A/N: For those of you who don't know, I have a blogspot account called 'Anko's Classroom' that you all should visit (Ankosclassroom .blogspot .com). There's a rather important matter I need to discuss with some of my reviewers about this story; I'm not going to list any names, but they know who they are, and they've given me some unjustified flack about this story in regards to the previously warned about 'cheating' and incest that will be present in later chapters. I wanted to ignore it, but I can't. So go to Anko's Classroom now!
Additionally, there's a contest that I've started on that exact same blog that everyone reading this should totally join in on! Just head over to the blog at it'll be right there!
Disclaimer: Work on this series began long before the current events of the manga, meaning that the mention of the outcome of current story arcs are implemented purely for the sake of furthering the story, and are not meant to represent my thoughts on the possible outcome, or otherwise events of the Fourth Shinobi War saga.
Enjoy!
To say that Kushina Uzumaki's mind was turned around at the changes to Konoha and its residents would have been the understatement of the millennium. While it still felt to her like the birth of her son and the Nine-Tails' attack on the village happened just yesterday, more than eighteen years had passed since then, and it seemed like every minute held a new barrage of surprises and drastic changes to the ninja world.
She was even seeing abundant numbers of Shinobi from the other villages patrolling the streets, a squad in the white vests of the Hidden Cloud Village passing by her, and though she wanted to ask someone about them, it made her feel stupid just thinking of doing so. In her days, she had only ever seen other villagers in Konoha during the select years that they hosted the Chunin Exams, but now it seemed as though many ninja from Kiri, Kumo, Iwa, and Suna considered Konoha to be as good as home.
And then there was the complete lack of attention drawn towards her. As a member of the now-gone Uzumaki clan and the then soon-to-be wife of the now dead Fourth Hokage, the eyes of the villagers had always fallen onto Kushina whenever she passed through town. Now though, not a single person recognized her at all, while others who probably did knew better than to think she could be who they thought she was.
Konoha believed Kushina Uzumaki to be dead, a thought that continuously saddened her, though not as much as the thought of her beloved Minato Namikaze's death. And just how many other friends did she know who died since then? She knew she would have to walk that dark road one day, but tonight, she wanted to be happy, to experience some of the positives that the night had to offer. And that's when she turned her head to the second most welcome sight she had seen all day.
"You're still open?" She gazed up at a dark blue banner heading a sliding door reading 'Ichiraku Ramen'. The building looked as though it had been rebuilt from the ground up in fairly recent years, but as she stepped inside, she was delighted to see the same jovial old Teuchi serving his customers with a proud smile on his wrinkled face.
"Hello there!" He called to his new customer as she took a seat at the bar. "What can I get for...?" He paused as he took in Kushina's appearance. "Sorry to say, ma'am, but have we met before?"
"Good to see you again, Teuchi." Kushina grinned. "I'd like a salt ramen, please?"
"Kushina?" Teuchi blinked, saying her name carefully, for fear he was mistaken.
"That's me, y'know?"
"Comin' up!" Teuchi said enthusiastically, serving up a bowl of his customer's favorite salt ramen in under a minute. "Enjoy!"
"Don't mind if I do!" Kushina licked her lips hungrily.
"So... If you don't mind my asking..." Teuchi muttered. "What happened to you? I thought you were dead..." he cut himself off, for fear he said something to make his customer uncomfortable.
"I've been getting that a lot today." Kushina shrugged simply. "Turns out, I was just comatose the entire time, and I've just recently awoken in a strange, unfamiliar world." She looked up from her bowl, anticipating the store owner's expression of bewilderment, but he didn't show any sort of astonishment of the sort. "You're... not completely blown away by that idea?" She blinked, having already gotten such expression.
"I practically hear weird things like this from my customers on a daily basis." Teuchi chuckled. "If you're honestly looking to surprise me, you have a pretty tall order to fill! If you say you were in a coma for eighteen years, you were in a coma for eighteen years."
"I suppose that makes sense." Kushina shrugged, grinning. "So..."
"Want another bowl?"
"Yeah, but I also need to get up to speed." Kushina sighed, pushing her now empty bowl aside. "It seems like a lot's happened these past few years."
"Want me to fill you in?" Teuchi offered.
"I'd like that." Kushina grinned, her stomach growling. "And some more to eat."
"Coming up." Teuchi laughed. "So, where do you want me to start?"
"How about the day after the Nine-Tails' attack on the village?"
Meanwhile, Naruto and Hinata sat in silence as they ate their durian dessert, both having a lot on their mind; Naruto still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he now had a living mother after all these years, and Hinata wondering how on earth to begin to set a romantic atmosphere.
"She seems like a really fun person." Naruto mused. "I wish we could have gotten to talk a bit more, though. Man, if only I grew up with a mom like that." He shook his head vigorously, uncomfortable thoughts starting to fill his mind.
"What should I do now?" Hinata asked herself. "I know Ms. Uzumaki told me to just let things come naturally, but..." She had been letting things come naturally the past hour, but she didn't feel any kind of atmosphere that could lead to anything... romantic, and she was certain Naruto didn't either. In fact, she knew for a fact that both of them had Kushina Uzumaki and her 'rise from the dead' on the brain.
"So..." Naruto muttered awkwardly, shattering the awkward silence. "These durians are pretty good, huh? I thought they'd be awful, what with their smell and all, but..." He stopped, noticing that his girlfriend looked a bit uncomfortable. "You don't like them?" He asked.
"No, you're right, they're delicious." Hinata shook her head. "It's just that..." She wanted to bring up Kushina's 'wife test', but thought better of it. "Your mother... I never thought I would see the day..."
"I know." Naruto sighed, now feeling a bit uncomfortable himself. "I mean, when I was young, there wasn't a day that I didn't wish I could be with my parents."
"Are you... okay, Naruto?" Hinata blinked. His words sounded like something happy, but his tone said quite the contrary.
"Sorry, it's just that... I'd accepted that my parents were gone from this world a long time ago." Naruto admitted. "When I was really little, I would look all over the place for information about them, and one time, I even tried to search for them, thinking that they couldn't possibly be dead." He looked as though he could cry at any moment. "But, there was something that pervy sage told me when we were training: 'They were great people, and they died doing great things. They're proud to have a son like you, and they'd be proud of what you've become.'
"After that, I had accepted that they were gone. I wasn't happy to be alone, without family, but I was at peace with my life." He remembered the visions of his father, after the Nine-Tails' seal had weakened, and a similar one when he tried to control the tailed beast's power. And not that long afterwards, when he had met his father in person, brought back by the Reanimation Jutsu. "It's just a book that I've closed a long time ago, and never looked back at."
"And now you're feeling conflicted?" Hinata assisted.
"Very." Naruto nodded. "To have a mother right now, so many years after I'd put those thoughts away? I… I'm turned around, Hinata."
"I see..." Hinata nodded, her world turned upside down too, albeit not as much as Naruto's no doubt was. She had forgotten all about the goal Kushina had set for her, all about setting any sort of romantic atmosphere; right now, nothing else mattered but finding clarity in hers and Naruto's lives.
"…And with the war ended, Naruto returned to Konoha praised as a hero for all he had done, not just for Konoha, but the Ninja world as a whole." Teuchi concluded.
"To think that we would be thrown into yet another war…" Kushina said darkly. "And that my boy was flung headlong into it."
"Naruto wasn't supposed to take part in it at all; the war was for his and Kumo's Eight-Tails Jinchuriki's safeties." Teuchi corrected.
"That's my point." Kushina sighed. "I still remember how things were in the Third War, how many Genin were left without teachers, how many children were left without parents… And to think, it was repeated all over again."
"That is very true." Teuchi nodded, all too familiar himself. "But with the end of the war, came the end of hostility between the Five Great Nations. The Ninja Alliance still stands strong, and never before have the villages been brought together like they have in recent years."
"So that's why I see so many ninja from other villages around…" Kushina understood, remembering the Cloud Ninja from before.
"From what I understand, it's customary for Shinobi to patrol the streets of the other villages, as a way of preserving the bond between the nations." Teuchi nodded. "Is there anything else you want to know about?"
"Hm…. No, I think that's it." Kushina decided hesitantly. "I should be going now…" She and Teuchi then looked at the massive stack of ramen bowls next to her. Teuchi, too wrapped up in his stories, was too busy to notice that he was giving out more ramen than half the day's customers could eat.
"It's all on the house…. For now." Teuchi waved a hand, his daughter, Ayame, showing a twinge of annoyance at his overly generous business habit.
"Thanks a lot, Teuchi, Ayame." Kushina smiled. "I'll see you two again some time."
"And next time, you better pay for your food!" She heard Ayame shout.
"Well, that was fun." Kushina grinned, continuing her nighttime stroll. "Where to next...?" She halted as she heard the all too familiar cry of an infant overhead, and peered up to see another somewhat familiar face.
She dashed up the steps of the apartment complex, and knocked on one of the doors to see just the woman she was hoping to see. A woman with long, curly ash black hair, bright crimson lipstick, equally bright red eyes, and a child wrapped in her arms with similar ash-colored hair.
"Kurenai Yuhi." Kushina smirked. "My have you grown!" The woman named Kurenai blinked at her visitor, completely nonplussed.
"Have we met?" She asked.
"Would you rather we have not met her, Naruto?" Hinata asked.
"No, I'm happy to have met her." Naruto shook his head. "It's just… I wish she could have been here for me so much sooner…" He once again wore the expression that suggested he was close to crying. "If she had introduced herself to me like she did tonight years ago, my life would have been…." He didn't even know how to describe how his life could have been, had his mother been in it.
"But now… I've gotten by so long without any parents, I can't think of how I should be feeling about something like this." Hinata hesitated long and hard on these words. Though she and Kushina didn't exactly have a heart-to-heart kind of conversation in their brief alone time earlier, she could understand why Naruto's mother was the way she was, both with him, and his lover. And though Kushina didn't talk to Hinata about much of anything besides her little 'wife test', she understood why she put her up to this.
"She cares a lot about you, Naruto." She said. "She wants you to be happy." She pulled Naruto close to her. "And I do to."
Naruto looked into her pale eyes, knowing truth in her words long before she spoke them. He gave her a kiss on the mouth, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"I don't know what to say." Kurenai said as Kushina concluded her story.
"I've been getting that quite a lot today." She chuckled. "What about you, Kurenai? I remember you having a bit of an attitude when you were a teenager, wishing to be a strong, independent kunoichi, disgusted with the idea of being a mother, or a housewife. And here you are now, with a cute little baby girl…"
"A lot can happen in 18 years." Kurenai shrugged. She too chuckled, remembering her days of youth; when she refused the idea of being a simple housewife, having no envy at all for her friend when she became a mother
"A little walk down the street today told me that you're absolutely right." Kushina laughed. "So, what's his name?"
"Huh?"
"The father. Who's the lucky man?" As soon as Kushina asked, however, she wished she didn't, as Kurenai's face turned slightly grim.
"Asuma Sarutobi." She replied.
"I knew you two had a thing for each other!" Kushina said cheerily. "Where is he?"
"Gone." Kurenai sighed. "He was killed in action a few months before Yoko was born."
"Oh..." Kushina gasped, feeling guilty for her lack of tact. "I'm… I'm sorry to hear that. It must be difficult, raising a baby alone..."
"I was afraid that I couldn't do it myself." Kurenai confessed. "When I heard about Asuma's death, I lost my own will to live at first. But… I remembered my child, and how important her life is to me."
"A mother lives for the sake of her child." Kushina nodded, knowing the feeling all too well. "And a child will never stop needing her."
"I remembered you, Kushina." Kurenai smiled, a tear in her eye. "Whenever I felt as though I couldn't handle being a mother, I would ask myself: 'What would Kushina do?' 'How would Kushina do this?'"
"I even thought of naming her after you." Kurenai grinned. "Shikamaru thought it was a good idea too."
"Who?"
"Shikamaru Nara." Kurenai repeated. "He's the son of Shikaku, and Asuma's favorite student. After Asuma died, he promised to help me look after Yoko, and protect her. In a way, he's been like the father she's never had." Kushina wanted to know more, much more, about the complications with Kurenai's motherhood, but, wishing to turn to a more positive route, looking to save the sadness and darkness for another time, she changed the subject a little.
"So, why Yoko then?" She asked.
"Asuma wanted me to name her based on me." Kurenai answered. "He suggested if I didn't want to name her directly after myself, I name the child Shinku or Yoko (A/N: Both 'Shinku' and 'Yoko' are words meaning 'Crimson', which Kurenai is also named for.). So, to honor Asuma, I decided on Yoko."
"Have you ever thought that sometimes, the kids name themselves?" Kushina asked, grinning down at Yoko, carefully and slowly lowering her finger to the infant who held her finger in her tiny hand, giving an adorable laugh.
"She likes you." Kurenai smiled lovingly. "I'm sure they do. Though, your child is named after one of your favorite foods, so I really do wonder about that." She laughed.
"You got me there!" Kushina giggled sheepishly.
"Speaking of Naruto..." Kurenai turned to her friend with a look of concern. "Have you met him since you've come back?"
"Yes, I have." Kushina grinned weakly. "And I'm overjoyed, but at the same time... I know that he'll always need me in one way or another, but still, it's so hard to think that I've missed out on his entire life."
"You're here for him now, Kushina. That's all that matters." Kurenai assured her.
"I know." Kushina swallowed, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "But... that look when we first met... and I haven't been there for a second of his childhood after his first day of life, and I'm the reason he's a Jinchuriki..."
"Kushina..."
"I'm afraid..." Kushina gripped her shaking hands tightly. "I'm afraid that he might hate me..."
"Wow, I didn't realize how late it was!" Naruto yawned, looking at the clock. "I'm heading to bed."
"Um, Naruto?" Hinata spoke up.
"What's wrong, Hinata?" Naruto asked, seeing Hinata's face turn from pink to red.
"I wanted to ask you something..." Hinata fidgeted. "Do you think we could... share a bed tonight?"
"Share a bed?" Naruto repeated, blinking. Ever since they had started living in the same house together, Hinata slept in a separate bed from Naruto's. She had always wanted to share a bed with him, but due to nervousness, she had never had the courage to do so. But her recent interaction with Kushina was the big push that she needed.
"Sure thing." Naruto chuckled, smiling at the idea. "I've been waiting for you to ask me that, actually."
"Huh?! Y-You... have?!" Hinata blushed, before she smiled a little at his acceptance, before kissing his cheek. "Um... I'll just... I'll be back in a little while!" She said, before she scurried off to the bathroom, locking the door behind her, leaving Naruto a little confused as he made for his room.
"That was a little... odd." He thought to himself as he changed out of his regular clothes. "I almost feel like sharing a bed wasn't the only thing Hinata wanted..." He paused, turning to the door. "She's not really after that kind of thing... is she?" He shook his head as he turned pink. "No, she wouldn't! It's Hinata we're talking about." he stopped as he looked down at himself, now donned in his usual pajamas. For whatever reason, even without his cartoony nightcap, he felt like such a dork in them, a feeling he had never had about any of his clothes. He tossed them off, deciding to sleep in his boxers and tank top.
"We're close enough that this isn't embarrassing... right?" He insisted to himself.
"So much for easing either of us into this." Hinata sighed as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, feeling a little pathetic for choosing this to be her way of asking to sleep with Naruto.
She always considered herself to have an encyclopedia's worth of anxiety problems, but after growing up so much since being a frail, fidgety little girl in the academy, she had wished that she could feel more relaxed and open with Naruto; and yet she was only now going to share a bed with him?!
Sighing again, she stripped off her clothes, discarding them in a neat pile to one side, before turning on the shower to let it heat up.
When fully nude, she looked at herself once more in the full-body mirror. Her mother had told her that she had a body like hers; one built specifically for breeding, and turning to see her reflection front and back, she began to understand why, as she truly had a body that many other women would envy; her slender, curvy waist and thighs gave her body a perfect hourglass shape, she had a perfectly rounded butt that would allure any male, very large, yet very well-proportioned and firm breasts with lovely pink nipples, ideal for nurturing both a child's basic needs, and a man's sex drive, and not one bit of unsightly hair or body fat, her body was overall perfectly toned for combat, and perfectly proportioned for whatever man she wanted.
She stepped into the bathtub and the now steaming warm droplets sprinkling her soft skin as she lathered soap over her body and shampoo into her long hair, her mind consistently on the big moment that awaited her as soon as her shower ended.
"There's no going back now..." She sighed nervously, letting her hair rinse. "Naruto and I are going to..." Her head shook side to side as she tried to push her mind away from the notions of anything sexual, but failed.
An image floated in her mind of Naruto, kissing her as his toned body hung over the top of her, moving back and forth against hers, thrusting his manhood in and out of her as she screamed out in the throes of pleasure and pain.
She shook her flushed head vigorously again, trying to not let it get her aroused just yet. She didn't want to go in already aroused. Not to mention this was her first time, and being so… wanting of it, seemed almost wrong.
Yes... a virgin. She tensed, trying not to imagine how painful her first time might be.
"But still..." She thought aloud. "I have heard that the first time does hurt... but does it hurt in a good way? Even so..."
She pressed the tips of her thumb and index finger together, forming a ring shape. "Naruto's... thing is almost this big around!" She recalled a time she had walked in on Naruto showering once before, only to see him with a massive erection, before she had passed out from it; something she felt like doing again, at the thought of the pole being inside her! "Something that big could never... And even if it could..." She cringed frightfully.
"No, no! I can't be thinking like that. If it's for Naruto..." She decided, steeling her intentions towards the coming event, before turning off her shower and drying off. "I can endure anything." She took a deep breath, wrapped her towel around her body, and strode nervously to Naruto's room, cracking the door open slightly, her arms nervously trying to cover her body somewhat when she saw him.
"N-Naruto? Do you mind if I turn off the lights?" She asked, still at the doorway, as Naruto lay in his shorts on the bed.
"Hm?" he blinked, wondering why, though seeing her nervousness. " Um... I guess not, no." He shrugged.
The lights went out, and he could hear Hinata's footsteps draw closer to him. He didn't understand why, but just the sound of her growing ever closer to him made his heart hammer. He shifted aside, allowing her to sit next to him, and as he laid eyes on her dark outline, he could clearly see that the only thing covering her body right now was a towel.
"I'm sorry. I don't know why... I'm so nervous." Hinata swallowed, shakily placing her hand on the bed and slowly moving it closer to Naruto's.
"So am I." Naruto admitted. "Why should we, though? We're just sharing a bed." He chuckled.
"Um... y-yes..." Hinata smiled weakly. "Just... just sharing a bed." She swallowed again, turning to look Naruto in the eyes. "N-Naruto?"
"Y-yeah?" Naruto's face turned bright red as Hinata draw slightly closer to him, her soft skin just inches from his touch. "Wh-what's up Hinata? You seem like you're a little bit... out of it." Hinata tried to think of a way to object to this observation, but knew there was no use in lying; she was quite out of it.
"Tonight, Naruto... I..." She pulled Naruto right into her body, kissing him firmly on the mouth, her tongue exploring his mouth, to find that Naruto's tongue was doing just the same to her. "...I want you to love me as much as you possibly can."
"Kushina, don't be absurd." Kurenai chuckled. "Naruto couldn't possibly have any resentment for you. Not his own mother!"
"After all I've done to him? Abandon him? Brand him a beast?" Kushina shook with despair.
"Kushina." Kurenai spoke sternly. "Do you have any idea how much Naruto has wanted you? I might not have been close to him, but I know that when he was growing up, there was nothing he wished for more than to have parents; as much as he yelled on and on about how he wanted to be a Hokage, even he knew that to have family was the only thing he desired more."
"Does he know?" Kushina's eyes started to fill with tears. "That his mother did such terrible things to him?"
"I can't say for sure." Kurenai answered. "But if he doesn't, then it seems to me like there's a very good reason that fate has chosen today for you to meet him. He's grown significantly over the years, and I think that, if you were to be open and honest with him, he would understand."
"I... would he?" Kushina couldn't stop herself from crying now.
"He would." Kurenai nodded definitively. "Just tell him the truth."
"I want to, but..." As Kushina tried to collect her thoughts, Yoko too began to sob, the red-haired mother gently cradling her in her arms, forcing herself to stop crying. "I'm... I'm... so sorry, Yoko." She said through tears, forcing a smile on her face.
"If you're really so scared of such a thing, Kushina," Kurenai suggested. "Then I think that you should patch things up with Naruto as soon as you can."
"You know?" Kushina sniffed, drying her tears. "You're right. But first... would you mind too terribly if I were to stay the night?"
"You're so scared that you can't even...?"
"Oh, no, it's not that!" Kushina laughed, her mood switching almost instantaneously, and Yoko's changing with her. "He and his girlfriend are just spending some... private time together, y'know?"
"Eighteen years, and you're still just as devilish as always." Kurenai chuckled. "Okay then, I guess I have no choice."
"Thanks, old friend." Kushina grinned.
Hinata and Naruto, previously scared to even touch each other, now had their lips locked onto each other, their arms gripped around one another, holding each other as close as possible.
Hinata, once nervous beyond description, was now itching, begging for her lover to make love to her body, no matter how much it would hurt her, every fiber of her being lit with a fiery passion that only Naruto could hope to qualm.
Naruto, while originally oblivious to the meaning behind Hinata's actions, now understood everything that was running through her mind through just minutes of their physical contact, and lust that he didn't even know he had in them had boiled over, making him desire Hinata's body more than he ever had in his life, the warm feeling of their bare skin pressed against each other fueling his sex drive further, especially as the back of Hinata's towel fell off, his hands now caressing her bare back.
"Mmgh..." Hinata moaned, her mouth severing its connection to Naruto's. "Please..." She whispered, her pale eyes staring into her lover's deep blue ones in such a way they had never seen her before.
"Make my body... yours."
To Be Continued...
Next time, the lemons shall begin! See you then!
Oh, and in case I haven't slammed it in your guys' faces enough, go to Anko's Classroom! Go there now! (that's "ankosclassroom .blogspot .com") I've got a contest that needs fulfillment, and a bone to pick with some people who've shown a low opinion of my work so far...