Chapter 4

A/N#1:Razor 0603: Chapter 4 of Curse of the Ruby Dragon... Have to be honest, didn't think would make it this far, I figured nobody would like it and I would end up taking it down of putting it up for someone else to write... Anyway, I would like to thank those few who have taken the time to read AND review, and those who have added this story to their favorites and story alert list, it makes me really happy that so many people enjoy it, and i will have a list of names ready for next chapter.

A/N#2:xox-'.'-K-A-G-O-M-E-'.'-xox: I'd also like to thank readers and reviewers and favourites, you're all kinds of awesome :) *bows*

Three days after Council Meeting

Hiruzen looked down at the villagers, all squashed together before the Hokage tower to hear an important announcement. Some of the rumors floated up to Hiruzen, and had this been any other day he might have laughed.

"Maybe he's retiring, Kami knows he deserves it"

"Maybe he's decided to marry off Asuma, I would love to for him to pick me"

"Maybe he's announcing a law that makes it illegal for girl to hit perverts" This individual ended up in the hospital with three fractured ribs and a broken collarbone. (Three guess who it was.)

Hiruzen stepped up to the edge of the balcony he was standing on, cleared his throat, effectively silencing the villagers and began to speak.

"Citizens of Konoha, I have a few things to say today, if you would please listen and hold all questions until the end, I will try to make this brief." Here he paused, saying a quick prayer that this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass and continued. "In spite of what happened three days ago, losing our Yondaime, we must honor his sacrifice to the village, and in doing so I am going to reveal something I had not originally planned on doing."

At these words, all the murmuring that had built amongst the crowd stopped, the collective tension from the people gathered below was almost palpable.

"What i am sharing was a SS-class secret, and I would like for this not to be talked about outside this village, atleast not until the child this secret pertains to is old enough to defend himself." At this the murmuring started up again, wondering who the child the Hokage mentioned was. "To further explain this, I am letting the Yondiame's wife-" A gasp from the spectators. "- Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina, explain."

As Kushina stepped up to the rail, everybody down below was deathly quiet, you could've heard a pin drop. Everybody was surprised to hear that their Fourth Hokage had married and nobody had heard about it. Those that did know about Minato and Kushina's wedding where wondering what was going on.

Kushina looked at the gathers of people below before speaking.

"To answer the question most of you are probably thinking, yes I am Minato's wife. And the night of the Kyuubi attack out son was born." Here she lifted Naruto up so everybody could see him. " I want to make this clear. Just because Naruto was born on the night of Kyuubi's attack, I will not tolerate anybody, be they ninja or civilian, saying that because Naruto was born, that Minato wasn't able to concentrate properly and that he is the reason Minato lost his life, because if i hear anyone say he is, I will deal with them personally."

The people who where already thinking this cringed at her threat, bringing shoulders to ears in fear. The only thing worse than facing an enraged kunoichi was facing a enraged kunoichi who was also a mother.

Kushina looked out at the crowd one more time before stepping down and walking back to where she was before. Sarutobi rose to address the crowd once more.

"If anyone causes any harm, physical or otherwise, to Naruto, they will taken into ANBU custody and I will let Kushina serve punishment as she sees fit," Sarutobi said, and mentally smirked as he saw the look of utter fear on the faces of some of the crowd. His threat held a little more weight as the fact Kushina was a well known ninja, and scary-good with a katana. There was a reason she was called "The Red Death of Konoha".

\/\/\/ Four years later\/\/\/

"Wets go Kaa-san, I wanna go to the park," a now four year old Naruto burbled excitedly. The blond child was bouncing up and down in the hallway in front of the door, waiting on his mother to finish packing the picnic she had planned for her and her son.

Kushina stuck her head around the kitchen doorway and giggled at her son's antics; impatient stamping of tiny feet and frustrated pulls at the front of his orange t shirt.

"Give me just one more second Naruto, i have to go grab a blanket for us to sit on and then we will be ready to go."

Kushina walked to the hall closet, grabbed a light blanket, and tucked it into the picnic basket then walked to the front door.

"Are you ready to go Naruto," she asked when she was standing next to her blonde bundle of energy. He nodded his head excitedly in confirmation. He grabbed his mothers hand and eagerly lead her out the door and down the street. he wanted to go play on the swings. He loved swinging, it gave him the feeling he was flying. They arrived at the park, and after setting their basket down not far from them, Kushina began to push Naruto on the swings.

"Higher Kaa-san! HIGHER!"

Kushina and Naruto where both laughing, Kushina at how her son was acting, Naruto because he was having fun, feeling like a bird in the sky. Not many poeple knew this, but one of his dreams was to find a way to fly like the birds do.

Some time later, Kushina called Naruto over to eat lunch, she pulled out a bowl of Naruto's favorite ramen, miso with pork, a bowl of sliced apples and a small bowl of curry for herself. Naruto came running over and descended upon the poor food like a wild animal, devouring the bowl of ramen in ten seconds flat, causing his mother to gawk at him owlishly before falling into hysterics.

After the two finished eating, Naruto went off to play, walking just inside the edge of the tree line around the park, he head a muffled sound. He followed the sound, coming across three boys, all looking just a few years older than him, and a teenage boy with red hair all gathered around a girl with pink hair and jade green eyes.

'She's beautiful... like an angel' Naruto thought, then noticed the boys and the teen where beating the little girl. A fury he had never known before rose in him, and he dashed in to the clearing, yelling at the top of his lungs and plowed into the teensback, causing him to tumble into the boys next to him.

"And just what the hell-," The boy started, then noticed who itwas that ran into him, "Well well, if it isn't the reason out beloved Yondiame is dead."

Naruto stood in front of the girl, who was curled on her side crying, and looked at the boy defiance shining in his eyes. "You won't touch her anymore. You can't smack pretty girls. You'll get in big trouble."

The boy laughed and pulled a knife from his belt, when Naruto just noticed he had. "I'm going to enjoy getting even with you. If you hadn't been born, the Yondiame would've been able to focus on fighting the fox and would still be alive, now I'm going to get revenge for him and this village, then I will be held as a saint in this village."

Then boy slowly stalked toward the children, a mad glint in his eye. The other kids that where with him didn't know whether to run or help the younger kids; frozen in their tracks.

When the teen was within arms length of the Naruto and the girl, an unholy amount of killing intent drowned the area, so strong it started to make the branches move and the leaves on the ground to blow away. Naruto had felt this plenty of times before, not on this level but he still knew who it was and looked the man in the face finding it full of fear, shock and dread. Naruto laughed and gave him a foxy grin.

"Hehe, your in twuble now. I told you you can't smack pretty girls."

A shadow loomed.

"Just what do you think you're doing pointing a weapon at my little boy...?" Kushina's voice was a deathly low growl. The offending teenager slowly turned to find the outraged mother standing over him, cracking her knuckles and expression the picture of rage.

"I-I-I-I-" He couldn't speak under the weight of her menacing aura. A loud crack from her knuckles made a impatient question in the air.

"I-I-I-!"

"You?" Kushina prompted.

"I WASN'T DOIN' NOTHIN', I SWEAR!" In a scramble of muddled footing and tears the teen upped and fled the scene in terror leaving Naruto, the girl and a slowly coming back to her senses, Kushina together in the clearing.

\/\/\/Kushina's POV\/\/\/

Kushina was livid, how dare someone think about attacking her child. She turned to her son and was about to ask if he was ok, but noticed he was busy comforting the young girl. She rounded on the younger boys left behind.

"Now boys," She began, in a sickly sweet voice that promise pain if they refused to cooperate. "Would you care to tell me why you were helping beat up this poor girl?"

The boys glanced nervously at each other, shaking at the knees and looking like they were about to do something embarrassing. One of them mumbled something that Kushina didn't quite catch.

"What was that, you're going to have to speak louder, Honey."

The boy gulped and spoke again, "Because she has a huge forehead."

If the situation had been different somehow, Kushina would've face faulted, but she didn't. Instead, she took a deep breath. Naruto noticed this, and suggested the girl cover her ears, and he did the same.

'YOU WHERE PICKING ON HER, JUST BECAUSE SHE HAS A LARGE FOREHEAD,' Kushina shrieked, using the big demon head jutsu Naurto would become accustom too in a few short years.

The boys just dumbly nodded, and Inner-Naruto snickered at the look on their faces. You never wanted his kaa-san to yell at you face to face, he'd learned that the hard way.

Naruto tuned his mother out as he checked on the girl next to him.

\/\/\/Sakura's POV\/\/\/

'Who are these people? Why are they helping me, are they just going to pick on my later when no one is around?'

The girl was brought out of her musing when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She flinched, a knee jerk reaction now days, and instantly felt panic constrict her windpipe. When she spoke it was quiet like a whisper.

"I- I'm sowwy, i didn't mean to..." She started then stopped when the boy smiled at her.

"'Sokay. You didn't do nufin' wong."

"Anything," corrected the woman who stood two steps behind the boy, looking down on her. The child was sure she was eyeing her forehead. The panic in her throat gave way to a gentle giggle and she smiled in spite of herself; the boy was a really nice person, and the lady behind him was really nice too.

"I'm Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto whats your name," The blonde, Naruto, asked.

"Ha- Haruno Sakura," Came the hesitant reply.

Naruto smiled and helped her up, grabbing her hand and pulling her over toward the woman that was on the other side of the clearing.

"KAA-SAN! Look, I made a new friend and..." He trailed off and looked her in the eyes, "You do wanna be friends, right?"

She nodded her head and his face split into a huge grin.

The lady on the other side of the clearing giggled, bring the kids attention back to her.

"I'm Uzumaki Kushina, Naruto's mom, but you can call me Kushina-san," She said to Sakura.

" Hajimemashite, Kushina-san."

Kushina smiled sweetly at Sakura, "Your Hikari-chan's daughter, aren't you?"

Sakura nodded, "Hai, that my kaa-san, do you know her?"
Kushina smiled and laughed, "Oh, me and your mom go way back, we where on the same team for a time. One day when your older, I'll share some stories with you."

Sakura smiled and nodded in agreement. She was startled when Naruto let out a shout and was suprised to see they where back at the park.

Naruto stopped by the swings and back to her.

"SAKURA-CHAN, COME PLAY WITH ME."

Sakura ran to the swings and hopped in one, smileing and laughing as Naruto pushed her.

\/\/\/Kushina POV\/\/\/

Kushina watched as her son and her best friend's daughter played on the swings.

"Kushina-chan!"

She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard her name called. She turned to see who the new comers where.

"Hikari-chan, Hikaru-kun, how are you?"

Hikari hugged Kushina tightly, it had been a while since they had seen each other. Kushina also gave Hikaru a hug.

"We are doing good, just came to get Sakura," She looked out and saw her playing with Naruto and smiled, "It looks like she met your son."

Kushina laughed, "Yes she did, and it looked like we aren't going to get them to leave any time soon. "

The parents sat down and caught up while their children played. None of them could have guessed how much of an impact this would have in the future.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Ending A/N: Holy freaking crap... I'M SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY THIS IS TOOK SO LONG! Life just got hectic with college, job hunting, and helping my brother get back into the "school routine" as we call it.

Anyway, next chapter will have multi-time skips, and the introduction of Sasuke :D I'm actually looking forward to how that turns out :D

Remember, review lead to (hopefully) faster writing. Criticism is accepted and appreciated Flames will bottled and used to fuel my homemade flame thrower :D