'(^.^)/
Minato looked at the woman sitting across from him, her bright strawberry blonde hair fluttered gently round her shoulders. It was at least waist length, she seemed nervous her pale lavender eyes refused to meet his blue ones, was he making her nervous? Her fair skin was flushed and it seemed to darken even more under his scrutiny, he sighed inwardly this was going to take gentle persuasion and patience, she seemed overly wary of him.
He carefully went over her account of the first meeting with his son and his heart clenched painfully. To think the village that he was born in, fought for and died for could mistreat his son this badly, it left him feeling bereft. What was the point of him dying for them if this is how they repaid his child's unknowing sacrifice ?
His son...he felt his own heart breaking, to think he died and left him behind to face this on his own, it was nothing short of miraculous he was still breathing. It was all thanks to Ren that he was still alive and most importantly happy... he couldn't let her just walk away so easily, not when Naruto was just starting to have a semblance of a normal life, he would be heartbroken if she left. His mind made up Minato decided to do his best to convince her to stay.
"Kanzaki-san," I began,"May I ask why you were leaving Konoha?" Silence followed his question but he waited patiently for her to formulate a response.
"Yondaime-sama, I'm no longer needed here to ensure Naruto's safety so I decided it was time to leave, I explained all this to Naruto, he has you now to look after him, " she replied quietly with a pained expression.
It made me wonder...
"Do you want to leave or is there another reason?" I arched a brow.
"I...I can't stay with him, you are here it's not necessary, " she replied hesitantly carefully looking at the wall behind me.
I looked around confused, "This compound is big enough to house a large family, not to sound like I'm inviting myself to stay here but space isn't the problem so what is? "
She looked down at her lap,"I can't live in close proximity to men without severe discomfort," she said softly still not looking at me.
"That's why I was leaving, if I stay Naruto would ask that we live together so I decided that a clean break would be best, " she said finally looking up to meet my gaze. Her eyes were beautiful, the forlorn look in them made my heart throb painfully.
"Kanzaki-san, surely there must be a way to ease this discomfort, " he said earnestly.
Her lavender eyes widened, her mouth fell open and her cheeks positively glowed red from the blood rushing to her face.
"Y-you do not know what you ask,"she answered.
"I-it can be done b-but only if you're willing, " she whispered.
I leaned back in my chair, "What do I have to do?" I was sure whatever it was could be achieved easily enough, I was mulling over the possibilities.
"You have to sleep with me..."she said
I felt my jaw drop in shock, well I walked right into that one, but I couldn't help but give in to my instinctive reaction to the words that just left her lips. This must be some kind of a joke, she couldn't actually be requesting me to sleep with her. I abruptly closed my mouth and cleared my throat, "Kanzaki-san I'm sorry, I must have misheard what you said. "
"What did you hear me say ?" she asked me quirking a brow, perplexed.
"I could have sworn I just heard you say that I had to sleep with you...hahaha..."I trailed off nervously rubbing the back of my head.
She tilted her head bemused, "That's because you did just hear me say that."
I felt my face heat up in mortification, complete with incoherent noises to accompany it, how is she just stating all this calmly without a sign of the previous blush on her cheeks?
Was she completely without shame? To be propositioning a man without the slightest hint of embarrassment coloring her face, even the most hardened ninja would have trouble keeping from fidgeting.
"Yondaime-sama, I mean no disrespect by my request, simply put it is the only way for us to share the same living space. I know you don't understand why, it's not something I can explain at this point but rest assured it is necessary ."
I suppressed my urge to squirm uncomfortably at the turn this conversation was taking. I can't believe he asked what he could do so guilelessly without even laying out any limits or conditions. In the back of my mind I knew that of course he had no idea whatsoever of what the answer would entail, which now leaves me feeling like a raging pervert from one of Jiraiya-sama's books.
I sighed inwardly, how did it come to this, oh I know, I fell completely for those beguiling blue eyes, chubby cheeks and that adorable smile. Naruto, my cute little mischievous Naruto who was as loud as an irate fishwife one moment and sincerely lovable and caring the next. Curse those expressive eyes, fluffy soft hair, and puppy-like demeanor. I was still appalled at the condition in which I found him almost a year ago. How could they..., in the back of my mind I was still enraged but I pushed it away.
A year ago setting foot in this village, I would never have thought that I would be the adopted mother to a mischievous blonde bundle of joy. Needless to say I fell in love with him. Which leads to me currently dealing with the consequences of my actions sitting across from me at my kitchen table, at my recently purchased residence. After that is, failing spectacularly at running away from it first of course, even though my flight from this particular consequence was half hearted at best due to my ridiculously strong attachment to said consequence's progeny.
I sighed inwardly how am I going to deal with this...
I feel like pulling my hair out just thinking of having to deal with him. I could see it now, he was going to watch me like a hawk summons questioning everything I do, it was wearying just thinking about it, but I couldn't quite work myself all the way to full fledged disgust at my current conundrum.
I tried to look at it from a different perspective. Most women would be thrilled at the idea of cohabiting with a lithe, six foot, blue-eyed, blonde with looks that bordered on androgynous so he was pretty enough to be appealing to both sexes. I schooled my expressions as I grumbled inwardly to myself, this was sure to cause problems in the long run, Minato was too popular as a man besides being a former/current Hokage.
This so wasn't worth the bat-shit crazy women I'd have to deal with when the general populace of Konoha civilian and shinobi alike realizes their beloved Yondaime-sama wasn't as dead as they currently believed, let alone that he was currently shacking up with the resident eccentric/lunatic that was housing the supposedly evil jinchuuriki brat that will allegedly contaminate them and corrupt their precious little munchkins.
Which currently leads up to my current word vomit...
"Yondaime-sama, I mean no disrespect by my request, simply put it is the only way for us to share the same living space. I know you don't understand why, it's not something I can explain at this point but rest assured it is necessary ."
At my words the great Yellow Flash of Konoha, the Yondaime Hokage blushed, and I don't mean a faint pink colour on the cheeks, no our beloved Yondaime did nothing by halves, his skin turned lobster red as he gaped at me, my expression schooled to indifference.
I watched in horrified fascination as the colour rose from his neck to engulf his entire face. His reaction to my words was completely unexpected of course, it's not as if he was a genin fresh from the academy or anything, he's a battle hardened veteran for Kami's sake, his abilities were the lynch pin that helped turn the tide of the previous war, so where did he get off blushing like an inexperienced chunin and looking as endearing as his cute offspring?
I smirked at him even though I wanted to scowl because the cuteness of his current expression reminded me of Naruto and the fact that I was doing this, going through all this for my little cutie.
"Or you could just leave and take up residence elsewhere," I said.
"Why do I have to sleep with you?"he asked.
"Because we must do what is necessary, and this is necessary," I said.
"Why is this necessary?" he asked.
"It's not something I can explain," I said.
He sighed. "You're not going to make this easy are you?"
I smiled sweetly at him."I have no idea what you mean."
He looked at me, his blush receding as thoughts and speculation flickered in his eyes so quickly I barely got an impression before it moved on to something else. I waited patiently for him to make up his mind, I wasn't about to force a man, one who could quite possibly kill me if he tried hard enough, into doing something he didn't want to, I'm not that naive.
"I could just take Naruto and leave,"he threatened.
"You could, I'm sure he would get over being separated from the closest thing he's had to a mother,"I said.
"He'll get over it eventually,"he said.
"Ah...yes I'm sure he would take being removed from my care by a complete stranger quite well, " I said smiling sweetly.
He flinched, I won this round he just didn't know it yet.
"I'm not a stranger, I'm his father," he said defensively.
"A father he knows nothing about who has been absent his entire life. Do you know that he still flinches if anyone raises their hand too quickly near him? " I asked sadly.
"No," he bit out.
"Are you trying to deepen his psychological scars, or do you just want him to hate you?"I asked.
"Like it or not I represent safety, security and most importantly unconditional love to him Yondaime-sama, and you're going to have to learn to live with my continued presence in his life," I said.
"You took away your choice when you decided to bring me back here Yondaime-sama," I said softly.
"And now we both have to live with the consequences of my actions," he said sounding almost sad, I don't think he was only just talking about our current predicament, but what do I know?
"We don't have to like the situation, we have to tolerate it and hopefully somewhere down the line our tolerance of each other will turn into friendship, " I said optimistically.
"Hai, I will try my best to make this transition as painless as possible," he said resignedly, rubbing his face with both palms.
"That's all I ask of you Yondaime-sama," I said happy that we finally came to an understanding of sorts.
His hands dropped to the table and he said, "Since we're going to be living together I don't think we need to be formal, please call me Minato."
I smiled at him,"Hai, Minato-san since we are forgoing formality you may call me Ren."
"So...about our sleeping arrangements, I feel the need to inform you that I don't wear pajamas to bed," I said leaning back in my chair.
"Then what do you wear?" he asked cautiously.
"Absolutely nothing," I said smiling sweetly.
He gaped, then sputtered something incoherent, his face and neck coloured lobster red, once again our beloved Yondaime-sama proved he did nothing by halves.