Just a short fanfic because I FREAKING LOVE JILY AND MINAKUSHI AND WHAT THEY'VE DONE AND UGH THE FEELS! So yeah, could be considered a fanfic of appreciation, but also a fanfic on similarities because I notice no one has really done it before (maybe, I'm not sure) and yep, I made this.

It was supposed to be a bit longer. Maybe one day I'll elongate it. Who knows?

Please review!

As Parents

The room was plain and the walls were colored a light cream with the floor covered in large marble tiles colored the lightest shade of beige. The giant floor-to-ceiling windows on the left side of the room overlooked a beautiful grassy plain dotted with white flowers. In the distance, snowy mountains shone in the clear blue sky.

Inside the sun-drenched room, four comfortable chairs were grouped around a circular mahogany table— the only furniture in the room. Sitting on the chairs were two beautiful redheaded women, a man with spiky blonde hair and a long red and white cloak, and another man with unruly black hair and round spectacles.

The two men were comfortably leaning back in their chairs, watching their wives talk with each other as if they were old friends. Each man was looking at his lady love with warm eyes, a gentle smile on their face.

"Really? You're so lucky, dattebane!" one of the women said, pouting slightly. Her hair was knee-length and thick and fire-red and she was clad in a green dress with a white blouse underneath. "Naruto looks like Minato more than he looks like me! At least your son has your eyes!"

"But everyone always says he looks like James, he acts like James, he flies like James… everything is bloody James!" the other woman said, tossing back her equally red hair. The strands shone against her dark blue sweater. "Not anything else about me!"

James chuckled nervously at his wife's words before sharing a grin with the man next to him.

"You still get equal recognition with James, dattebane. People only remember Minato and nobody knows who I am."

Now it was Minato's turn to laugh sheepishly. "You know that's not true, Kushina."

"It is and you know it!" she snapped, glaring at him with sharp blue-gray-violet eyes. "It's all your fault. You being Yondaime Hokage means I get shunted off to the side."

"But you are the stronger of the both of you," James said, admiration clear in his voice. "You survived childbirth, then the extraction of the Kyu-whatever-it-is which seems to me would hurt quite a bit, and then you were run through by that same fox, and you still lived long enough to tell the, er, the Third Hokage your son's name. That's quite an accomplishment."

Lily nodded, smiling brightly. "James is right, Kushina. I wouldn't have been able to survive half the things you did. Giving birth to Harry was one of the most painful and exhausting things I've ever done." She glared at James, her green eyes piercing through him. "No thanks to him of course."

James began to protest but Minato interrupted him. "At least you two had the chance to spend a year with your son before you died." He reached across the table for Kushina's hand. She took it and gripped his fingers reassuringly. "Between the two of us, it only amounts to at least a day at most."

Lily smiled wistfully and James grasped her hand as well. "But you both had the chance to touch him one last time. James and I reappeared only briefly as spirits."

"I only had my little bit of chakra in him," Kushina said, shaking her head slightly. "Minato went back and was able to speak and fight alongside him."

"We wish we were able to fight with our son as well," James said, a regretful tone in his voice. "It was the least we could do."

"James-san," Minato said, leaning forward slightly. "You sacrificed yourself— without your wand by your side— so your wife and son could get away. That itself is admirable."

"Minato, you fought off the man who tried to massacre your village—"

"You both did admirable deeds," Lily interrupted. She smiled warmly as she looked at her companions. "We all did."

Kushina grinned as well. "Ah, well, dying to protect our kids… it's kinda expected of us, isn't it?"

They looked at each other, smiling with acknowledgement.

"As parents."