Brave new world:

Minato and Kushina are idiots.

Like most first time parents, every milestone their child reaches becomes a spectacle.

Except Kushina and Minato take photos of every groundbreaking moment Naruto achieves.

They filled up three photo albums before Naruto was six months old.

It's a tad bit over zealous.

Naruto is a happy baby; she rarely kicks up a fuss, and seems to enjoy the spotlight. Giving gummy smiles when she's captured in the lime light, staring at her father with wide eyes whenever he makes ridiculous faces behind the camera.

Events such as these are recorded:

Kage Bunshin is the greatest child rearing jutsu ever created.

Particularly when dealing with a baby such as Naruto, whose hyperactivity at seven months leaves her parents haggard. They shudder to think how troublesome she will become when she's able to walk; she's already a terror as a crawler.

Duties are assigned to each clone: one does the laundry, another fills out a mission report for those thrice cursed d-ranks in the shared study. And the other feeds Naruto-chan, while the original Minato stands in the safe zone, watching as the battle ensues.

Minato winces as Naruto throws a vegetable concoction, and ducks her next toss of food. His clone is not as lucky when Naruto's next throw lands true.

The upside from this resulting mess is that he can say is that when Naruto learns how to throw a kunai, she'll have one heck of an arm.

Naruto giggles; she like the highchair's table, the kitchen's floor, walls, ceiling, and her father's clone are a mess. Food paints each surface, landing everywhere but her mouth. Minato's clone looks on miserably, "Taichou, this is a hopeless affair."

"Here I thought that one mission in Numa no Kuni was hard, this is ten times worse than any d-ranked mission," Minato laments.

"At least your safe behind the cabinets," his clone replies, and goes back to trying to coax Naruto into taking another spoonful of pureed vegetables.

A flash of a camera comes from the kitchen entry way. Kushina snickers at Minato's predicament; he volunteered to feed Naruto so he's responsible for clean-up duty.

Thank Kami for shadow clones.

But that doesn't mean he appreciates the laughter, Minato glares at her. Kushina holds her hands up in surrender, a smile playing at her lips, "Okay I'm leaving; you can get back to paternal bonding with Naruto-chan."

The clone's attempts are futile, Naruto turns her head stubbornly and makes a grab for the spoon, no doubt to chuck it at the clone's head. He moves it out of her reach, and she glowers at him. They proceed to have a staring match, blue matching blue. The winner of the battle seems inevitable, that is until Naruto pulls out her favorite trick from her repertoire.

Cherubic features crumble, and cerulean eyes glisten, and Naruto proceeds to open her mouth to let world know of her displeasure.

That is until from behind the relative safety of the cabinets the microwave dings, and the smell of ramen becomes distinct.

Minato comes around the bend, cup ramen in hand, side stepping splattered food, oblivious to his clones and daughter's stare. However, he does catch this:

"Rama."

He pauses, and looks to Naruto with wide eyes. She holds her hands out, fingers grasping towards him or rather the noodles in his hand, "Rama."

"…what?" He asks stupidly.

"Ra-ma," Naruto says and if Minato didn't know better he would have thought she had repeated that word slowly, as one would for a particularly dimwitted individual.

Minato ignores her request and decides to alert his wife of Naruto's newest achievement, "Kushina! I think Naru-chan just said her first!"

There's a crash, followed by some rustling, and Kushina appears once more in the kitchen entryway. Stars in her eyes, the red head literally skips over the spattered food, hands clasped in from of her and asks, "What did she say?"

"Rama," Naruto replies, waving her arms insistently to the cup in her father's hand.

Kushina turns her starry eyed gaze to her daughter, stares at Naruto and then laughs. "I knew it!" Kushina crows, "I knew her first word would be ramen, you owe me 50 ryo, pay up Mina-chan!"

Minato grumbles and reaches for his wallet, but pauses, "Rama doesn't mean she meant ramen."

Red hair comes to life, and swirls about dangerously, "Your damn right she meant ramen, 'ttebane! She gesturing to it, she wants that ramen."

Minato does not balk at her fit of pique, rather he rolls his eyes and reluctantly hands over the money.

Tired of being ignored in the presence of Ramen-sama, Naruto finally does cry. She will not be denied.

Or an occasion such as this:

Naruto is going to walk soon Kushina knows it.

Naruto's been scooting on her bottom, crawling, and hanging on to upright objects for dear life to stand up, while taking sliding steps.

At eleven months she's ready.

Naruto is going to walk soon and Kushina's going to be there to witness it, damn it. It's only fair; Minato got to hear her speak her first word.

She wants to see her little girl take her first brave steps in this new world. Naruto is the only child she will have; every moment needs to be cherished.

And so she watches Naruto with rapt attention every time she gets to her feet, and yet there's only so much stalking… er, observing she can do, especially when today Naruto's has a playdate.

(Which is certainly not an excuse to gossip and get tispy with Mikoto and a few of their friends.)

"Kushina is here, 'ttebane! The party has finally started," Kushina announces as she opens the shoji door with more force than needed. Under one arm she carries Naruto, who clutches a stuffed frog, and the other arm holds two containers of onigiri in an assortment of shapes. "Hello my fellow moms, I come bearing food!"

Cacophonies of greetings respond to her as Kushina strolls down the veranda.

"I hope you brought out the good sake Koto-chan, now that I'm no longer breast feeding, I'm making up for these last few months." She maneuvers Naruto expertly, setting her down and handing her an onirgiri shaped in her image.

Mikoto scoffs, "Of course I did, directly imported from Ta no Kuni."

"That's what I'm talking about," Kushina exclaims, and heads for the empty cushion within the group's circle.

Some people would frown at mothers imbibing at their children's play date, these mothers in question would tell them to go to hell. As kunoichi—former, off duty roster, or active—they certainly know how to handle their alcohol intake, considering the nature of some of the missions they undertake.

Multitasking is no problem; their children have nothing on enemy ninja, criminal heads, or mercenaries despite being terrors in their own right.

Under their mothers' watchful gazes the children are left to their own devices.

At sixteen months Itachi walks with hesitant steps that most toddlers experience. He takes full advantage of his mobility, exploring the Zen garden of the Uchiha main house with rapt attention, testing his mother's boundaries when he gets too close the koi fish pond. And he follows the confident strides of his older cousin Shisui, when the boy finds something of greater interest.

Naruto on the other hand is on a blanket with other drooling babies, surrounded by plushies, blocks, and chew toys. Kushina is regaled with village gossip and tries to keep one eye on her, she has the distinct feeling today is the day of reckoning.

And she is quite right.

Looking over her sake cup Kushina chokes, and then gapes.

To her feet Naruto climbs, legs tremble beneath her weight, this new position is strange for there is no object for her to grasp to guide her steps.

Next to her, Shisui's mother slaps her back, and opens her mouth to ask if Kushina is all right, and then takes in the sight the red head finds so interesting, "Oh, isn't that darling."

Naruto has a look of concentration on her cherubic features as she takes fearless steps forward.

"I know," Kushina responds and barely contains a squeal. Mikoto looks over her shoulder to see what the fuss is about and her curious expression softens.

Naruto takes hesitant steps, and Kushina counts them, claiming each one as a small victory over gravity. The first step, a second step; Naruto wobbles and Kushina holds her arms out as if to catch her, sighing in relief when Naruto does not fall and takes a third step instead.

When she makes it to her sixth step, Kushina grins, Minato is going to be so pissed he missed this. The Uzumaki grabs her weapons pouch, and unseals her camera, she gets up, and walks slowly to Naruto, trying not to distract her from her steady progress.

The eleven month old looks up and grins at her mother as she walks to her on cautious legs. Kushina captures the moment, puts the camera away. She holds her hands out, "Come to Ka-san," and catches her daughter just as she falls.

"Oh my Naru-chan, look at you walking!" Kushina throws her up, and Naruto laughs as she goes up, up, up and then down when she's caught.

The first year of Naruto's life marks the greatest watershed in Minato's and Kushina's lives. They witness the life they created flourish and find themselves in awe over their little wonder.

The day is nearly done, and dusk encroaches. Late rays of light leave the room in a dull glow, outside Konoha still prevails with activity. The day is nearly done but the night is beginning.

At the low table Minato sits, three prong kunai lay before him, and he attaches the seals he's carefully written on fuin paper.

The Hiraishin is perhaps his greatest jutsu, from scrap paper with musings written on space time jutsu, to actual configurations brought to life, and a jutsu like no other brought to fruition.

The Rasengan is a work in progress. He grimaces, but this is complete, this is his genius in fuinjutsu captured.

What prompted him to complete the Hiraishin is his own family, Minato is already an A-ranked ninja in the bingo books. If his family is ever attacked by his enemies, he wants to be prepared. And being able to appear wherever there is a danger to them is a great start.

After he attaches the seals, he begins to sharpen and polish the blades.

His senses flare, and the roaring flame of chakra that is his daughter appears. Naruto approaches the table, a book under one arm, dressed that ridiculous sleeping cap that Jiraiya bought her and her pajamas.

Minato knows Kushina isn't home, volunteering her services as a fuinjutsu master at the hospital, present while high risk operations take place—using stabling, heart monitoring, and medical seals.

So that means Naruto must have dressed herself. That would explain the bright orange pajama set that are absolute eyesores. At twenty-six months Naruto's proven to be quite the independent.

Naruto touches one of the kunai's handle, studies the seal briefly and then loses interest. Choosing to climb onto Minato's lap and present him with the book.

Minato checks the clock, and laughs wryly, "Bed time already?"

"Hai," Naruto replies and holds the book for him to take.

"I completely forgot to check the time," Minato admits sheepishly, taking the book from Naruto. Its title says "Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi." He should have known, Naruto always chooses the book of her namesake.

"'s okay Tou-chan," Naruto lisps, "Ka-chan says it's cause you're flaky, but then again Ka-chan has anger problems."

Minato shakes his head in amusement, and then flips open the well-worn novel to where they left off.

Reading takes longer than usual, on every page Naruto traces each kanji and repeats the words after he's read them. Minato pauses and listens as Naruto murmurs, and reads the next sentence without his assistance.

He lets her continue until the page needs to be turned, and then Naruto looks up at him curiously, "Why'd yah stop reading?"

"You were doing fine by yourself," Minato says truthfully.

"Tou-chan," Naruto lisps exasperatedly, "during story time you have to read."

Minato supposes that's sound logic to a two year old, and chuckles in response, "Okay Naruto-chan."

And he continues where she left off.

Outwardly he's calm, and yet internally his thoughts are racing.

Amongst those thoughts, Minato wonders if Kushina knows that Naruto can read.

If not, they need to schedule an appointment with the ANBU that's Naruto's pediatric medic, and have a scan done of her brain to see how it's developing.

In the meantime he would check her seal once she fell asleep. It wouldn't do if the seal presented anomalies now; he prayed the Kyuubi had no influence on Naruto's steadily rising intellect.

Kushina snickers.

Naruto giggles.

Kakashi glares.

Encased within his arms, Naruto tugs at the laconic boy's mask, and he gently swats her hand away. She tries again, and he stops her, and the pattern continues onward.

It's a game Kushina and Naruto derive great amusement from, Kakashi not so much.

Naruto begins to tug at Kakshi's hair while simultaneously trying to pull off his mask, "Off!"

The boy struggles with her and gives Kushina a helpless look, an expression many people give her due to Naruto hyperactive personality. She usually provides no help; it's too hilarious watching people struggle against a baby.

The trek to the hospital is a short one, she dragged Kakashi from training, making sure he's interacts with people other than his ninken, Minato and his teammates. Knowing Kakashi, he'd go months without human interaction as long as he's able to train and take missions. He's an ANBU in the making, and that is a circumstance she and teammates want to avoid.

With his father's seppuku, Hatake Sakumo's students took it upon themselves to look after his scion. Kushina had insisted Kakshi come and live with her and Minato, which made sense with Minato being his sensei, but of course he refused. Even Mikoto and Hizashi offered shelter and guardianship, and Kakashi refused them, preferring the apartment given to him by the Hokage.

Kushina and her teammates still interfere in his life, bringing him breakfast, lunch or dinner, doing his laundry, helping and teaching him how to clean, etcetera. They refused to let Kakashi thinks of his father's sacrifice as a disgrace. The White Fang was one of the greatest shinobi Konoha produced, and Kakashi would be one to.

Kakashi puts Naruto down and takes her hand; their short trip to hospital has now been elongated. Even though there are plenty of people willing to carry Naruto, her daughter values her autonomy and prefers to do things on her own, particularly once she's mastered a skill.

At thirty months her independence continues to grow. That doesn't stop her from taking advantage of her cuteness. She's been able to wheedle sweets from her father's genin more than once.

Kushina may froth at the mouth when they give in to those baby blues, but she's become fond of her husband's students, Naruto more so.

She and Rin have come to the understanding that Naruto will always find some way to destroy the dresses she looks so darling in. The only girly accessory Naruto will allow is a headband or bow to hold back her wild spikes.

Obito has become one of Naruto's favorite people, and a bane to Kushina's and Minato's existence. Once Naruto showed a penchant for pranks, it was downhill from there. It seems their daughter has found a kindred soul in raising hell.

"Okaa-chan," Naruto sing songs, "when we leave the doctor's can we get dango?"

"No Naruto, you had mochi earlier, no more sweets for today," Kushina replies sternly.

Naruto pouts, but jumps back quickly, "…can we get ramen instead then?"

Violet eyes flash as she stares down at her daughter. Minato's miniature levels those puppy eyes at her and Kushina is a goner, it works for her husband and it certainly works for Naruto.

"Fine," She says grudgingly, and then stalks off in defeat.

Kakashi deadpans, "Whipped."

Naruto smiles, "Works every time."

When they arrive at the hospital Kushina's whole disposition changes, a frown paints her features.

It had taken four months for Minato to convince Kushina to agree to see the medic. She refused to believe that Naruto's intelligence had anything to do with the Kyuubi. Any explanation Minato presented was soundly rejected, the strange circumstances surrounding Naruto's birth and the ensuing sealing of the biju begged the question of whether or not the fox had influence on Naruto. And Kushina refused to believe so.

Minato's sound logic has yet to stir them wrong, but Krishna's emotionality is a hindrance that is a struggle to overcome.

Fuinjutsu is Kushina's area of expertise, the seal's origins have roots in Uzu no Kuni, and as arrogant as it may sound, she knows the seal is safe proof.

Kushina sighs to herself as they are escorted to an examination room. She places Naruto on the table and turns to Kakashi, who looks at her wearily when a sly smile graces her face.

"Am I free from child herding duty?" Kakashi asks flatly.

"You would have been, but now you're not," Kushina replies happily, "Mikoto is having you over for dinner, Shisui and Obito will be present."

She cackles gleefully at the look of horror on Kakashi's face, "Minato and Hizashi are out away on missions, and I'm not providing you with an excuse. Have fun."

The silver haired preteen takes an exit through the window, muttering about evil red haired women, and there damned accomplices.

The doctor appears shortly afterward and Kushina prepares herself for the worse.

In Naruto's invalid state—Kurama's words not her own—she and the fox continued to make plans, discuss the possible outcomes of each strategy, and work out the kinks. More than once Naruto lost interest, but her enthusiasm made up for her having the attention span the size of a walnut.

And yet most of these discussions in strategizing ended up getting side tracked by petty arguments. Most over Naruto's stupidity and Kurama's need to throw about insults, however their greatest bone of contention is morality.

Kurama may have accepted Naruto for her humanity and now holds her on the same pedestal as the sage of six paths, but that does not mean he sees the rest of humanity in a different light. His standards are still ningen impossibilities, and he has no remorse in killing certain individuals.

"I refuse!" Naruto shouts.

"You are naïve!" Kurama thunders, "Kill or be killed." On a calmer note, he continues, "We came back to save your precious people, if someone gets in the way of that goal they must die. And you know whom I speak of."

Uchiha Obito, Uzumaki Nagato, the list goes on… charisma, unwavering belief, and optimism can only do so much. These people may have been dangerous pawns, but they deserved a chance at making their own choices without the manipulation of Uchiha Madara.

"I can save them, I will!" Naruto replies fervently.

"You must put aside your hero complex, and think rationally. Uchiha Madara," Kurama sneers derisively, "will die, but rest assured he will bring others down with him."

And silence descends with that ominous warning.

Naruto understands Kurama's position, but she still remains conflicted, and yet when the time comes to push the kunai into the jugular, would she?

That answer remains up in the air.