"Well, I'm off," Naruto said, looking deeply into his wife's eyes as he said it.

Hinata smiled and gave her husband a nod of her head. "We'll be waiting for you," she said.

Naurto nodded. "Yeah." The two of them embraced each other, holding onto one another as long as they possibly could get away with without the possibility of giving any of their onlookers an ample and noticeable reason to poke fun at them later on. When they finally let each other go, Naruto knelt down to give his two children their very own proper farewells. "You two be good, okay?"

His daughter gave her father an enthusiastic salute and nod of her head. "Okay," she said, a wide and cheerful grin practically covering her face, "you can count on me!" She then lowered her salute and, with her eyes shining with excitement, added, "But in return, you have to promise me that you'll get me a souvenir from Uncle Gaara's place, okay?"

Naruto grinned before reaching into Himawari's hair and ruffling it up playfully. "You've got yourself a deal!" He then took his hand out of his daughter's hair and asked, "Anything specific you want?"

Himawari thought about it for a moment, placing one of her index fingers onto her chin as she thought, before shaking her head angrily and answering, "I can't think of anything!"

Naruto chuckled. "Fine, then I'll just have to bring the whole village with me when I come back, then you can personally choose whatever souvenir you want!"

Temari frowned disapprovingly. "Geez, don't spoil the kid."

Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement with his wife's statement. "She's got a point Naruto. You make promises like this and you'll start focusing on getting souvenirs more than on actual politics."

Naruto frowned. "Aw, come on! It's all in good fun!" He then turned his attention back to Himawari, smiled, and asked, "Right Himawari?"

Himawari nodded her head exuberantly. "Right!"

Temari let out an exasperated sigh. One would think that moving to the Village Hidden in the Leaves would make her more accustomed to the seventh Hokage's behavior, but she was disappointed to find out that it only made her more annoyed by it. Sure, he had her respect, and with how much he had changed her family for the better, he had her thanks as well, but that didn't make up for the fact that, sometimes, Naruto just seemed to be a child stuck in an adult's body. She honestly didn't know how Hinata and Shikamaru did it, dealing with a guy like this for their entire lives, Hinata especially, since she was flat-out married to said guy.

Temari looked down at her son, Shikadai, who had been silently watching the entire scene unfold right in front of him with his arms crossed, obviously annoyed and already tired of the whole thing. She placed a hand on top of her son's head and pushed it down a little before shaking Shikadai's head around a bit, earning her an annoyed and perturbed look from him. His mother smirked. "What's with the look kiddo? Too cool to say goodbye to your old man?"

Shikadai let out an annoyed huff. "No. If anything, dad's too cool to be saying goodbye."

Temari eyes widened in surprise. To hear her son say such a thing was rare. Shikamaru, however, wasn't all too convinced with his son's possible flattery. After all, he seemed to take more after him than his mother, and Shikamaru knew that there was no way something like that would ever leave his mouth, especially at that age. He crossed his arms and skeptically asked, "And just what exactly do you mean by that?"

Shikadai gave his father an annoyed pout. He hated getting into long conversations. His father knows that, so why does he always insist on making him do such things? If what his father always says about him being just like him back when he was Shikadai's age, then shouldn't his father be more understanding? "You're the Hokage's advisor and personal guard dad. And you're traveling with the Hokage himself! Not to mention the fact that you guys are going to meet up with Uncle Gaara and Uncle Kankuro, another Hokage and personal guard. So what's the point of saying goodbye? It's not like anything out there's going to kill you."

"That doesn't matter," Temari firmly scolded. "Now say goodbye to your father!"

After glancing at his mother and realizing that she wasn't messing around, there would surely be serious consequences if he didn't comply, he inwardly groaned. He turned back to his dad and simply said, "See ya."

Temari let out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you," she muttered to herself as she rubbed her temples out of annoyance.

Shikamaru sighed. "Well, I guess I have to make do with that." Dragging this out any longer would put him and the Hokage further behind schedule than they already were, so he decided to just let this particular battle go, at least for now. He turned his attention back towards the Hokage and asked, "Have you finished saying your goodbyes yet Naruto? We really need to get going now."

Naruto turned to Shikamaru and lifted up his index finger. "Just a sec, okay Shikamaru?"

After taking a moment to fully consider Naruto's request, Shikamaru sighed, again realizing full well that this was no time to argue, especially against somebody like Naruto, and complied. "Alright, but just make it quick, alright. We're already running late as it is."

Naruto nodded understandingly. He then turned to Bolt, who was looking particularly crestfallen. "So," Naruto asked, "anything specific that you want for your souvenir?" When Bolt didn't give an immediate answer, Naruto's lips shifted into a concerned frown. "Bolt?"

Bolt averted his eyes to the side, away from his expectant father's gaze. "I guess a toy would be nice," he finally answered sullenly.

Easily detecting his son's gloominess, Naruto put on a small and reassuring smile as he placed a hand on one of Bolt's shoulders and gave it a firm and reassuring squeeze. "Got it! And maybe when we get back we can play with it together." He grinned. "What do you say?"

Bolt seriously doubted it, but he knew better than to say what was on his mind. He would have to save face and endure through his pain… again. He returned his father's grin with a grin of his own. "Sure!" he said.

Naruto grinned once more before placing his hand through his son's hair and ruffling it up a bit. "That's my boy!" he said proudly. He then got up and gave Shikamaru a quick nod, signaling to him that they was done here and Shikamaru returned the Hokage's nod with an obedient nod of his own. Naruto turned once more towards his family. "Well, we're off." He and Shikamaru then began their sprint towards the Village Hidden in the Sand.

"Have a safe trip!" Hinata cried out, cupping her mouth with one hand and giving one last wave goodbye to his husband and her friend with the other.

Shikadai thrust his hands into his pockets, hunched forward a bit, and released an annoyed sigh. "Honestly, why don't they just use the Body Flicker Technique?" he asked.

Temari cast her son a disapproving look. "Because if they kept doing that, the village would be a complete laughing stock for having two out-of-shape ninjas leading it."

"Who cares?" Shikadai scoffed. "That doesn't stop them from being two of the most powerful ninjas in the village."

"Yeah?" Temari asked, earning her a surprised and annoyed grunt from her son as she placed a hand on top of Shikadai's head and roughly pushed it down to further convey her displeasure at what her son was uttering. "Well just because you've got a little bit of a point there, that doesn't excuse the fact that you're acting like a little brat right now, and I'm not going to allow any brats to live under my roof, got that?"

Shikadai grumbled to himself for a bit before finally nodding his head and answering, "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

Temari's eyes narrowed exasperatedly as a result of her son's impudent behavior. "Is that any way to speak to your mother?" she asked.

Shikadai lamely pouted as he mumbled, "Grandma says that dad and I 'fell from the same tree'."

"Mama?" Himawari asked as she lightly tugged against her mother's pants to further alert her mother that she had a question. "What type of tree is Shikadai talking about?"

Hinata chuckled lightly to herself as she happily smiled down at her daughter and gently shook her head at the innocent misconception her daughter was asking her about. "It's just an expression dear," she said. "It means that Shikadai's grandmother thinks that Shikadai acts very much like how Shikamaru used to act when Shikamaru was Shikadai's age."

"Oh," Himawari said as she smiled and nodded slowly, signaling that she understood. She then thought for a moment before her face lit up and she excitedly asked, "Do you and I fall from the same tree too mama? Huh? Do we? Do we?!"

Hinata blushed slightly as she tried to find the best way to answer that particular question. "W-Well, you see…."

Temari smirked at her fellow mother's current predicament before folding her arms coolly and saying, "I don't know Himawari. You'd have to look up to your father a lot more before anyone can claim that you two, 'fell from the same tree'."

Hinata let out a yelp of surprise as she blushed even harder. "T-Temari!" she cried.

Temari snickered at Hinata's expense. "I kid, I kid!"

Himawari frowned, turned to Shikadai, and asked, "Hey, Shikadai, what's your mother kidding about?"

Shikadai let out an exasperated sigh as he placed both of his hands behind his head. "How should I know? Man, what a drag."

Despite all of the commotion the four were making, Bolt remained ominously silent, not just for that instance, but for most of the rest of the day; and as Bolt sullenly got himself ready for bed, the words of his father continued to echo in the farthest reaches of his mind. "So," Naruto had asked, "anything specific that you want for your souvenir?" Anything specific that Bolt wanted for a souvenir? Was he joking? Did he simply forget? Did he truly think that his very own son could be so shallow?

Nowadays, Bolt cared little for material possessions, even ones that were from an entirely different village. It was his father's time and attention that he longed for, but he knew he couldn't say that. He and his father had already been over this. As Hokage, Naruto was now the entire Leaf Village's father, and thus had to take care of every citizen, biological relation or not. This meant that he had to take time away from spending time with his actual family so that he could better make everyone's lives within the village easier. Bolt knew this, and after a long time grew to understand it, but deep down, that didn't change a single thing. He still longed to be with his father, he still somewhat hated his role as Hokage, and he still didn't much care for how much trouble he would inevitably get into with all of those elaborate pranks he did on the daily. His father, after reprimanding him for one of his pranks, had consoled him by telling him that, as a ninja, he would naturally have to endure through his pain, but that didn't help much either. If anything, it only made him bitterer about his situation. It was so hard, enduring through your own pain by yourself.

According to his mother, his father had had to endure much pain throughout his entire life, but in all honesty, how did that justify making his children go through the exact same thing? Sure, Himawari wasn't feeling the effects now, but sooner or later, she'd notice how messed up it all was, having a father but never being allowed to spend any time with him. That'd be good, because honestly, Bolt was tired with being completely alone on this. As much as he loved her, his mother, being the kind, patient, and understanding woman that she was, he felt, was simply that, too kind, patient, and understanding of the situation. She wasn't the type of person to call out her own husband on how little time he was spending with their children, and whenever he'd complain about it, she'd just try to gently help her son understand her father's situation. Then there were the kids at school, who honestly couldn't see what he was complaining about. His father was the Hokage, the strongest ninja in the village! Why should he complain about not being able to spend time with his father? At least his father was cool. And then there were the other adults in his life who simply said the same things his mother and father said to him. Bolt seemed to be the only person who felt this way about his situation, and he absolutely hated it. How could a boy constantly be surrounded by so many people and yet still feel so alone?

Bolt could only heave out a weary and exasperated sigh as he lay in his bed, having already wished a good night to his mother and little sister before turning off all of the lights in his room, covered the entire lower half of his body with his blanket, and drew the curtains to his only window aside so that he could at least somewhat enjoy whatever view he could get from his bedroom window. It was honestly a pretty good view, one he knew that a lot of his classmates would beg to have, but even this seemed increasingly insignificant compared to what Bolt ultimately wanted out of life. After all, what was the point of having the world if you had no one to share it with? And the one person Bolt truly wanted to share it with was his father. Sure, being the son of the Hokage had its perks, Bolt had to admit that, but it seemed like for every luxury the life of a Hokage seemed to have, another, older luxury had to be taken away, and Bolt didn't like that. Why couldn't his dad be the greatest ninja in the entire village and also be the greatest dad around? Deep down, Bolt realized how selfish and unrealistic he was being, but at the same time, he didn't really care. Why couldn't he have both? His father had his Shadow Clone Technique. Why couldn't he just leave a clone at the office so that he could spend some time with his kids? As weird as he thought Uncle Kakashi could be at times, even Kakashi seemed to be smart enough to know to become Hokage before he had any family to neglect.

In all honesty, the more he thought about his situation, the more it seemed to make Bolt angry, and at times, he wanted to be angry, he wanted to show everyone just how truly angry and upset he was about the fact that he had practically lost his father and how no one ever really seemed to care. He wanted to explode and lash out at his old man and make him realize just how messed up this all was… but he couldn't. Or rather, he wouldn't, because one of the few things Bolt wanted more than his father's attention was his father's approval, and he knew that there was no way he was going to get it if he went on a temper tantrum. And besides, was it really worth the risk of losing his mother's approval in the process? Nuh-uh. No way. Bolt let out another frustrated sigh as he stared off straight ahead at nothing in particular. There was nothing Bolt could do about this, nothing at all except endure. After all, ninjas are those who endure, aren't they? He'd just have to suck it up and endure through his pain and loneliness, just like his dad did back when he was a kid.

And yet, he didn't want to. He wanted there to be someone who he could express his unadulterated feelings to. He wanted someone there who he could vent to and they would understand. He wanted someone who was willing to listen and be content with listening, because dang it, he knew that there was no real solution to his problem, and he honestly didn't want to run the risk of making it worse than it already was. What he wanted nowadays (besides his father's attention, obviously) was a true friend… a confidant, someone who would accept his dark side, but would still willingly hang out with him if presented the chance. But even that seemed hopeless. The only way to find out if you had a friend like that would literally be to risk scaring them off by showing them your dark side in the first place, and chances were that if Bolt started showing other people his dark side, he'd probably be more alone than he ever was before.

"It looks like I'm just going to have to keep enduring then," Bolt thought to himself as he slowly rolled over to his side, looking out of his window and truly looking out of it for the first time in a long time, without any provocation from anyone else. He looked up towards the night sky, bearing witness to the multitude of stars scattered across it. "But… it'd sure be nice… having somebody else," he yawned, his eyes noticeably starting to get heavier and heavier with each passing second, "to help me through it and all."

The son of Naruto then fell asleep, oblivious to the fact that a shooting star had just fallen from the sky.

Hinata awoke to the sound of chirping birds, the rays of sunlight hitting her eyes only inciting her further to open them and start her day. She groggily opened her eyes and, once finding that her eyesight was a bit blurry, rubbed her eyes a bit and waited for the problem to naturally fix itself. Much to her surprise, she felt the bed move a bit beside her, and, after recovering a bit from her initial shock, turned her head to the side to see who could possibly be responsible for such a thing. Despite her still blurry vision, she couldn't help but smile at what she saw: familiar-looking whisker marks and equally familiar-looking blond hair. Knowing that Bolt was old enough to take care of himself, all of the possible entryways into their house were locked, and nothing had noticeably disturbed her the entire night, it only made sense to assume that either Naruto had come back from his meeting early (being that Naruto had his very own key to his very own house and that Naruto, being a Hokage-level ninja, could believably be skilled enough to have found a way to slip into bed without having disturbed her in the slightest), or that she was seeing things and that she'd realize any moment now that she was actually alone (which was certainly possible, since she loved her husband dearly, and after having woken up to see him at the opposite side of the bed for so long, it would only be natural that she'd imagine it even if he wasn't actually there at the moment).

Despite the two perfectly reasonable explanations for what Hinata was currently seeing, as Hinata's vision slowly readjusted itself to what it normally was, Hinata's eyes couldn't help but widen in absolute shock and surprise at what she saw. The person who was sleeping on the other side of her bed was definitely someone whom she recognized… but it was someone whom she had never seen in quite some time. That is, if you even considered the person sleeping across from her a legitimate person or not. Hinata let out a scream of surprise, quickly got herself out of bed, and quickly backed away until she inevitably backed herself into a wall, accidentally causing the very person she wanted to keep from disturbing to slowly start to wake up.

The woman with the easily recognizable whisker-like marks on her cheeks and the equally easily recognizable golden locks of hair running freely down her head stretched herself out and yawned in a manner similar to that of a feline who had just awoken from a satisfying nap, and as she was doing this, Hinata's eyes widened in horror as she slowly realized that the person with whom she had just shared her bed with was apparently completely naked, causing the face of the wife of the seventh Hokage to practically turn as red as her mother-in-law's hair had been.

As the woman innocently began to rub the sleep out of her eyes, Hinata proceeded to frantically rub her eyes, slap her cheeks, and pinch herself, practically doing whatever she could think of to wake up from this frankly strange and worrying dream. When none of it seemed to work, Hinata decided to try and release herself from whatever illusion she was apparently trapped in in a last ditch effort to prove that what was happening was in no way actually happening. When that didn't seem to work, only one other explanation seemed to make sense and come to mind.

At this point, the woman, who quite frankly seemed just as confused as Hinata was, had begun to look around the room and survey her surroundings, wondering just how she got there and what exactly was going on. When Hinata and the woman's eyes met, that's where they stayed. The two simply stared at each other, Hinata wondering just what type of cruel and unusual prank her husband was trying to pull on her, and the woman wondering just who this other woman was. Despite having admittedly seen very few women in her life, what few women she HAD seen were obviously completely different people compared to this one, because… well… in all honesty, she wasn't really sure. Her memories were still all a bit fuzzy at the moment, though she did seem to remember enough to know that Hinata was unlike anyone she had ever seen before, especially that man whose name started with the letter "J". What was his name again? J… J… Jir… Jir-something. It was at the tip of her tongue! The woman began to rub her temple with the palm of one of her hands in an attempt to try and clearly remember something, anything, but to no current avail.

Hinata took a cautious step forward towards the confused woman, her hands raised up in an attempt to calm her down and reassure her that she meant her no harm, but to also protect herself in case the woman made any sudden and unpredictable movement. "Naruto?" she asked carefully. "What… what exactly are you doing?"

The woman seemed to react to this. "Naruto?" the woman repeated softly. She then thought for a moment. "Naruto," she murmured to herself. Yes, of course, Naruto. Despite the fact that she was sure that she had never physical met anyone bearing that name before, she recognized that name in a heartbeat, and likewise, a clear image of the only Naruto whom she had ever known (for whatever reason that wasn't clear to her just yet) appeared in her head, despite how most would've probably reacted to seeing an image in their head of a person they were fully convinced that they had never seen or met before, upon remembering this half-stranger, the woman could only feel a sense of heartwarming nostalgia.

It was a strange feeling to say the least.

The woman slowly surveyed her surroundings once more before softly asking, "Where is he?"

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise. "What?" she murmured to herself. If this was just another one of her husband's pranks, he was certainly taking it a bit far now, wasn't he?

Before Hinata could ask any more questions however, a knock came from the door. "Mom?" she heard her son call out from the other side. "Are you alright in there?"

Hinata's eyes widened in a sudden state of panic. "Bolt?!" she inwardly cried. She looked back frantically towards the still slightly confused, naked woman sitting in the middle of her bed and inwardly screamed. "Oh no! I can't let Bolt and Himawari see this! I just can't!"

"Um… yes!" Hinata cried, trying to sound as reassuringly convincing as possible despite how frantically her mind was racing. "Why do you ask?" She then quickly made her way towards the woman sitting in the middle of the bed, who fearfully and instinctively leaned and crawled back a bit upon seeing the other woman in the room quickly coming closer to her. Hinata attempted to grab either the shoulder or the arm of the strange woman, but when it had become perfectly clear that the woman wasn't exactly going to let her, she leaned forward, inching very closely towards the woman's frightened face, and whispered, "Hide, quickly!"

The woman blinked in confusion. "Hide?" she softly repeated. Hide… she was aware of the term, but she had never really put it into practice before. She honestly didn't know how she was going to fulfill that particular request.

Hinata nodded. "Yes, hide! Quickly!"

The woman stared in front of her for a moment before slowly shaking her head and murmuring, "I… I'm not sure if I can. I've… I've never actually done that before."

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing such a strange response. "What?!"

At the other side of the door, Hinata's son was eyeing the door to his mother's bedroom suspiciously. It was only once his little sister had begun to leave that he was finally compelled to speak in some manner. "Where are you going?" he asked.

Himawari turned around and answered, "Mama said that she was fine, so I'm going to go back to my room and play."

Bolt frowned disapprovingly at his little sister's naivety. "She's lying to us Himawari! It's obvious that she's NOT fine!" He stubbornly began pounding on the door. "Mom! Are you alright?! What's going on in there?!"

Hinata whipped her head back towards her bedroom door and backed a good distance away from the woman in her sudden and ever rising panic. "N-Nothing!" she cried, though even she had to admit that she didn't sound the least bit convincing. "J-Just," her mind raced furiously as she tried to come up with a credible excuse to give to her incredulous children, "doing some morning stretches!" She instinctively began to do some stretches in an attempt to make her lie seem somewhat more convincing. "One two three four, one two three four, one two three four, one two three four!" Knowing that she was counting all too suspiciously, quickly, and loudly for even the most innocent of children to believe her charade, Hinata quickly turned to the woman sitting in her bed and urgently whispered, "Can you please at least cover yourself?"

The woman took a moment to let the request sink in. "Cover myself," she murmured to herself. When she slowly realized that she did, in fact, possess some experience in that particular field, her eyes shined brightly, her face lit up joyfully, and she nodded her head excitedly. "I can do that!" she said, as quietly as she could, minding the fact that the Hinata obviously wanted to keep the interaction between them as private as possible. She then proceeded to cover the sensitive parts of her chest with her arm and the place between her legs with one of her hands, smiling all too innocently and a bit too proudly at Hinata once she did.

Hinata stopped her loud chanting and stretching in order to give the woman a shocked and horrified gawk. She frantically shook her head as she just as frantically waved her hands from side to side in an attempt to convey to the woman that she had misunderstood her and had performed the task wrong. "No, no, not like that!" she whispered urgently to the stranger resting on her bed. She quickly made her way towards the woman and said, "When I said to cover yourself, I meant that you needed to put some clothes on!"

The woman's face fell a bit as she took a moment to ponder over what she had just heard. "Put some clothes on?" she murmured to herself. Her eyes then widened in terror and dismay. She looked up at Hinata and shook her head. "I've…," she swallowed a nervous and dread-filled lump in her throat as she slowly continued to shake her head, "I've never actually done that before either!"

Hinata's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and horror. "W-What?!" she exclaimed quietly.

Another urgent knock on the door. "Mom!" Bolt cried from the other side as he continued knocking. "We know you're faking it!"

"But she's counting!" Hinata and the woman heard Himawari say.

"Just because she's counting doesn't automatically mean that she's actually stretching!" Bolt argued exasperatedly.

Hinata looked around the room frantically for a solution to her current and undesirable predicament. When her eyes finally brought her attention to a passable solution, she excitedly pointed at it and said, "Quick, let's wrap your body with this blanket!" She then quickly approached the woman with the intention of assisting her, which caused said woman to yelp out in fear and surprise, instinctively recoil back and protect herself with her arms. Hinata raised an eyebrow at the woman's strange behavior. "I-I'm sorry, is there something wrong?" she asked as gently as she possibly could.

As the woman slowly lowered her defenses, Hinata could see the light and embarrassed blush spreading across her face. "I-I'm sorry," the woman answered quietly and shamefully, "but… I just don't like the idea of being touched."

Hinata let out a small gasp of surprise. "W-Why is that?" she asked.

The woman gently placed her hands down on the bed, looked away bashfully, and sheepishly drew circles on the bed with one of her index fingers. "I'm… I'm not really sure," she answered quietly.

Hinata gave the woman a small, pitiful smile before letting out a weary sigh and giving the woman the kindest smile she could muster (considering the circumstances). "Okay then," she said. This earned her a surprised gasp and look from the other woman. Hinata smiled tenderly. "Raise your hands up," she gently instructed. The woman followed her direction, but when Hinata saw that she had a questionable look on her face, Hinata quickly added, "If you're nervous about someone touching you, then I'll just have to be careful not to touch you then." She grabbed the edges of her blanket as the woman watched her in awe, her hands still obediently raised above her head. "Now, just hold still and I'll have this wrapped around your body in no time."

After barely wrapping the blanket a couple of times around the woman's chest (and without even properly securing it), the door to Hinata's bedroom suddenly flew open, letting a concerned Bolt and curious Himawari barge in and causing the two women to suddenly jolt away from each other, both of them bringing their hands close to their chests, Hinata because she wanted to keep her children from knowing that she had to literally dress an amnesiac, full-grown, adult woman, and the woman due to the fact that Hinata had requested that she properly cover herself and, with the blanket not yet properly secure around her body, pressed her hands against the edges of the blanket in order to better help the soft fabric stay there.

"Mom!" Bolt cried as he ran into the room, too prepared to confront his mother and get the answers he sought to pay any real attention to the other obvious person in the room, little Himawari following not too far behind. "What's going on in here?! All of a sudden you just stopped talking and -" Bolt then felt his little sister suddenly tug the edge of his shirt. He gave his little sister an annoyed glance. "What is it Himawari?"

"Big brother, look!" Himawari cried, her eyes widening and brightening in excitement as she stared and held her breath in awe at the woman sitting in her mother's bed and looking at the two of them curiously. She pointed towards said woman and proclaimed, "She's so pretty!"

Bolt raised an eyebrow curiously at his little sister before following Himawari's finger and looking at whatever his sister had requested for him to look at, only to let out an appalled gasp and blush heavily at the sight of a naked woman sitting in his parents' bed and wearing only a blanket to cover herself. "W-What the heck is going on here?!" Bolt internally screamed, unable to take his eyes away from what appalled him so.

As Hinata's cheeks produced yet another uncomfortable blush at her current situation, the woman continued to stare at the two children who had just barged into the room unannounced, or, more specifically, the one who was currently gawking at her in shock right now. "No," she internally whispered to herself, "that can't be. That's impossible." In an action that would later even admittedly surprise herself, let alone everyone else in the room, she quickly and hastily crawled off of the bed, fell to the ground, and continue crawling across the room until her face was literally centimeters away from Bolt's face, resulting in Bolt leaning back as far as he possibly could to avoid colliding heads with the strange woman and both Himawari and Hinata letting out a gasp of surprise, Hinata's gasp being a bit more fearful due to not knowing what was about to transpire and ultimately fearing and preparing for the worst.

To both of Bolt and Hinata's surprise, nothing bad or particularly strange ever happened, or, at least, not to the extent that they were dreading. Instead, the woman seemed to be carefully and curiously inspecting every aspect of Bolt's face, before looking thoughtfully into Bolt's eyes and whispering, "Naruto?"

Author's Note #1: With all of the other long term stories I have under my belt, I must be insane for adding another long term story under it. Ah well, what can you do, right? Hopefully this is interesting enough to pique many a readers' interests. I know it piqued mine. After all, the last time I submitted something under the Naruto section, Naruto was still going on, so once it ended, I just had to write this one, you know? So, what do you guys think of the concept and the story so far? Is it interesting? Maybe you can give me some feedback on what you think of this story so far, yeah? This idea is pretty different, so I think it'll be interesting to see what you guys will have to say about it.

Author's Note #2: For any of those who recognize me as the author of my other Naruto story, "I'm Not Your Mother", don't worry, I'm still working on that. I plan on finishing the next chapter soon. Sorry for making you wait so long. Let that also be a warning for those who like his story, my updates are pretty few and far between, so get ready to be patient, yeah?