Note: I wanted to make this a Thanksgiving special, but the moment I got home, my mind was practically dead, so here's a late Thanksgiving special!


"Are you sure there's nothing I can do to help?"

Naruko smiled. "No, I'm sure." She then showed her visitor a concerned look. "In all honesty, I feel that I should be asking YOU that. Didn't you leave the village in order to find a friend of yours?"

Jiraiya let out an exasperated sigh. "Well, yeah, but it hasn't been easy. Haven't found a single clue yet. I kind of doubt you can help me anyway. No one knows my friend better than me, right?" Jiraiya chuckled.

He had heard fairly quickly that his apprentice had been killed in battle with the Nine-Tailed Fox, and rushed to the village in order to help out as much as he could. He may have been trailing Orochimaru and the Akatsuki, but he always found time to spend time with his apprentice, and attending Minato's funeral was no exception. It had been an hour since the funeral, and since then, he and Naruko had had some time to catch up and during that time, Naruko had explained the situation with Naruto. The boy was going to have it pretty rough, and, if things get crazy enough, Naruko may have a hard time too. He couldn't stay though, so before he left, he had asked if Naruko needed help with anything, but Naruko declined.

"By the way," Jiraiya asked, "where is the little tyke anyway?" He had a smirk on his face. "You didn't lose him already, did you Naruko?"

Naruko pouted. "No I haven't." She let out an exasperated sigh of her own. "The Third asked if he could have him for the day. The council's not going to take the issue of a demon inside a child lightly, and from what he told me, some have really considered the option of killing the poor thing!" She shuddered at the thought of a baby being sentenced to death. "The Third thinks that bringing Naruto in and letting the council see him for themselves will help convince them to keep Naruto alive, and possibly make some laws to protect the both of us from the villagers killing him themselves."

Jiraiya thought for a moment. "Using a child's innocence to influence the council's decision." Jiraiya laughed at that. "That old geezer's still got some tricks up his sleeve! Still, kind of shrewd, even for the old man!"

Naruko had a smile on her face. "I guess that shows us how much this means to him."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I can understand that. If I were in his shoes I'd probably use every dirty trick in the book to keep that kid alive. Wouldn't want a kid's death sentence on my conscience!" Jiraiya had a smug grin on his face, approached Naruko and slowly put his arm around her shoulder and brought her close. "Just like I can't leave in good conscience a beautiful woman who's had no experience raising a kid by herself without helping her out first!"

Naruko looked at the Jiraiya with a sickening look and stomped on his foot. She may have been considered a nice person, but even she wouldn't allow herself to be a victim of Jiraiya's perverted flirting.

Jiraiya yelped in pain and held his injured foot. "Jeez woman! I swear, if you hadn't chosen a normal life for yourself, you would have made one heck of a ninja!"

Naruko had a fake smile on her face now. "And no matter what life you would have chosen for yourself, you'd still be a big, fat pervert!"

Jiraiya held up his hands in protest. "Hey, but you have to admit, I'd also be 'great' either way, right?"

Naruko crossed her arms angrily. "Actually without your jutsus, you're actually pretty lame."

Jiraiya held his hand above the place his heart would be and pretended to be in mock pain. "Ah, a beautiful woman telling a man he's lame…," he sighed dramatically, "there's nothing more painful."

Naruko groaned and shook her head. "Why are you still here?!"

Jiraiya could sense that he had overstayed his visit. "Alright already! I'll leave!" He was about to jump out the window before he stopped himself and asked again, in a serious and concerned voice, "But seriously, are you going to be alright?"

Naruko smiled a reassuring smile at Jiraiya and gave him an answer with just as much seriousness. "Yeah, I'll manage. Besides, I'll have the 'old geezer' to help me."

Jiraiya smiled at her. His apprentice's sister wasn't a ninja, but she was still one heck of a strong woman. He was about to leave before he stopped himself again and said, "Oh! I almost forgot!" He rummaged through his bag, looking for something. Finally, he found what he was looking for and his face lit up. "Ah ha!" He took out what appeared to be a small, yellow book. "Found it!"

Naruko looked at the book curiously. "What is it?"

Jiraiya held the book close and proudly smiled. "This is my latest book! And I believe it's my greatest masterpiece (if I do say so myself)! Here." He motioned for Naruko to grab the book out of his hand.

Naruko took it and asked, "Wait, you're giving this to me?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Yep! My last book failed to be a bestseller, but THIS one will! I can just feel it!" Jiraiya watched Naruko eagerly, as if he expected her to start reading it this very moment.

Naruko looked at the book. "Make Out Paradise?" She smiled to herself. Jiraiya's last book was The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, which was a story about a hero vowing to break the world's 'curse'. No doubt this one wasn't going to be any different. Despite Naruko being angry at all of Jiraiya's perverted shenanigans, she knew that deep down Jiraiya was a fierce believer in peace. She looked at Jiraiya with an amused look on her face. "Funny, I actually liked your last book."

Jiraiya waved off her compliment. "Ah, you probably don't even remember what it was about."

"Of course I do! It's about this character named Naruto and…." She stopped herself. "Wait," she thought, "the heroes name was Naruto too?"

Jiraiya looked at her shocked expression and smiled to himself proudly. "Yep, Minato liked my book so much that he decided to name his unborn child after my main character! He even said that if anything happened to the little guy, I would be his godfather! Of course, with me traveling all the time, I guess the kid's better off staying with you!"

Naruko shook her head. "But Minato said that he named Naruto after me! He said that he wanted to name it after someone he and Kushina both admired and that if anything happened to them, I would be Naruto's godmother and take care of him!"

Jiraiya shook his head in protest. "No way! You must have heard him wrong or something! He totally said those things about MY book, and MY main character, and MY position as part of the family!" He laughed to himself. "I was almost about to decline too! I mean, come on! My kind of work can be pretty dangerous from time to time! I never would have had any time to raise a kid! But that last thing he said," he wiped an imaginary tear of happiness away, "really touched me! I couldn't say no after that!"

Naruko stared at Jiraiya in shock. "Wait, you were about to decline the title of 'godfather'?" Jiraiya nodded. "That's so strange. Me too! When Minato asked me if I could be Naruto's godmother, I was on the fence about it. I mean, he told me lots of times before that he wanted his kid to be a ninja, so what good would it have been for him to be stuck with me, a normal person? But when he said all those nice things about me, I couldn't say no!"

"So wait, that means…."

They both looked at each other for a moment before the cruel realization hit them. They both screamed, "HE SUCKERED US!"


Naruko was angrily walking through the forest. After Jiraiya and herself realized what her brother had done to them, they both angrily said their good- byes and left. Jiraiya, no doubt, angrily went back on his mission, while Naruko angrily walked through the forest to let out some steam. Her brother may have just died recently, but to sucker two people that cared about him, that just felt wrong!

She continued walking until she saw a figure in the distance. Curiosity got the best of her and she walked toward the figure. When she was close enough to the figure, she noticed that it was someone she knew, looking at something.

"Kakashi!" she cried, waving towards the young shinobi.

Kakashi turned around and returned her wave with a small wave of his own. Naruko slowly walked to where Kakashi was and looked at what Kakashi was looking at. It was the Memorial Stone. The Memorial Stone had all the names of all the shinobi who had been killed in action and Kakashi's friend, Obito, had his name there. From what Minato told her, Kakashi spent much of his free time here.

Naruko approached the stone and paid her respects to the fallen, and softly asked Kakashi, "What are you doing here?"

Kakashi continued looking at the stone and asked, "Why do you ask?"

Naruko shrugged. "Minato's funeral was only a while ago, I thought since we were already at the cemetery, you'd take the chance to visit Obito and Rin's graves too."

Kakashi could at least understand that logic. "I always visit their graves and the Memorial Stone. I don't know why but… it just seems right."

Naruko looked at Kakashi and said, "Minato told me you spend most of your free time here."

Kakashi continued to look at the stone. "Yeah."

"Why?"

Kakashi didn't answer, and Naruko didn't pry. For a few minutes, they stared at the Memorial Stone, until finally Kakashi asked, "How do you do it?"

Naruko looked at Kakashi questionably. "Hmm?"

Kakashi was still looking at the stone. "Your brother just died recently. How can you recover from that so quickly?"

Naruko thought for a moment, and answered, "I guess it's because no matter how hard I cry, he won't be coming back. Besides," she had a small smile on her face, "I have someone that depends on me right now. I have to stay strong for him at least." She looked at Kakashi. "And you have to stay strong too."

Kakashi's fists were clenched. "For who exactly?!" His voice was faltering now. "My parents are dead! My friends are dead! My teacher is dead! Everyone precious to me has been taken away from me! How can I be strong when I have nothing else to be strong for!" He looked at Naruko. "All I ever did was hope that things would get better, but they haven't! After my parents died, I thought I could at least be a great ninja, but then Obito showed me just how weak I really was! After Obito died, I wanted to protect Rin, but I couldn't! After I promised myself that I would never let any more of my friends die, Minato died, and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it!" Tears were starting to form in his eyes. "I'm sick of this! All this hope is just false hope that keeps plunging me into a greater despair!"

Kakashi was starting to lose it. Naruko wrapped her arms around Kakashi and gave him a firm hug. "It's alright," she whispered. "Let it all out, it's okay." And for a few minutes, Kakashi just cried. Naruko stroked his back comfortingly, waiting patiently for him to get his bearings.

When Kakashi finally calmed down, he looked up at Naruko and asked with pleading eyes, "What exactly am I supposed to fight for now?!"

Naruko ruffled Kakashi's hair a little bit and answered, "First of all, stopp thinking like that. What would Minato, Obito and Rin say if they saw you like this?"

After a little while, Kakashi realized that she wanted him to answer her question. "They'd probably tell me I was an idiot, and that I shouldn't feel so bad about it." He let out a bitter laugh.

Naruko nodded. "Exactly. I may have not known all of you as much as my brother did, but even I could tell that you were all good friends. And I doubt good friends let their friends 'plunge themselves into despair'." She gave Kakashi a small smile. "Secondly, you need to keep on living. I know you think that you have nothing else to live for, but that's not true! You're living for Obito, Rin and now Minato too! They gave you the gift of life. Treasure the life that they gave you! Live on for them… because now, YOU are their new hope."

Kakashi looked at Naruko for a moment, then at the ground, then at the Memorial Stone. "I'm sorry," he said. "But I don't think I'll ever stop coming here."

Naruko gave a soft giggle. "I didn't expect you to turn a complete 180, but maybe instead of feeling sorry for yourself all the time, maybe you can at least have a hobby to keep your mind off of it?"

Kakashi looked at her again. "Like what?"

Naruko thought for a moment, and then realized that she still had Jiraiya's book with her. Her 'light bulb' lit up. "How about…" she took out the book and presented it in front of Kakashi's face, "reading?"

Kakashi looked at the book with wide eyes for a moment. "Make Out Paradise? Never heard of it before."

"Well, from what I can tell, it just came out, and the author is a friend of mine and he gave me a free copy… but I think it's better off in your hands then mine." She offered the book to Kakashi. "I'll be taking care of a baby soon! Something tells me I won't have any time to read, with a baby keeping me busy and all!"

Kakashi hesitated for a moment before taking the book. He looked at it for a moment and asked, "What is it about?"

Naruko shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't even looked at it yet, but if I know the author, than it's probably about a hero that never gives up. A hero who wants to turn the world away from despair and towards 'paradise'. Plus…I think he finds his true love." She giggled.

Kakashi set the book under his arm and said, "Thank you."

Naruko smiled. "You're very welcome." She turned to walk back home.

Kakashi cried, "Hey, Naruko?"

She turned around. "What?"

"Is it true what they say, that you're going to take care of the demon child?"

Naruko took a moment to think about her answer. "Yeah." She waited a moment to see what Kakashi would do next. When he didn't say anything, Naruko asked, "Do you believe that he's the demon too?"

Kakashi shook his head, waved off the statement, and said with his usual indifferent disposition, "Are you kidding? Minato sacrificed himself to turn a giant, demonic fox into a little kid? There's no such jutsu. And besides, that's just plain silly. Why would anyone do that?"

Naruko smiled at him. "Thank you!" she cried.

Kakashi turned around and started walking toward the opposite direction and waved back. "Yeah, well, I guess you can consider us even now!"

Naruko laughed, and continued walking back home.


When Kakashi got home, he looked at the book Naruko had given him.

He shrugged to himself, "Might as well." And he started to read.


Kakashi had barely read two pages, but he was totally hooked.

"This book is AMAZING!"