"Aloha!" said the pretty woman with long black hair wearing nothing but a bikini top and a grass skirt. "Welcome to Hawaii!"
Naruto leaned down for the woman to place the flower lei made of bright pink plumeria flowers around his neck. What a nice greeting waiting for him on his way out of the tunnel from getting off the airplane. He immediately followed the signs to the luggage carousel to retrieve his suitcase so he could find the woman he had come here to see.
For the last seven years, since he was ten, he visited his aunt in the summer. Each year she chose a different beach destination. He had stuck his toes in the sands of the French Riviera, St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, the Grecian island of Crete, and several other of the most exotic and beautiful beaches the world had to offer.
This was his first time in Hawaii. Naruto could hardly wait to get to the beach. Thanks to his Aunt Riko, he had enjoyed many new experiences on beaches all over the world. He had learned how to surf and snorkel. He had ridden his first horse alongside the sea. He had sunbathed naked on a blanket on the sand.
Aunt Riko had taken him to a nude beach in Greece. That was definitely a stimulating and memorable outing for a fourteen year old. Needless to say, that little adventure remained a secret between them. His mother would kill them both if she ever found out.
"Kit!"
The voice reached Naruto's ears, alerting him that she was near. Kit - her nickname for him, short for kitsune. He had always been her baby fox, literally since the day he was born.
At the age of ten, Riko had come to live with her sister to help her care for newborn Naruto after an extraordinarily difficult birth. The delivery had nearly killed Kushina and left whisker like scars on both of his cheeks.
They had never told him the harrowing details which really did not matter. All he knew was his mother, the woman he loved most in the world, had recovered and lived to raise him. In turn, his aunt had become the second most important woman in life, remaining with them to be more like a big sister to him.
"Kit! Where are you?" she called, her voice cutting through the hum of people and activity.
Bobbing back and forth, rising up on his tiptoes, Naruto spotted her amidst the sea of people flooding through the airport terminal. The people separated and streamed around her like a river parts to flow past a stone. His heart beat faster as he took in the sight of her. She was more beautiful than he remembered.
The sun had bleached her Uzumaki red hair to be the same color of a shiny copper penny. She wore it short now, the corkscrew curls poking up in all directions from her head. The sun had the opposite effect on her skin transforming its usual light creamy color into a golden, caramel tan. The short white shorts she wore made her legs appear a darker, warmer shade of bronze. The racer-back coral colored tank top bared her shoulder blades showing off her black spiral whirlpool tattoo on the right and the black leaf on the left.
Naruto raised his hand to wave to her as she turned in his direction. Her turquoise eyes widened upon seeing him. His smile broadened to mirror her toothy grin.
"Kitsune!" she shrieked, running toward him.
People cleared a wide path for the fast moving woman which was a good thing for them because she surely would have ran over them in her rush to get to get to her nephew. Without slowing down, she leapt at him, throwing her arms around his neck.
Naruto caught her for her protection and his, swinging her around to disperse the momentum. He held her close to him while she laughed like a madwoman.
"I'm so glad you're here!" she exclaimed, squeezing him until he could barely breathe.
Immediately she commenced to peppering his cheeks with kisses. He was seventeen years old, but it never occurred to him to be embarrassed by her ardent display of familial love.
"It's good to see you too, Aunt Riko," he replied, setting her on her feet.
"You're so tall!" she blurted, unhinging her arms from around his neck. Reaching up, she touched the super short golden blond hair that was mere millimeters from being shaved down to his scalp. "Your hair is so short!"
"And so are you," he teased, patting her on the head.
Just last year he had only been a few inches taller than her vertically challenged five foot three inches. In a short amount of time, he had grown to tower over her diminutive frame at five nine.
"You're still a little twerp," she snapped playfully, pinching his cheek. She linked her arm through his, leading him out of the airport. "I believe this is going to be our best summer together yet."
"I think you're right," he agreed.
Aunt Riko said that every year. And every year, she was right.