Loosely based on Cinderella

Parings to be featured in this story: Orochimaru/Kabuto/Temari, Sasuke/Sakura, and eventually Sasuke/Sakura/Naruto/Naruko.

The room was bright, unusually so as the only thing lighting up the room was the glow of thousands of candles. It was tradition that, as a witch was giving birth, the only light to be in the room be the light of fire, a hope for the child to have a bright future.

A wizard, tall, broad shoulder, and hair the color of the sun, paced along a wall, wincing once in while at the pained sounds of his wife. Blue eyes darted around, every few seconds landing on the woman on the bed and the witches who surrounded her, before shifting once more. His hands wouldn't sit idle; either they were twisting around themselves, moving to clasp behind his back, or hanging limply at his sides for a brief moment. Minato Namikaze could do nothing to ease the pain his wife was going through at the moment, even though everything in his body was screaming at him to do something.

"M-Minato?" In a flash he was by her side, running a hand over her sweaty forehead and removing strands of red hair that got stuck there. He looked down to stare into amused eyes. "I'm fine. It's ok. Everything is ok."

"I know." Minato smiled back at her. "I just hate how much pain you're in. Are you sure you don't want that soothing potion. It would ease your pain-"

"And make me dull to the world." His wife, Kushina Uzumaki, cut in. Raising her hand, she petted the side of Minato's face, hoping to ease the worry lines gathering on his forehead. "This is my choice, Minato, and I will bear with it. You do not need to worry, the Nurse knows what to do."

"Sir?" Minato turned to find a young looking witch by his side. She smiled at him and gently guided him away from the bed. "Sir, your wife will be fine. She's in good hands."

Minato looked back at the bed. "But-"

"We need to be able to reach her though. We know you are worried about her, but I think it best that you let the Nurses do their job. Ok?"

Minato's shoulders sagged. "But-no. No, you're right. I'm sorry. Please continue."

The Nurse smiled at him again before returning to Kushina's side. Minato returned to where he had been pacing earlier.

Hours passed. Minato was threatened to be kicked out twice as he couldn't seem to stay out of the Nurses' way, stopping them to ask how Kushina was doing. Kushina's breath seemed to get heavier, her groans of pain longer.

It was five hours later when Kushina let out a short scream. "It-it's coming! Oh Moon, it's coming!"

Minato could only watch hopelessly as the Nurses scrambled. Two lifted Kushina's legs higher, spreading them as the Head Nurse, a thick women with gentle eyes, sat between them, snapping a glove into place.

"Ok, honey, on the count of three, we need you to push. Got it? Ok, one…two…three!" The Nurse's voice was even, gentle and commanding. She had seen this before, had helped birth countless children. Kushina cried out, her face strained as she pushed with all her might.

"Ok, we're going to do that again, alright honey? One…two…three!"

"Sir, would you like to hold your wife's hand?" Minato was brought out of his helpless staring by another Nurse. She patted him gently on the arm and smiled. "I'm sure it would bring great comfort to your wife to have her know you're there."

Minato nodded and the Nurse brought him to Kushina's side, where he immediately took her hand, not minding the least when she began crushing it, and whispered encouraging words into her hair. He held on as she screamed.

"You're doing great, honey. Come on, one last push. One…two…three!"

The room seemed to have gone silent for Minato. He couldn't hear the talking of the Nurses, the commanding tone of the Head Nurse, or even his wife's grunt. All was silent.

And then a wail pierced it.

Minato blinked and all the noise came rushing back to him. A Nurse was patting him on the back and seemed to be congratulating him. The Head Nurse was smiling, telling Kushina something-It's a boy! Congrates!-and his wife…his wife had the happiest smile he had ever seen on her face. Before it crumpled again and she slammed her head back into the pillow, a low scream ripped from her throat.

"There's another!"

"Another? Is that possible?"

"Why weren't we told anything about twins?"

Minato whipped his head around. "What's going on? What's happing?"

"You have a second child!" A Nurse explained, pushing him back to put a wet towel on Kushina's forehead. "We will take care of her. Go to your son."

Before Minato could even blink, he was pushed to the wall and a little bundle wrapped in a blue blanket was put into his hands. Minato looked down and his heart stopped.

The boy was crying, screaming his tiny head off. Minato rearranged him to a more comfortable position, gently rocking him up and down and cooing at him. "It's alright. Hey, everything's ok, little guy. Calm down there." The crying died down to whimpers and Minato smiled. "Hey there, little buddy. You doing ok?" There was a chorus of cheers and Minato looked up to see the Head Nurse wrapping another baby in a blanket, this time in pink. "See, everything's ok. You have a sister now. Everything will be fine."

The girl was handed to her mother, who weakly smiled. "Such a beautiful thing, yes you are. You will grow up to rule the world."

"Already putting impossible demands on our children?" Minato asked, returning to her side, still lightly bouncing their boy.

Kushina smiled up at him. "I don't think they're impossible. Not if it's our children." She looked back down. "What should we name them?"

"Something powerful, something to make others go week-kneed at, something-"

"Naruto." Kushina interrupted.

Minato sputtered. "Naruto? You mean those things you put on top of ramen? Don't you think-"

"Naruto." Kushina stated firmly. She smiled at the baby girl in her hands. "And our baby girl will be Naruko?"

Minato raised an eyebrow. "Can I ask why?"

Not looking up, Kushina explained "Because it sounds close to Naruto and I want our babies to be close. They're siblings after all and should look out for each other. Should guard each other, get each other's backs. They should love and cherish each other."

Minato couldn't argue with her when she put it like that-though he very much wanted too. Maybe later he could try to convince her to change the names. For now, he would just enjoy watching Kushina and their children.

If only they had a later.

Moments after declaring the names of their babies, Kushina began coughing violently. When she removed her hand, both Minato and she were shocked to see blood splatters. Before either could comment, Kushina doubled over in pain, her stomach cramping violently.

"N-Nurse? Nurse!" Minato croaked out, fear turning his blood cold. "Nurse, something's wrong! Nurse!"

One of the Nurses rushed over, her hand already glowing as she used her magic to see what was going on in Kushina's body. Frowning, the Nurse hovered over Kushina's stomach before her face went completely blank.

"Take the babies and go into the hallway." The Nurse calmly stated. When Minato didn't move, the Nurse pried Naruko from Kushina's fingers, causing the girl to scream, and almost shoved her into Minato's hand. "You need to leave. Please."

"Why? What's going on? What's happing to my wife?" Minato refused to budge. He needed to know what was going on with his wife.

The Nurse kept shoving at him while simultaneously yelling for the Head Nurse. "We have a Class-4 on our hands, get the potions!"

The Nurse was finally able to force Minato to the hallway, not that he didn't try to make it impossible. But it was hard to be stubborn when holding two newborns and trying to yell for answers.

"Just tell me what is wrong with my wife!" He roared, partly because he was mad and partly to be heard over the yells and movement from the room and the loud screaming of his children.

"Sir, please just comfort your children. We will do our best with your wife." Seeing that Minato wasn't about to leave it at that, she continued. "You understand how children get their magic, correct?"

Minato nodded. "Yes, they take already existing magic from their parents till they can form their own." It was slowly dawning on him what was happening to his wife but he feverous wished that he was wrong.

Unfortunately, the Nurse didn't tell him that. "Yes, well, seeing as you obviously weren't expecting twins, I'm guessing you didn't take precautions to make sure not too much magic was taken from your wife. She is suffering from withdrawals. The good news is, things don't look too bad as of now. It would be best if you wait in the hallway with the babies while we work." With that, the Nurse shut the door. It didn't silence the screams he could now hear coming from Kushina.

Minato stared blankly at the door, his mind racing to catch up with what had happened. 'I can't feel my legs.' Minato wobbled over to the wall, reaching it just as his legs failed him. He slid down to the floor.

"Young man!" Minato blinked and looked up to see an elderly women staring down disapprovingly at him. When had she gotten there? Had long had Minato just been staring at the door that hid his wife? "Young man, please, quite your children."

That's when he registered the cries of the twins. Ashamed, his face colored as he began shushing and bouncing them. "Sorry ma'am." He muttered.

The old woman sniffed. "Where is your wife? Surely she wouldn't leave you with children?"

Minato's face tightened and he nodded the door. The women's face softened momentarily. "Well, I hope to Moon she makes it out alive. Especially for the babies' sake." The woman shuffled off.

Minato hung his head. The twins were surly tired. And hungry. He should have found a nursery sooner! Sighing, he stood and gave the door one last glance. Then he set out to find a Nurse.

Looking down, he felt a brief moment of happiness as the twins had settled down and were blinking owlishly at him. "Don't worry, my little darlings. Papa has you. And Mama will be fine, just you wait and see."

"I can't wait to show you off. My little Naruto and Naruko."

~Line~

"You are both going to be good for me, right?" Minato asked, hands on hips, as he tried to appear like he had authority over his children. It didn't appear to be working.

The little girl, Naruko, rolled her big blue eyes. "Yeah, dad. We promised didn't we?"

Minato's frown cracked, his lips twitching briefly into a smile. "Yeah, yeah I know. Just…do what Uncle Orochimaru says. Got it?"

Both blondes nodded their heads vigorously. Minato finally allowed himself to smile and bent down to draw them into a suffocating hug. "Papa will miss you. I love you."

"Daddddddddd! We get it! We love you too!" Naruto whined, trying to wiggle out of the hug.

Finally, Minato let them go, ruffled their hair, and shooed them out into the backyard. He watched them playing, Naruko pretending to be a dragon and Naruto pretending to be a knight, and sighed. He would miss them, especially since they were getting to the age where they would determine what magic they would excel in. He just hoped Orochimaru would be good enough of a substitute.

Speaking of, where was…

Minato smiled when the doorbell rang and he went to let in his oldest friend. "Orochimaru-oh? Who are you?" Minato asked, curious about the young grey haired boy standing a few feet behind Orochimaru.

Orochimaru smiled. "Minato, so good to see you! This is Kabuto, my mate. Lovely isn't he." The last was purred as long, slender fingers reached back to pat the boy on his head.

Minato hesitantly smiled. "I never figured you of all people would get a mate. I thought you were too busy with your experiments."

"Well, young Kabuto was lucky enough to change my mind." Orochimaru explained, hanging his coat by the door. Kabuto didn't seem to want to leave Orochimaru's side for very long. Minato figured it was infatuation, though he suspected it was only on Kabuto's side. He had no idea what the young-his magic told him snake shifter-did to convince Orochimaru to agree to a mating, but he silently congratulated him on such an impossible feat. "So, where are the little magicians? I haven't seen them in so long!"

"They're in the backyard, playing. Hey, thanks for agreeing to babysit on such short notice."

Orochimaru laughed. "Well, we all have our duty and yours is to the Kingdom. Especially seeing as your now the last of those permitted to do Death magic." Something flashed in those yellow eyes that had Minato sighing.

"Orochimaru, we fought about this many times. I agree with the King's decision. It's much better that the more dangerous spells are not taught to the next generation."

"Yes, well, we shall just agree to disagree shouldn't we?" Orochimaru replied after a moment of silence. "Besides, you have a war to go to."

Minato sighed, shoulders sagging. "How I wish I didn't. You'll take good care of the kids, right?"

Orochimaru smirked. "Trust me, the little magicians couldn't be in better hands."

~Line~

The sun was too hot for them to be in such dark clothing, but neither of the twins cared. All they could do was stare at the freshly dug up ground. Most of everyone had already left, leaving them and their new guardians.

"Are you done, yet?" Kabuto complained, fanning himself lightly.

Neither twin had it in them to say something or even look at him. They just felt numb, staring at their father's grave.

"Come now, little magicians," They did flinch briefly at that word, especially considering the one who said it, "We have to go back home and introduce you to your new life."

Naruko gulped. "W-what do you mean by that?"

Orochimaru grinned. "Both of you are mine now, and as such I am allowed to decide your future." Orochimaru smirked at his mate. "I think we could use a couple of servants, don't you?"

The twins wanted to argue, but what could they do? Their fate was sealed the moment Orochimaru hooked the black collars around their necks.

So, for those that had read my story, don't worry. The plot shouldn't change too much. I just want to explore the relationships more; meaning the relationship between the Royals and the servants, the relationship between the servants and their Masters, and between each paring. Again, I just felt like the story was moving too fast in my opinion.

Please let me know if you like the way it's heading or if you liked the story before.