantly surprised when she asks to look at all her clothes again. The two of them unpack their haul together in the living room while Minato hiraishin’s the furniture in the study away, rearranging their apartment to give Naru a room of her own and hopefully leave him with a little workspace in their bedroom. 

They’ll need to talk about moving soon. 

The reverent way Naru refolds her clothes despite the lack of any organization makes Kushina’s heart clench but she holds it together until Naru says softly, “The only new shirt I ever had was from Hokage-jiji.” And when she turns to look at Kushina, she doesn’t bother to hide the tears she blinks away, because Naru has them too. “Thank you, Kaa-chan.”

Kushina is still holding Naru in her arms on their couch when Minato joins them, a gentle smile on his lips as he runs a hand down each of their heads, kissing them both on the temple. 

“Let’s get your things put away, ne?”

A mysterious chest of drawers and matching desk, much smaller than Minato’s, is in the room when they enter. The spare futon is replaced with a bed, fully equipped with an orange comforter, and Kushina wonders just how long she and Naru had spent crying together on the couch. There are still a few things of Minato’s in the small closet, but there’s plenty of room to add some of Naru’s.

When they’re all done, Naru cries again, this time clinging to Minato’s pant leg until he scoops her up, sharing her tears just as Kushina had done before. 

It’s a beautiful, beautiful sight. 

Eventually, they all manage to relax a little. 

Kushina puts on a pot of tea and Minato unrolls a few different scrolls he’s been studying for the last few weeks. Naru kneels at the low table in the living room, fully immersed in her first creation with her new crayons. After an hour or so of simply watching her family with her tea, Kushina edges into Minato’s side and he reflexively pulls an arm around her without removing his eyes from his reading. She scans the fuinjutsu scroll, recognizing it, and settles in to bring herself up to speed to help her boyfriend with his newest jutsu project. 

She’s not sure how much time has passed when there’s a knock on the door. 

Naru jumps, dropping her crayon, and Kushina automatically reaches out for her despite knowing full well there’s no threat at their door. The girl rises to approach Kushina’s side, blinking slowly between her and the door. 

Minato, however, has paled and Kushina squints at him accusingly. He lets out a weak and entirely fake laugh, brushing his hand at the back of his neck. “Ah, I think I might have let something slip my mind in all our excitement…”

She frowns at him. 

He opens his mouth, but the knock comes again, this time more impatient. She recognizes the chakra signature on the other side of the door and it’s not that she’s displeased per say, but the peace between her family is still somewhat fragile and new. Unexpected surprises are the enemy. Kushina is barely holding on to acting cool and collected and normal when underneath she’s bursting with questions and emotions that would surely drown the little girl currently climbing onto the couch to curl into her side. 

Minato stands after offering her a sheepish, though apologetic, smile and opens the door. 

“You’re late,” a small voice says. 

“Ah, Kakashi-kun,” Minato stutters down to the boy barely taller than Naru. “Forgive me, but it seems that dinner completely slipped my mind.”

“Hn,” the boy answers, only half of him in Kushina’s view beyond the door. “Of course it did. That’s why Otou-san sent me to remind you.”

“Ah, well, um-”

“Who is that?”

Kushina blinks at the boy's cold question, turning to Naru to find her leaning dramatically off the couch to see more of the boy at their front door, her long blonde hair hanging in the free space below her. She blushes when she realizes the attention of the room is on her before breaking into a wide grin.

“Hi, I’m Naruto Uzumaki! Are you really Kakashi?”

“Yes.” Kakashi doesn’t move, seemingly unimpressed, though that’s standard. 

Naru, suddenly emboldened, jumps up from the couch to run to Minato’s side. She grips his pant leg and holds a proud fist in the air. “ Cool! We’re gon’ be teammates!” 

Minato tenses beside her and Kushina knows he’s calculating his young student’s reaction, though neither of them are brave enough to correct her on the fact that he’s a ninja and she’s not. 

Kakashi’s eyes frown above his mask and he glowers down at Naru as if he’s ten feet tall. Luckily, he catches sight of Minato placing a protective hand on Naru’s shoulder and halts his next words, glancing up at Minato instead. “Sensei?”

“Well, we might be spending a little time training with Naru-chan in the future,” he answers gently, tipping his head a little to the side and Kushina knows he’s smiling down at his student. 

Kakashi examines Naru for a long moment. “You’re not even a ninja.”

“Not yet!” Naru blusters defiantly. “That’s what the training’s for, dummy!” 

One of Kakashi’s eyes twitches and Kushina gets to her feet, ready to attempt to de-escalate the situation. 

“You wouldn’t be able to keep up,” Kakashi says, his voice low. “You’re just a little kid.”

“Nuh uh!” Naru crosses her arms over her chest, taking a step toward the boy and sending a wave of fluttering anxiety through Kushina. Is this always what motherhood is like? Is she going to be terrified of everything when it comes to Naru? Forever? Naru doesn’t seem intimidated in the slightest, her current stance a far cry from the way she’s clung to Kushina and Minato all day. “I’m super fast! And I’ll be just as good a ninja as you in no time, dattebayo!” 

Something sinister passes over Kakashi’s face and Kushina flinches - flinches - the boy is six for crying out loud! Her temper flares low in her chest but Kakashi speaks first. 

“How about a race then, kid? ” 

Naru doesn’t miss a beat. 

“You’re on!” 

“Hey now!” Kushina starts, her voice a bit too hostile for current company.

Minato raises his hands, motioning for them all to simmer down. “Whoa, whoa. Kakashi-kun, you can’t pick fights with civilians.” The boy opens his mouth beneath his mask but Minato dismisses him, crouching down beside Naru and looking her in the eye. “And Naru, Kakashi is a ninja. I believe that you’re fast, but shinobi are specially trained-”

“I can beat him, Tou-san!” she interjects, bouncing on her toes, fists clenched. “I outrun the white mask ninja all the time! I swear!” 

Kushina really wishes she wasn’t seeing the spark in Minato’s eyes at that remark. 

Fuck. She’s lost them. 

Minato scans her young face for a moment longer before taking a deep, deep breath and smiling . Asshole. “Well then,” he says, “where should we hold the race?”

“Back home,” Kakashi says, crossing his arms in an unusual show of his petulance and age. “Otou-san and Jiraiya-sama are waiting to start dinner.”

That’s what Minato casually forgot about?!

Bastards. All of them.

But at least she’s not the one cooking…

“Ah, but Naru-chan doesn’t know where you live,” Minato says helpfully. 

Naru is now bursting with energy, twitching on her feet and shifting back and forth. “I can follow you or Kaa-chan! If one of you are there, I’ll know where to go.”

Kushina and Minato both laser their eyes to her. 

“What do you mean?” she asks, calling up her daughter’s attention for the first time since the door opened. 

Naru blinks, excitement shining in her eyes. “I know what you guys feel like,” she says as if that makes complete sense. “So wherever you go I’ll feel you and know where to go.” Then her eyes dart to Minato then Kakashi. “As long as it’s in the village. You live in the village right?”

Kakashi glares at her, answering slowly. “Yeah.”

“Then yeah!” 

Gears turn in Kushina’s mind, finally clicking into place, but Minato’s already figured it out. 

“So you can sense us? Our chakra? Across the whole village?”

“Eh?” Naru says, her face scrunching up in impatience. “I guess, I don’ know.”

Minato hums to himself for a moment before turning to Kushina. 

Kushina sighs. “I’ll take the rooftops.”

“Thank you, dear,” he says cheerfully, rising back to his full height. “If Naru can’t sense my chakra you’ll both make your way with Kushina-- the normal way. Otherwise, wait for her to say start. No fighting. No involving outside parties. And no chakra.”

“Okay, okay!” Naru shouts, back to jumping up and down. 

Minato looks between them both and ruffles Naru’s hair with a pleased smile, alight with curiosity that’s starting to seep into Kushina as well, especially knowing how Naru reacted to the market district before. 

“Alright then. See you soon.”

And then Minato disappears. 

“Ooooh,” Naru coos before running out of the apartment to look off the edge. Kakashi watches her carefully, his tension tight in his shoulders. Kushina sighs again before following her daughter out, locking and sealing the door behind them. After a few seconds Naru whips around to look up at her. “I feel him! Can we start now?!” 

Channeling all the calm she can, Kushina takes another steadying breath while the two kids stare at her. 

“Start.”

Kakashi bursts away, not quite fast enough for a shunshin, but his shinobi training is obvious. Naru, on the other hand, reaches for the railing and, before Kushina even realizes what she’s doing, launches herself over the side of the building. 

Kushina lunges for her, bending over the iron rail, but Naru is already catching herself on the railing below before repeating her trick until she’s on the dirt below. She shoots forward in a run much too fast for an average little girl, but Kushina tells herself that this is a ninja village. Maybe it’s not as strange as she thinks it is. 

She takes to the nearest roof, distantly aware of Kakashi’s chakra while it’s still in her range, and watches Naru weave through the streets and passerbyers with adept footing. Her chakra is aflame, wild and massive inside such a small body as she speeds through the streets, Kushina always close by. About halfway through the village, the wide market district looms ahead. Kakashi’s chakra is nearby, though not as far ahead as Kushina would have guessed. Naru darts into the market full speed ahead, dodging civilians and shinobi alike, slipping into alleyways more often than not. 

Kushina tries not to think about why her little girl can run like this, she really does. 

But the idea that she’s learning to dodge and weave and flee because of being chased, hunted , churns in her belly until she has to remind herself that if her rage boils too much, the Kyuubi could respond in turn. 

She glides from one rooftop to another, sights set on the exit of the alleyway Naru last went into, but Naru doesn’t emerge. A second passes, then two and three. 

And Kushina can’t find Naru.

Chapter Text

Minato appears at his Hiraishin marker outside the Hatake compound. A part of him can’t help but look back over his shoulder out into the village beyond, imagining the tiny version of himself and Kushina actually being able to sense his chakra from this far away. Reminding himself that no matter what happens, his girlfriend is with the two kids, he turns toward the wooden gate ahead. 

Sakumo and Jiraiya are laughing when he steps into the Clan Head’s home, the former gently leaning over something steaming on the stove. The two men of white and silver hair make for quite the striking scene as Minato waits under their assessing gazes, centered on him from the moment he crosses the threshold. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Jiraiya speaks first, the grumpy tone a familiar memory from his years of training with his old sensei. The Toad Sage does not like surprises, even if he’s often caught reveling in the aftermath. 

Minato’s lip twitches and he realizes he’s grinning. He pinches back the smile, fighting against it and hopelessly losing. 

His fellow jounin raises a curious brow and ventures, “Where is Kushina and Kakashi?”

“Well…” Minato starts, trailing off to venture a look back out the doorway. “Actually, Kushina is escorting Kakashi through the village with a, um, guest.”

Jiraiya blinks, unimpressed. “A guest?”

“A guest,” Minato confirms with a nod, his grin idly resurfacing. “A rather… permanent guest.”

“A permanent guest?” Sakumo frowns. “I’m not keeping anyone else in this house without an order from the Hokage-”

“No, no! Not like that!” Minato quickly amends, raising his hands as placatingly as possible, however they seem to flounder a bit more than he intended. “She’s a permanent guest for myself and Kushina.”

Sakumo’s frown deepens.

“Cut the shit, kid,” Jiraiya says suddenly, approaching his student. “What’s got you so flustered and who is this guest? ” 

Another flicker of Minato’s eyes toward the village and then he’s shutting the front door behind him, turning eager eyes of mirth onto the two other men.

“Our daughter.”

There’s a pause, a long, long, painful pause. 

Jiraiya is frozen in place, little more than an arm’s reach between Minato and his old teacher, but it’s Sakumo who gains his bearings first. 

“Excuse me, what?”

Minato nods again, a little too frantically and, distantly, he’s aware that he’s still smiling. “It’s complicated, but it’s true. She and Kakashi are racing here right now!” 

“Racing?”

“Here?”

Suddenly, Minato jumps. He whips back to the door. “Actually we should probably go wait by the gate for them. I want to see who wins.”

He doesn’t wait for his two elders to follow him before traipsing out to the edge of the compound once more, excitement thrumming through him as he casts out his senses in search of any of the three by their chakra. An awkward few minutes later, Sakumo and Jiraiya join him.

“So,” Jiraiya says, voice full of disbelief. “Your daughter, huh?”

Minato doesn’t blame him for his skepticism. He’d have acted the same way if someone told him such a thing just a day before. It’s a lot to take in, he understands that, so he’ll just wait for them both to see for themselves.

He hums an affirmative. “She said she would be able to sense my chakra here to race Kakashi through the village.” 

“She’s a ninja?” Sakumo asks, apparently deciding to play along as well. 

“No, of course not!” Minato scoffs. “She’s four.”

“Four,” Sakumo repeats, as if trying to knock some sense into Minato. 

Minato ignores him. “Yes, but she says she can outrun an Anbu so I wanted to see her speed for myself.” 

Their silence beside him is loud, but he continues to shove their opinions to the back of his mind, instead focusing on the memory of bright blue eyes looking up at him in determination over the competition ahead. His plastered on smile turns wistful and he looks over at Jiraiya. 

“Her name is Naruto,” he says quietly. 

The effect is instantaneous and exactly what Minato wanted. Jiraiya stills, immediately understanding the context of the girl’s name. His face softens, only enough to seem less like he’s facing down an enemy and more like he’s simply concerned and Minato counts it as a win. 

His sensory abilities are nothing more than average for a ninja, but still he throws them out, stretching his awareness as far as he can. Before long, the effect is irrelevant. A lashing of thick, powerful chakra pulses through the village, strong enough that any shinobi above a genin can feel it and Minato stiffens. 

He recognizes tailed beast chakra better than most. 

Jiraiya’s hand reaches out for his shoulder the moment before he pulls himself toward the Hiraishin marker on Kushina’s clothes and Minato barely notices. There’s something sharp in him, overly aware, like the calm in the midst of battle, as he surfaces further into the village. He appears beside Kushina in an alleyway and grabs her arm on an instinct, his eyes unable to focus on her fully with the Kyuubi chakra in the air. 

But her skin burns, sharp red energy flickering in poison kisses over her entire body. She stumbles in place, her eyes lost somewhere ahead, but she lifts a hand to wave Minato away. “I’ll be fine. Get Naruto.”

His jaw clenches, wary of her seal, but also fully knowing that there’s a much larger force of chakra bright and unhindered in front of him. When he faces it, however, he can’t bring himself to believe what he’s seeing. 

Naru is standing at the center of the alley, her spine straight and chin raised high with pride and power that feels so wrong coming from her tiny body. 

And she’s golden. 

Genuinely golden.

A cloak of warm, omnipotent chakra has transformed her completely— her clothes once plain are burning gold with lines of black that lead to a stark Uzumaki spiral at her stomach as her hair floats around her, highlighting her red eyes that have bent her pupils into the slits of a predator. 

Around her are chakra arms, arms that have detained three shinobi who are, at first glance, Anbu, but the more Minato takes in of the scene, he realizes that these blank masked ninja are not, in fact, Anbu at all. 

“Namikaze.”

It takes two racing heartbeats for Minato to realize that the deep, masculine voice is coming from Naru— sweet, innocent Naru. His daughter . 

The red eyes watch him, waiting for his full attention, and he can’t help but marvel at the sight of her. Barely more than a toddler, she’s alight with a furious splendor that could level the village in a breath.

Like an angel, he thinks to himself, remembering his daughter’s story. An angel of vengeance.

She’s beautiful– mesmerizingly so, especially with her small frame and cherub features glowing with barely leashed power.

“Who are you?” Minato dares to ask, his feet itching him forward across the dirt alley. 

Naru’s head tilts slightly, her lips twisting just a bit like she wants to sneer at him. “I am your daughter’s protector and the one who brought her to you. I am the eldest of nine siblings, more commonly known among your kind as the Kyuubi no Kitsune.”

The pounding rhythm of Minato’s heart almost drowns out the next words. 

“This may be your daughter’s second life, but it is my third by her side,” the kyuubi continues, his voice startling, horrific, almost, coming from the young girl’s lips. “In this life, I will not tolerate the filth that threatens her and though I loathe to work with humans, you and I are a team from now on, Yondaime. Together, we will make her dreams come true in time for her to grow into them.”

“Dreams?” he hears himself say, carefully aware of Jiraiya at his back and his wife on the ground beside him. It’s likely they’re surrounded above by actual Anbu, all the civilians already evacuated, but he can’t feel anyone’s chakra over the roar of the kyuubi. 

Naru raises a brow, her eyes darkening as she lowers her chin to stare directly at him. “Peace, Namikaze. Naruto has always wanted peace.”

Minato feels his lips part, the surreality of the moment sinking into his chest like a stone. 

“These men are pawns,” the kyuubi says, gesturing with Naru’s glowing arm toward the three shinobi still captured by her power. “Bring justice to Shimura Danzo by the end of the week,” he declares, leveling Minato with an eerie, toothy smile, “or I will do it for you.”

At that, the kyuubi’s chakra bursts once more and while Minato braces himself against it, the ninjas in Naru’s chakra arms all fall limp before the arms disappear completely. The thin red sheen of chakra around Kushina fades away as the golden aura around Naru does as well. 

Kushina bursts forward with shaking legs, catching Naru as she drifts back into herself, the kyuubi gone for now. Minato knows full well that he’ll be back.

It’s a terrifying thought.

But his girlfriend is frantically running hands over an unconscious Naru in her arms, cradling the girl to her chest and Minato snaps out of it, turning briefly to his old sensei before he joins his family on the dirt ground of an alley in the middle of the Konoha marketplace. 

“Tell Hokage-sama I’ll be visiting him.”

Kushina holds herself together as well as possible. She’s used to it, really. After years of being the last of her clan, she’s been her only family amongst the ghosts that follow her name and she’s managed just fine. However, watching the tiny blonde girl she’s come to accept as her daughter being possessed by the very demon that both saved her life and ruined it has proved to be more than a little dismantling. 

She looks so peaceful though, now that the flurry of Anbu have come and gone, taking the blank masked shinobi with them. Minato stays close by, surrounding the two Uzumaki girls as long as possible. His presence is thick with a protective sort of rage that Kushina has never experienced in him before and on any other day she’d be shoving him away. 

Not today. 

Eventually, he takes them home with a flickering hiraishin before disappearing after his sensei to meet with the Hokage. 

It’s understandable, Kushina knows, and yet she can’t help but feel he’s left a hole behind where he should be. 

Kushina lays beside Naru in the bed she shares with Minato, her fingers drawing lazily through her blonde hair as she watches the rise and fall of her little chest, easy breaths slipping in and out of her parted lips. She looks so peaceful this way, as if she is truly a normal toddler, still only in her sleep and as serene as can be. 

But Naru is no normal toddler.

It’s a reality that Kushina has been avoiding since Naru’s first mention of the golden angel, the first glimpse of fear in the girl at the thought of stepping out into the streets of Konoha. She’d listened to Naru’s recount of the last moments before she’d woken up here with a tense heart. Walls have always been a familiar comfort for Kushina. She keeps her distance, deep down. It’s easier to lose things if they were never very close in the first place. 

Her walls were dismantled the moment she acknowledged Naru as her daughter, and though she tried not to let the potential future Naru came from burn itself into her soul, it seems that she’s already too late. 

There is no more denying the truth, no hiding from it.

Naru has the Kyuubi. 

If Naru is from the future where she has no parents, no one who keeps up with her birthdays or protects her from the darker districts of Konoha, and she has the Kyuubi, Kushina knows what that means. If Naru is alone in the future that she came from, then both Kushina and Minato cannot possibly be there. 

They’re both dead.

Any other possibility is unacceptable. 

Even that is too much. Would no one be looking after their daughter? From the casual way Naru recounted the festival, it doesn’t seem like there was damage so great that no one close to Kushina or Minato would still be alive. If the Kyuubi can possibly be trusted, then Minato is the Fourth Hokage. 

Who would abandon the baby of the Hokage?

Where was Sarutobi? Mikoto? Jiraiya or Sakumo? Hell, even Shikaku, Chouza, or Inoichi? 

Though Kushina often despises the man, she would even consider Fugaku a friend to both herself and especially Minato. With Mikoto as her best friend and Fugaku as Clan Head backing her up, then surely something could have been done?

And if politics ended up being what left her daughter abandoned , then she held no interest in the matter completely. 

Simmering rage warms her limbs, her fingers brushing gently through Naru’s blonde hair. In sleep she looks a bit more like Kushina than Minato despite the spitting image she is of him when she’s awake. She lets the hand fall away in the darkness, bringing it to rest against her own stomach. 

“This may be your daughter’s second life, but it is my third by her side.”

She’s never heard the Kyuubi speak like that. Any time the Nine Tails has ever had a distinguishable voice in Kushina’s mind, it’s always been full of hatred, of malice. Things like peace and the level of feral protectiveness that she’d heard in the alley are completely unbelievable. Still, the Kyuubi had sounded… doting, almost. Furious, absolutely, but there was definitely a layer of defensiveness to his words that lends her to feel that the Kyuubi cares for Naru. 

A growl interrupts her thoughts. 

Her eyes fly to Naru’s sleeping form, her breaths still even and soft. 

Only then does she glance down at her hand on her stomach, covering her seal. If there’s even a chance that Kushina can run interference with the Kyuubi that Naru doesn’t have to, she will jump at it. Closing her eyes, steadying her racing heart, and concentrating on the closest she can come to a meditative state, she stills. 

When she opens her eyes she’s in a bright, endless room.

And hovering above her is the Kyuubi no Kitsune. 

Minato is tense. 

Sarutobi is puffing from his pipe with an aura of burden while Jiraiya is inspecting the nearest bookshelf, though Minato knows that he’s looking far beyond that, retreating into his mind. Minato also knows that the Sandaime has caught Jiraiya up on all matters relating to Naru in the time it took Minato to settle his girls at home and build the strength to leave them. 

A part of Minato thinks that Kushina should be here too. And she should, really, but the idea of leaving Naru with anyone else or having her sit in the room during the talks to come are both nearly unbearable. That’s not to mention Kushina’s somewhat stupified state in the aftermath of whatever had happened to her Kyuubi within her seal. 

He’d checked both Kushina and Naru’s seal before leaving them, his findings beyond worrisome. 

“So,” Jiraiya says finally, turning to Minato’s stiff form at the center of the Hokage’s office, “the Kyuubi?”

Minato can’t find the humor Jiraiya is attempting at, and Sarutobi only sighs, stowing his pipe. 

“You said that the Kyuubi brought young Naru here to make her dream come true?”

Jiraiya nods, a far off look in his eyes. “Of peace,” he says. “Naru apparently dreams of peace in every life.”

The vague “facts” he’s learned from both the Nine Tails and his four year old daughter from the future roll around in Minato’s mind with abandon, ransacking the place and tilting his world view. He clenches his teeth, bringing a hand up to his temple as he controls the war of emotions in his gut that desperately need a release. 

But that’s something he can do in private, something he would only dare share with Kushina. 

“You have a theory?” the Sandaime says suddenly.

Minato looks up, unsure whether he’s speaking to himself or Jiraiya. 

“Aa,” Jiraiya hums. “You said that she described a golden angel that gave her a family, yes?” He waits for a nod from Sarutobi while Minato doesn’t move. “Assuming that the golden chakra cloak is related to the Kyuubi, it would make sense that the angel Naru saw was another holder of the Kyuubi– someone who gave her the Kyuubi she has now.”

“Like Kushina-chan?” the Hokage asks. 

Jiraiya waves a nonchalant hand. “Or another Naruto.”

Minato flexes his jaw, but doesn’t disagree, though he’s not ready to interrupt Jiraiya’s train of thought. 

“The Kyuubi did say that it was his third life at Naruto’s side,” Jiraiya continues. “Though the level of dedication the demon seems to have over the girl is a little discomforting.”

Finally, Minato sighs. “Her seal is open.”

The room stills.

“What?”

Minato shakes his head, dismissing their surprise. “It wasn’t open before, but when I dropped her and Kushina off at home, Naru’s seal was wide open. The Kyuubi can leave anytime it wants to.”

“Can you close it?” Sarutobi shifts in his chair uncomfortably, leaning forward to rest his elbows atop his desk. 

“Minato probably-”

“I won’t.”

Two pairs of eyes turn on Minato, flickering with something akin to madness. 

Minato raises a hand to them before either of them can speak against him. “My daughter comes from a time where I was the Hokage, where I died and no one took care of her. She didn’t have parents, didn’t have caregivers, but she obviously had the Kyuubi who intends to protect her from filth as he called it– filth that threatened her. If the most powerful of the bijuu is looking to cleanse our village of threats, then I’m inclined to want to join him.”

As expected, the response from his Hokage and his teacher are not exactly comforting. 

“Minato, you cannot possibly mean to ally yourself with a demon chakra construct,” Jiraiya quickly objects. 

Sarutobi takes an extra second to observe Minato from top to bottom. “Matters of the heart aside, what basis do we have to trust anything from the Kyuubi’s mouth?”

Minato doesn’t blink. “Have you identified the shinobi that he captured while protecting my four year old child?”

It’s the Hokage’s turn to clench his teeth, reclining back in his seat. “They are what I’m sure you’ve both determined them to be.”

With a step forward, Minato faces the Sandaime completely. “And who is it that the Kyuubi demanded be brought to justice?”

No one answers him, but that suits Minato just fine. They’re all on the same page. 

“Do you expect me to believe that's a coincidence, Hokage-sama?” Minato presses, taking another step closer to his desk. “This is an organized shinobi attack– not only on a civilian , but on a jinchuriki, both of which are considered treasonous.”

“It’s not so simple, Mina-”

“Not so simple? What is complicated about it?” Minato bites back, the curling emotions in his chest pushing the words from his lips. “Your adviser sicced his trained assassins on my four year old daughter and you expect me to lie down and do nothing?”

His question weighs heavy through the room. He stares down the Hokage, the most powerful man in the village, with no hesitation, no regret. 

“Kyuubi aside,” Minato continues, his voice low, “this is my family. Call your dog to heal or I’ll put him down myself.”

“Minato,” Jiraiya tries to soothe, but Minato only shoots a hand out to stop him, his eyes never leaving the Sandaime.

Sarutobi takes a deep breath. “Are you threatening a counselor to the Hokage, Namikaze-san?”

“Are you disregarding treason against the village while claiming to be its leader?”

This time Jiraiya moves between them, a sharp, scolding look on his eyes as he catches Minato’s glare. “That’s enough.”

Minato exhales slowly. “The Kyuubi gave a week to see justice for Danzo’s crimes,” he practically whispers. “If you do nothing to investigate this I will not stand in the Kyuubi’s way.”

And then he disappears in a flash. 

“Took you long enough.”

Kushina’s hands flex at her sides, almost looking for weapons that she knows she doesn’t have within her mindscape. The Kyuubi is massive, so big that she’s probably only as big as a single claw on its paw. His teeth gleam in the off-kilter light of this less-than-reality, a cord of spit connecting from a fang to its open maw. 

“Did you know?” she asks, her voice much quieter than she meant it to be. 

The Kyuubi rustles her chains that cover its body. “I received my full memories through the chakra of the other me,” he answers her, almost… conversationally. 

Kushina does not enjoy being caught so off guard. 

“So,” she trails off, scanning every chakra made link of her Uzumaki blood limit that’s buried in red fur. “You can tell me what’s going on?”

It snorts, angling its vulpine head to look down on her. “And why would I do such a thing? When have you ever done something deserving of my good will?”

“I- I haven’t,” she blurts out, the emotion in her bones more overwhelming than the fear she usually feels in the presence of the beast. “I know I haven’t and… I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m starting to think that I don’t know anything about you and I definitely don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help her. If- if there’s anything I can do to help Naruto, I will do it.”

The Kyuubi doesn’t lessen its heavy presence, doesn’t lighten up the snarl at its lips, but it doesn’t attack either. It doesn’t struggle against her, doesn’t shove her out of the mindscape. 

In fact, it seems calm almost– assessing. 

“Release me.”

Kushina’s heart stops. 

“Excuse me?”

The Kyuubi’s lips pull away from its teeth, showing off a sinister almost-smile. “If you want to help, release your chains and open your seal.”

She closes her hands into fists. “And why would I do that?”

“I will aid Naruto in every form I have and if you’d like to stay alive through what I intend to do, then I will need your seal open,” its booming voice echoes out through the infinite space. “Or you can keep me this way and I’ll escape on my own– to your death.”

A shiver works its way down her spine, but she lets herself consider it. Without a doubt, its proposition is her worst nightmare. There is nothing that she’s ever lived in fear over quite like failing as a jinchuriki, like seeing her prisoner on the loose with the full power to take away life by the hundreds. 

And yet the demon in front of her feels less like a demon now than ever before. 

It wants to protect her daughter and it made that very clear. 

This may be your daughter’s second life, but it is my third by her side. 

Warring with herself, she looks up into the wild, red eyes of a predator.

She loosens her chains, giving him room. 

“You love her?” the words ghost off her lips. 

The Kyuubi surveys her carefully.

“I have known Naruto in many forms. I’ve seen your child as a fumbling idiot teenager, as a baby kit with more shit than brains, as a man at his wedding and with a son of his own, as a quiet little girl with a sharp mind, and a lost boy with no other options than to send me in his stead.” The Kyuubi pays no mind to Kushina’s sharp intake of breath. “Your child will be mine in every lifetime and in every lifetime I will stay by Naruto’s side.

“I am a being that knows malice that infests and spoils everything around it. I claim hatred as my mantle, and have spread it across nations for hundreds of years. What I am capable of feeling cannot be described by these petty human terms. What do you know of malice? Of hatred?

“Of love?”

Kushina blinks wide eyes up at the Kyuubi, ignoring the single streaking tear that slips over her cheek as she imagines the little girl sleeping peacefully by her side. 

“I can begin to accept that you and that blond love Naruto,” the Kyuubi says as Kushina lets her chakra chains slowly fall away into nothingness. “But what I feel for Naruto is eternal and beyond the laws of your natural world.

“I will never leave her side,” the Kyuubi no Kitsune declares, “and I will never fail her.”

The world pauses, everything still for a moment before the Kyuubi drops from its prone position to crash down on all four paws, eyes locked on Kushina. 

Her chakra weaves through the seal, well aware that she could potentially be setting loose the absolute destruction of her village. 

But she only offers the beast a watery smile of a mother. 

“Then we’re on the same page, Kyuubi.”

Savage eyes settle on her.

“It’s Kurama.”

Chapter Text

Minato still feels the sizzle of his unruly chakra as he steps into his apartment. The lights are off. Only the glow of the village through the windows casting shadows across Naru’s abandoned crayons leads him to the hall. It’s quiet and Minato hopes that means both his girls are sleeping as peacefully as they can be with all things considered. 

Still, it does not come as a shock to find Kushina awake in their bed, holding Naru against her chest. Long fingers dragging through the child’s gilded hair, Kushina touches a kiss to the top of her forehead before glancing up at Minato— a wildfire in her eyes. 

Good. They’re on the same page then. 

Minato wouldn’t call himself an angry man, nor a gentle one. He doesn’t have the flickering ire that Kushina does, always ready to spark off at something with little notice, but he also doesn’t have her kindness that envelopes everyone she brings into her care. 

He’s resourceful and intuitive and exhaustive to the degree that only an Uzumaki could bear to endure him for prolonged periods of time. His attention is often stifling and decisive— unflinching and impenetrable. Charisma keeps him afloat amongst the village. Charisma is what’s led him to be considered a potential future Hokage, what’s grabbed Sarutobi-sama’s notice in the last few years. 

But his charisma is only a side effect of his sureness, his stubborn dives into knowledge and ideals and his determination to always have an answer. 

The answer here is both simple and unbelievably complicated. 

Kushina draws back a portion of her blanket, just enough for an invitation, and Minato doesn’t hesitate to drift across the dark room to slip in at her side. Naru breathes easy between them as he presses himself into the private moment with his family. 

Safe. They’re safe now. 

But there is a restlessness in him— something awakened by the day’s events. 

He’s still reeling from the emotional upheaval of becoming a father in the most unexpected way possible, from learning what his daughter’s life was like in whatever time or dimension she was born in, and seeing the rumored agents of Root so close to his fucking child— 

There was a part of him that had considered the future Naru supposedly came from as a different world completely. In that world, she was alone and terrified of her village to the point of a physical reaction— a trauma response . Here, she’s immediately loved by Minato and Kushina. She blends in seamlessly with them, enjoying ramen and toy kunai and grins at Kakashi and Itachi like she’d make lifelong friends out of them. 

But that moment in the alley reminded Minato that the future is a result of the present. 

And now that it has his notice, nothing will sway him from weeding out every atrocity come to pass over his daughter— his blood . 

He reaches his arm over Naru, tracing his hand down the curve of Kushina’s waist as she watches him press his face into the crown of their daughter’s hair. 

She’s so small. 

They don’t speak. Minato doesn’t dare, considering he nearly threatened the Hokage himself only minutes ago, and Kushina seems to have plenty on her mind if she’s this quiet. But they watch each other, something tangible in the way their eyes meet over their daughter’s head. 

And though he doesn’t think he’ll be able to sleep for a single second, he eventually closes his eyes, hoping to ease Kushina’s mind at least a little. 

Instead, she takes the hand still at her side and moves it.

Right over her now open seal. 

When Kushina wakes, it’s to a knock on the door. 

She doesn’t remember falling asleep in the first place, so sure as she was that no rest would be found for her all night. Minato is likely in the same boat, though he’s always tired more easily than she. He’s curled around Naru so completely that the sight is helplessly endearing.

But the knock comes again, so Kushina unwinds herself from her family to crawl out of the bed. If her hackles are raised after yesterday’s events, well, that can’t be helped. 

“O nee -san!” 

A huff of humor passes through Kushina’s lips as she rounds on the front door, palming at the seals keeping it virtually impenetrable and unopenable. 

She leans on the frame, crossing her arms. “What do you want, squirt?”

Rich honey eyes grin up at her and, if it were any other morning, Kushina would normally smile back at her. 

“Mama and Nawaki-oji want you to come to breakfast,” Senju Hisa reports, the glistening metal of her new hitae-ate still unblemished across her forehead. She blows at her long, icy blue bangs distractedly. “Said we’re due for family time or something.”

“Oh?” Kushina taps a finger on her bicep, raising a brow. “And I’m sure the timing is purely coincidental?”

Hisa waves her hands in front of her in a gesture eerily like her step-father after being caught near the bathhouses. “Hey now, don’t shoot the messenger, okay? I’m just doing my job.”

“Your job running errands for your Kaa-san?”

“And Oji-chan,” the girl scoffs, kicking her boot over the wood balcony. “They’ve upped my chores since I made genin, you know? How is that fair, hm?”

Kushina snorts, pushing off the wall before taking a deep breath. “I’ll consider it,” she answers, Hisa perking up at returning to the topic of breakfast. “But I can’t promise. We had a… rough night.”

Tsunade’s daughter shifts, her face smoothing into the same steely air of her mother. “Of course, Onee-san. I’ll let them know.”

The door feels heavy under Kushina’s hand as she closes it, resetting the seals, before turning to face her empty living room. Minato’s open scroll is still on the couch where he left it yesterday, a crayon on the floor nearby and the package of them still out on the low table. She steps closer, studying the interrupted drawing only to fucking crumple . 

The lines are barely squiggles, the shapes almost blobs, but Kushina can clearly see two yellow heads and one red, lines connecting the three figures like extended arms. 

Fuck . 

She tidies up briefly, packing away the crayons (but leaving them out in case Naru’s drawing isn’t finished yet) and rolling up Minato’s scroll and returning it to a nearby shelf. 

Breakfast feels like a bad idea, but Kushina knows that her cousins have good intentions. Jiraiya most likely told Tsunade all about Naru, which means Nawaki knows instantly. He’ll probably end up taking the blame for all the gossip, despite Tsunade and Jiraiya being typical instigators. 

She sighs, unsure how Minato will feel about the invitation and debates whether or not she’ll even wake him or Naru up before they do so themselves. However, the moment she steps from the hall back into their bedroom, the debate becomes completely moot. 

Naru gasps from her place atop Minato’s chest, her smile tugging tight across her cheeks. “Like Gama-chan!” 

“Oh?” Minato says, his sleepy voice rising playfully. He holds her to him with both hands, looking up at her with a reverence Kushina is sure is on her face as well. “Who is Gama-chan?”

“Where I keep my money!” Naru explains dutifully. Her hair is spilled out of her braid, falling over the both of them like unspun gold. “One of my secret friends gave it to me when I got the ‘partment!” 

Kushina tenses, though she tries to contain herself enough not to ruin the moment. 

“You have secret friends, little storm?”

But then Minato has to go and say that and all of Kushina’s cool is blown way the fuck out the window. 

Little Storm is what Uzumaki children are called by their parents. Kushina only has the vaguest memory of her mother, just the once, whispering the term to her with a kiss to her cheek before she was taken to Konoha, and then again by Uzumaki Mito before she passed on her burden. 

And Minato—

Damn him. Damn him and all his stupid emotions. 

“Mhm, mhm,” Naru hums, nodding her head enough to rock them both atop the bed. “One sent me Gama-chan and a blanket— it’s orange .”

“Ooh,” Minato answers with wide eyes. “And the others?”

“Oh, just Inu-nii!” Naru chirps. “Inu-niisan wears a mask all the time, but he brought me a wolf toy once and he fixes all the broken things in my ‘partment and he sometimes leaves me fruits on the table! Like— like tang’rines! He even peeled them for me!”

Kushina can see Minato stiffening, but he keeps a smile on his face. 

“He wears a mask?”

“Yup! Like all the white mask guys, ‘cept Inu-nii’s is a dog. He has the comfiest feeling of all the white mask guys. Most of them kind of hurt— like ow .”

Minato brushes some of her blonde hair back behind her ear. “Feeling? You mean chakra?”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah, like you and Kaa-chan?” Minato nods and Naru beams at him, sinking into his chest with her little arms wrapped around him. “Yeah, Inu-niisan feels like… Oh! Inu-niisan feels like-like ‘Kashi! From yesterday! Um, ‘cept Inu-nii is really, really tall and I think his old man hair is bigger.”

Kushina doesn’t stop the laugh that bubbles out of her, nor does she hide the slip of a smile on her face at the idea that maybe there were some people who tried to take care of Naru. 

Why Kakashi was the only one of all her and Minato’s precious people to come near Naru she will never understand, under any circumstances, but she is eternally grateful for the little brat.

Naru lets out the barest gasp at the realization that Kushina is listening at the door. Chubby cheeks bunch up with a grin before she rolls over on Minato’s chest, throwing her arms out with a flair. “Kaa-chan! Look, look!”

Kushina’s grin pinches as it spreads into a full smile. “I see, Naru-chan.”

“Tou-san lets me lay on him!” She wiggles, kicking at the blanket around her waist. “He said I can do it anytime I want!”

There’s a tick of pain in her chest, something feral rumbling suspiciously beneath her seal, but she only upholds her smile and crosses the room. She sits on the edge of the bed, running a hand over Naru’s hair even as the girl reaches up her arms to curl back beneath Minato’s neck.

“Mhm,” she hums. “We both love to cuddle with you— you’re so cute and sweet and we love you.”

For a stunted breath, Naru’s face slackens, eyes locked with Kushina’s. She opens her mouth and closes it, then she says, “Cuddle?”

Minato’s arms wrap around her, holding her tight to his chest, and Naru turns to rest her face against his heartbeat. She peeks up at Kushina, waiting.

“Laying together,” she explains, toying with her daughter’s blonde hair. “Like last night and the night before.”

“And now,” Minato adds, punctuating the statement with a kiss to Naru’s forehead.

The girl’s chin starts to wobble and fuck—

“I love to cuddle w-with you guys too,” Naru mumbles into Minato’s shirt. He runs a hand down her back.

Tears imminent, Kushina aborts the call to more of the heaviness from last night. She twiddles restless fingers, tickling from Naru’s shoulders down to her tummy— not nearly as bloated for her age as it should be. 

The girl giggles, twitching until she shrieks with laughter, trapped in Minato’s embrace. 

“Kaa-chan! Kaa-chan— ah!”

It’s magical, honestly— the glitter in young blue eyes that shine up at her, the bright sound of a child’s joy lighting up the room, the whole apartment. 

Kushina has never felt so whole. 

This is her daughter. 

She’s a mother and this innocent being is hers . 

There’s so much wrong— so, so much. The Kyuubi is free and doubled between the two of them, something that once would have terrified her but suddenly brings a security she never would have believed even a day ago. There are unknown shinobi—assassins, trained and hidden from the average light of day—out to get her and this small, perfect little girl that are most likely haunting around their apartment. 

Watching, waiting. 

Fury boils and bubbles within her, but the softness, the pure and unadulterated touch of her tiny, precious child is enough to keep her head clear and ready for whatever next steps await them all. 

Together. 

They’re a family— everything from now on, they do together, they face together .

Her tickling slows, Naru’s flailing calming bit by bit as her laughter cools into something gentle and comfortable between them. Kushina takes both her hands to Naru’s cheeks and bends to kiss at her nose with a brisk peck.

She smiles down at her and Minato. 

“How do you two feel about breakfast with friends?”

The Senju compound is sprawling— as large and historic as the Uchiha’s, with just as much culture but much fewer residents. The consistency of Hashirama’s wood carries from the front gate to the Clan Head’s home at the heart of the small community. The details of his love for his family are etched in their surface, curling in winding designs that cover the grounds in wooden flowers that rise with the posts from its very foundation. 

Kushina is always a little distracted here. 

Minato watches her from the corner of his eye as he enters behind her, the seals allowing her Uzumaki blood inside while he’s permitted through an exception seal she gives him anytime they visit. 

Naru has one too, though judging by the way hers doesn’t light with chakra like his, she doesn’t need it. Her Uzumaki blood is as strong as Kushina’s and the comparison is almost too much for him with the little girl resting her cheek on his girlfriend’s shoulder, arms wrapped around her neck. 

Maybe it’s time to call her his wife— it’s something to consider. 

His sensing sprawls out over the compound naturally, a gift he’s excited to have passed on to his daughter. Tsunade is waiting with Jiraiya, as expected, with Hisa and Nawaki in tow. The surprise comes with Sakumo and Kakashi, but after yesterday he shouldn’t really be shocked that Jiraiya would bring them along too. 

“Pretty,” Naru coos as they pass a flowering tree that rises high over a home and a half. Its branches wane and bend with the wind. Naru reaches up as if she can touch it and the childlike wonder lights up Kushina’s eyes, releasing bits of tension lingering from their long night. 

They haven’t discussed anything—not his talk with the Hokage or whatever happened to open her seal—but Sarutobi hasn’t summoned him and the Kyuubi is still settled within her, so they’re safe for the time being. 

Knowing that could change at a moment’s notice offers little comfort. 

“This is Senju land,” Kushina whispers and Naru darts her eyes to her kaa-chan. “The Senju founded our village with the Uchiha clan.”

“Oh, like ‘Tachi-kun!”

Kushina smiles. “Yes, your new friend Itachi-kun is an Uchiha.” She pats Naru’s back, shifting her higher up her hip as they walk. “We’re Uzumaki. Our clan is allied with the Senju.”

Naru frowns, suddenly, face contorting, and Kushina laughs. 

“Like best friends,” she clarifies. “We take care of each other. We’re like… family without sharing blood.”

“Oh,” Naru says. “Does Itachi have not-family too?”

A spark pops off in Minato’s mind, noting the speed that Naru makes such a connection. 

“No,” he tells her, drawing her attention toward him as they approach Tsunade’s home. “The Uchiha have always mostly worked alone.”

Naru frowns at that, sending good humor floating through Minato as he looks to Kushina. They share a grin before she knocks twice at the door then promptly throws it open. 

“Alright, we’re here!” she shouts. “There better be food ready!”

Nawaki slides around a corner, locking eyes on Naru. He lights up, throwing his arms out. 

“Why hello there, Naru-chan! Come with your Oji-chan and we’ll get all the good stuff before the old folk!”

Naru ducks instantly, hiding in Kushina’s neck, just as his girlfriend snorts and a rogue “ Brat! ” sounds from further inside. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Nawaki waves away his sister’s shout, coming closer with a familiar, breezy air about him. 

Minato buries his amusement. Nawaki is a handful of years older than himself and Kushina, but he hardly ever acts like it. 

His cool brown eyes wrinkle with his grin as he lifts a single palm. “My name is Nawaki,” he tells her softly, just as a tug of chakra raises a flower from nothing in his hand. He holds it out in the space between himself and Naru. “You can call me Oji-chan, though.”

Naru’s eyes blow wide. She blinks between Nawaki and Kushina, waiting for approval before accepting the mokuton gift with a quiet, “Wow.”

“Pretty flower for a pretty girl,” Nawaki charms, his cheeks rosy and eyes alight. He points a finger at Naru, straightening his face into something serious. “But don’t worry— it’s strong too. Pretty isn’t everything, kid. But kicking ass? Oh yeah—”

“That’s enough.” Tsunade appears behind her little brother, hand suddenly caught in the collar of his shirt. She yanks him back and he stumbles, blustering nonsense at her that she ignores. “Yes, there’s still food. We all just sat down.”

She gives the three of them a clinical once over and suddenly Minato thinks they won’t be leaving without a physical each. For Naru, though, he’ll comply. He wouldn’t actually mind having her confirm his daughter’s health on the spot— especially after yesterday. 

“Naru, this is Tsunade, your Oba-san,” Kushina introduces, despite the way the girl is still hiding a bit as she curls around her mother. 

Tsunade waits a moment, as if leaving room for Naru to respond, but when she doesn’t, she hums. “Let’s go eat.”

The long table across the tatami in the formal dining room is already set, plates already distributed and cushion seats partially full. Per the Senju way, everything is made of wood. The soft taps of chopsticks and servingware slow as they enter.

There’s a purpose to the silence that tips over into the room as all eyes flicker up to Naru. 

Minato clenches his jaw, even knowing there’s more than one person here who likes to break up tension with a joke. Neither Jiraiya or Nawaki get a chance, however, because Naru perks up on Kushina’s hip. 

“Kashi!”

The six year old frowns behind his scarf and Minato is glad to see Sakumo taking his advice on trying to remove the kid’s shinobi nature from his twenty-four-seven life. Kakashi glances up at his father only for Sakumo to fail at hiding the amusement teasing across his mouth. 

“Well,” Sakumo leads, gesturing toward Naru. 

Her grin is faltering, but her eyes are still hopefully turned toward her little friend. Minato wonders how much of her comfort comes from the memory of Inu-nii’s chakra. 

“Hi,” Kakashi mumbles, finally. His father elbows him lightly, nodding toward the seat beside him. The tips of his ears turn pink and he dips his face further into his scarf before he reluctantly adds, “You can sit by me.”

Hisa snorts and Jiraiya covers his reaction with a new bite of rice shoved into his face. Tsunade glares at them as she and Nawaki take their seats. 

Naru looks up at Kushina for permission, which is quickly given, then she wiggles her way down to the floor. She plops down on the free cushion and Minato watches his daughter study Kakashi’s posture and position before mimicking it to a tee. 

He follows, taking the seat beside her while Kushina slips in next to Tsunade with a shared glance between the two women. The others have already started eating, so he takes to making up portions for Naru while she gapes at the kindness. 

It’s easier to pretend he doesn’t notice than to acknowledge that she’s acting like him handing her onigiri is akin to spoiling her rotten. 

Her eyes sparkle at him in wonder as she opens her mouth, waiting for him to stop her, before she takes a massive bite that puffs out her cheeks. She turns to Kakashi with joy and the boy attempts—poorly—to ignore her. 

A gagging noise rises above the light chatter around the table. Hisa raises the back of her hand to her forehead, face twisted with melodramatic pain. 

“How can you stand it?” she laments, leaning against Jiraiya’s shoulder. “They’re so freakin’ cute— it’s physically painful.”

Kakashi glowers at her while Sakumo laughs heartily. 

Tsunade scoffs good-naturedly, eyes pinched with mischief. “They grow out of it.”

“Hey!” Nawaki shouts, clutching a startled Hisa’s head to his chest. “My niece will always be the cutest!”

“O ji -chan!”

Jiraiya chuckles, setting down his soup bowl. “I gotta say— she is your spitting image, kid.”

Pride billows in his chest, enough so that he doesn’t correct his Sensei for calling him a kid— nor does he forget the exchange between them and the Sandaime the night prior. 

“She smiles like Kushina.”

Naru gasps softly, turning to him with rice stuck to her cheek. He wipes it away as she glances between him and Kushina. “I like looking like Kaa-chan and Tou-san,” she mumbles shyly, eyes flickering out across the table before looking back at him. 

Fuck. It’s just— it’s almost too much. 

“And Kakashi-kun over here might as well be the Mini Fang .” Kushina grins at her joke, especially when Kakashi pointedly looks away from her, a blush rising to the tips of his ears once again. 

Sakumo ruffles his son’s hair and everything is so domestic that it’s soothing, almost to the point that it hurts. 

Minato catches Kushina’s eyes, a brilliant sort of knowing passing between them. He can tell she feels it too— the heavy sureness of change flowing through them and rewriting their path. 

The high of a meal shared with precious people carries them through the morning. Everyone introduces themselves to Naru more officially, earning them each one of her heart-stopping smiles, though she still has a pause of unsteadiness, wariness, where she glances over at Minato or Kushina before opening right up. 

Nawaki catches them up on his Sensei’s whereabouts, though Orochimaru sends his most sincere regards at missing out on all the drama— drama they seem to mutually avoid through the meal.

Sakumo has a mission coming up and asks Minato if he’ll still be able to keep Kakashi or if he needs to hire Hisa with a D-rank.  Kakashi protests needing a sitter, but Naru is quick to assure him that her parents are super nice and he’ll be safe with the three of them.

A sleepover or two will do both Kakashi and Naru a world of good— Naru seems to love kids her age and Kakashi is in short supply of moments where he can just be a kid his age . 

Kushina is quieter than normal, though it’s easy to guess why. Minato is just grateful no one drags out yesterday’s events over the table, especially in front of the kids. Still, they both seem to perk up when Tsunade offers them a health check for Naru, though, for Tsunade, offers of any kind tend to sound more like threats. 

Jiraiya and Sakumo herd Hisa and Kakashi outside, asking Hisa to show them something she’s learned on her new genin team. Judging by the spark in his eye, Kakashi will be attempting to learn it too. 

Naru watches them go with longing, but ultimately sticks close by Minato’s side until the five of them are left alone. Tsunade is quick and professional. Her charm with Naru is a little stunning considering her general demeanor, but, well, the woman is a mother and a medic with decades of being at the top of her field. 

“You’re blonde too,” Naru says conversationally, rocking her weight from side to side as she stands before a kneeling Tsunade, attention flickering between her and Nawaki behind her. “Like me and Tou-san.”

Tsunade adjusts her glowing palm over Naru’s stomach as she answers. “Ah, but that’s only a coincidence. I’m related to your mother, not your father.”

“Co-coin…?”

“It means something that feels on purpose, but was actually random.”

Naru nods. “Random.”

“Mhm.” Tsunade’s eyes sharpen and she glances briefly at Minato. “Can you think of something else that feels on purpose, but isn’t? Another coincidence, Naru-chan?”

Kushina catches on, shifting closer to Minato where they’re waiting to the side. 

Minato is fascinated . The idea that Tsunade has caught on to what he’s been pondering about with Naru throughout the last day or so is thrilling. 

Naru hops a bit, just barely, her restlessness bobbing her from foot to foot. She looks up at the ceiling, thinking carefully. “Mmm, oh! Gama-ojiisan has hair like Kashi-kun and Kashi-kun’s Papa-san.” Tilting her head, she checks with Kushina for encouragement, a forming habit that warms Minato’s heart. “But Gama-ojii isn’t Papa-san’s dad, right?”

Oh, Minato’s mind is absolutely singing. 

“Gama-ojiisan?” he asks her, hoping he knows where this is going. 

“Mhm, mhm,” Naru says, nodding her head hard enough that it rolls her body. “He feels like my Gama-chan, I think— maybe. Gama-chan just feels like me now, but when I first got him, he had a feeling too.”

Kushina’s brows raise. 

Minato resists the urge to reach out and brush Naru’s hair back while Tsunade’s still examining her. “Chakra?”

“Yeah, yeah— chakra, ‘ttebayo.”

He smiles at her and Tsunade seems to absorb what she can from the interaction before she finally pulls her hands away. “Great job, Naru-chan. You did well. What do you think about going out with Kakashi-kun and Hisa now?”

Naru bolts up, grinning, and spins to Minato and Kushina. His girlfriend reaches out, pulling Naru in for a hug and a kiss to the temple that flusters the girl completely. Her grin breaks into a full-beat smile and Kushina tells her to run along. 

Nawaki holds out a hand that Naru is overjoyed to take and they leave to the backyard together. 

“Well,” Tsunade starts, “I’ll be damned.”

Kushina all but slumps over the table as her cousin rises up and retreats to the kitchen, returning with a half-empty bottle of sake. 

“She’s so smart,” Minato finally says, running a hand through his hair. “ So smart.”

“I blame you,” Kushina mumbles into her folded arms. 

Tsunade pours herself a glass, offering one to the two of them, but only Kushina accepts. “She definitely has a Namikaze mind— quick to connect and absorb, much more organized than the Uzumaki brand of thinking.”

“But her health?” Minato asks, touching a palm to Kushina’s back as she sips her liquor. 

“Better than when I first saw her.” Tsunade’s face sharpens into something steely. “She has Kushina’s accelerated healing, so I didn’t see the full extent of her injuries, but she’s absolutely underweight— malnourished. Something I’m sure the two of you are diligently working to mend.”

They nod together, Kushina’s temper surfacing across her brows as she takes the rest of her drink in one gulp. “Nothing is irreparable though, right?”

“No, nothing like that.” Tsunade tips back her drink, pouring them both a second. “There will likely be challenges as triggers pop up. I have no doubt that she’s experienced trauma. I don’t know the full extent of everything going on, but the idiot filled me in on yesterday.”

Kushina straightens a bit, glancing at Minato.

“Sensei was there for my talk with the Hokage,” he supplies, carefully avoiding any emotion slipping over his face. “We had a disagreement, but he apparently has the same hypothesis about her origins that the Sandaime and I do.”

She doesn’t ask for details and Minato is grateful. 

“Right,” Tsunade continues, setting down her now empty glass. She doesn’t refill it. Minato isn’t sure whether that’s a good or bad sign. “She seems clingy, but not horribly so. I can refer you to a Yamanaka I trust to navigate things going forward, or, if you’re comfortable, Nawaki is technically certified for such a thing.”

“We’ll consider it,” Minato answers, even as Kushina taps restless fingers on the tabletop. 

Tsunade sighs, long and pointed enough to raise his hackles. “One more thing— if either of you ever feel the need, there will always be an open home for you on the Senju compound. Just—” she glares at Kushina’s open mouth, cutting off the interjection, “keep that in mind. All of your safety comes first.”

Kushina clenches her teeth and leans into Minato. “Yes, Nee-san.”

“Great,” Tsunade declares with a dark cheer. “Then let’s go see what the hooligans are up to.”

The yard at the back of the Senju estate is massive and peppered with the tallest trees in Konoha. Patches of sun sprinkle spotlights over the shinobi gathered together a ways into the open field. Minato walks with Kushina hand in hand, and the moment his eyes fall on Naru he’s smiling again. 

Hisa and Jiraiya are sparring between a small tropse of trees, the elder laughing enough that the twelve year old’s face is burning with fury as she chases him in and out of the shade. 

Before them, though, Kakashi and Naru are standing side by side, bodies bent into one flow of a kata. Sakumo and Nawaki sit in the grass like spectators, quietly listening, though Minato doesn’t understand until they’re closer. 

“No, no— like this .”

Naru peeks over at Kakashi, twisting her wrist inward to copy him. “Like this?”

“Yeah,” the boy grumbles. He slowly moves into the next pose. “Now— wait no, other foot. Lean back— yeah.”

Beaming, Naru holds the stance, waiting for Kakashi to move again. 

They approach as smoothly as possible, Tsunade breaking off to join her wayward husband and daughter. Nawaki grins back at them when they drop to sit, but Sakumo keeps his attention on the kids, nodding when Kakashi instructs Naru correctly. 

“How did you get the brat to teach her katas?” Kushina whispers, her eyes wide with humor. 

“Well,” Sakumo says over his shoulder, “the best way to know if you’ve mastered something is to teach it to someone else.”

Minato snorts, but understands why the logic would work on Kakashi. 

The kid’s a handful, but not in the average way. Kakashi’s too smart, too talented , for his own good. There’s a lazy giftedness to him, his personality both sharp and mellow as the Naka river. While his tendency for perfection can be a bit extreme, even for Minato, training him has been a pleasure for the last six months. 

Cute little genin or not, Minato is still happy to see him looking somewhat like a child. 

“Okay, now start over,” Kakashi commands dutifully, his form evolving into something more defensive. 

Despite his tone, Naru grins brightly. “Okay!”

Then she notices Minato and Kushina.

“Kaa-chan!” she shouts, even as she glances back at Kakashi to flow into the next stance. “Tou-san! Look! Kashi teached me this!”

“Taught,” Kakashi chimes in offhandedly, continuing their practice. 

“Kashi taught me this!” Naru repeats blissfully unperturbed. She moves into the third form without checking on her little partner. “It’s a kata!”

“ Ka kashi,” the boy mumbles. “And it’s -kun.”

Naru either doesn’t hear him in her excitement to show her parents what she’s learned or she pretends not to. Either way, she’s adorable. Minato resists the urge to clutch at his chest and rub his burning heart. He has to breathe through the sting in his eyes from the pride bursting him at the seams. 

“Woooow,” Kushina sings out, a wide smile on her face. 

Nawaki whistles. “You’re so good, Naru-chan. Kakashi-kun must be a great teacher.”

“Mhm, mhm!”

Kakashi briskly looks away, but Minato still caught the passing flicker to his father. 

“Very impressive,” Sakumo says, leaning forward with his elbows on his crossed legs. “Both of you did a great job today.”

“Yatta!” Naru cheers with a fist to the sky, earning her a sharp glance from Kakashi before she settles back into the kata to finish alongside him. The absolute second they’re finished, she whips around. “Kashi, Kashi! Now I pick the next game! Let’s play ninja!”

Kakashi mutters about how katas aren’t a game , but still allows himself to be tugged further into the tree line opposite Hisa’s genuine training. 

Naru wags a finger above her head and announces, “No feelings, though! Okay?”

Everyone seems to pause at that, but Minato can’t help the small laugh that bubbles out of him. 

“Chakra,” he calls out after them.

“Chakra!” Naru shouts, tugging Kakashi by the hand. “No chakra!”

A peace settles in as the four of them sit in the grass and watch the game of tag pick up. Minato thinks back to his mission with Kakashi just a few days ago. Then, he’d never have imagined his little apprentice playing a game with someone his own age. 

Then, he’d never have imagined his entire heart would be taken straight out of his chest and made into a four year old girl with his hair and his eyes and never would he have imagined that family would find him to such an extent. 

Minato’s an orphan— always has been. His possessions, his homes, his precious people have always been few in number, but now— now . 

“They’re cute together,” Sakumo suddenly says, voice low and thoughtful. “Wherever she came from, I’m glad she’s here.”

Nawaki nods, watching Naru slap Kakashi on the back before shrieking with laughter and zipping behind the nearest tree. Kushina tightens her grip on Minato’s hand. 

“Me too,” he says, a slow, powerful joy lighting him up from the inside out. “Me too.”