I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to post yesterday! D: I wanted to make sure that this chapter was as perfect as I could get it, so I had to go back and look over it quite a bit, stop, think on it, start again, replace some stuff, etc. On the plus side, this is the longest chapter so far. :D

Like I said before, I'm really really hope you guys aren't here looking for a simple cut-and-dry story favoring a specific pairing like The Blind Tigress, because you will be disappointed. I'm sorry again if things like this aren't your cup of tea, but I do hope you enjoy my writing nonetheless.

A review I got! This:

"This story kind of breaks the laws of time travel so far. I mean if youre going by back to the future laws then the only way things could have changed is if someone physically went back in time and changed the future, and even then the people from the original reality would still exist in their own parallel time line where they exist, things would just be different from that point on so someone living in that future wouldnt experience fading ala marty mcfly. That only happened cause he was the result of a future that wasnt going to happen living in a timeline where he doesnt exist."

Rest assured, I've thought ahead on this. It's not a perfect formula, and I'm certain there are some logical bugs here and there, just like there are in any plot involving time travel, but I do have a way of explaining away the expected inherent paradoxes of this timey-wimey ball I've rolled up here. Kisaki will be explaining it in a later chapter, and I do hope it's sufficient and not too confusing or eye-rolly. :P

I do respond to reviews occasionally. So long as they aren't asking directly for spoilers toward the end of the story, I'll try to respond as best as I can to reviews that I feel deserve a response, like the one above.

Anyway, enjoy!

"I'm guessing it was your father's idea to rhyme your name with itself?"

Kisaki rolls her eyes and brings a hand to her face. "Don't remind me… My sister and I haven't lived it down yet, and we never will."

"Well, what's your sister's name?"

"Yokodaki…"

"…Yokodaki Uzumaki?"

"Hey, don't laugh!"

She'd stayed there for most of the day, only leaving the room quickly to eat lunch in the hospital cafeteria before returning, and she'd gotten up for another quick dinner when she heard Kisaki stirring in her bed and trying to open her eyes. Sakura, in the anticipation that had been building since the moment she was left alone there in the room, completely forgot that she was hungry, talking with her straight into the late evening.

She rubs her eyes and tries to settle herself down and keep from laughing anymore, even though she could see that Kisaki, too, was fighting off a smirk. "That just sounds like something Naruto would do. Where was I during this? And… will you suddenly have a different name if I decide right this moment to not let Naruto have any say in naming our children? Do you have different memories right now of me telling you about how you came back in time…?"

Kisaki shakes her head. "My continuity will remain as it is if I'm successful. The way that time works is weirder than some might think. I know you're confused, and you'd really like to know what I've done and how this is possible, how there's no ramifications or paradoxes that could result. I'd really like to explain it. But I hate doing things over… I don't want to have to explain it to you, and then to Fa- to Naruto later. I'd rather just have you both present when I talk about it."

Sakura nods in understanding and opens her mouth to ask another question, but Kisaki continues. "I will say, though… even though I clearly take more after you, if there's one good thing I inherited from my father, it's his stubbornness… and his inability to resign to fate."

A very serious look crosses over Kisaki's eyes for a moment before she shakes her head. "Anything else you'd like to know?"

"Everything, really," Sakura says with a shrug of her shoulder. "I'm trying just to take this a step at a time."

"You're going to ask me questions all night?"

"Well… not just random questions. Things that will help me know you better. How well was I involved in raising you?"

"Oh, jeez…" Kisaki mutters, chuckling. "You're going to be a strict mother, and our house is going to be the loudest in the Village if things go anything like they've gone for me so far. You didn't have to yell at me too much. I like to think I got in line pretty quickly. Yoko, though…"

"She takes more after her father, then."

"Definitely. She's not a bad child, really. She's just… hyperactive. And she loves to annoy you. Her day's not complete unless you yell at her at least once."

Sakura opens her mouth again, but closes it and remains silent for a few long moments to stew over these words. To stew over the thought of this life. This life that deep down, she knows she wants. She looks at Kisaki and smiles, and the girl gives her the same smile right back.

"With Father being incredibly busy, you're essentially the center of our lives in my time. I feel just as close to him as I do to who you are as my mother, but you've always been there. This might not mean a thing to you, and you might already be too far gone. My fate might be inevitable. But I'd be damned if I didn't try everything I could to save the life that I love, the people I love, that are in danger of being worse than forgotten. Mother… Will you promise to try and save me?"

An immediate 'yes' was on the tip of Sakura's tongue, and her lips go so far as to begin to form the word. Before she can give her determination a voice, her face comes to mind: Hinata. Hinata, who's done no wrong, no sins on her shoulders, the picture of innocence, who clearly deserves Naruto far more than she herself does. How is she going to steal her possible future husband from one of her greatest friends in the world?

"…Kisaki, I have to ask," Sakura says, and the young time traveler suddenly looks worried. "Where does Hinata fit into your time?"

"She's the head of her clan, and she and Hanabi, who co-leads, are held as the two strongest Hyuga who ever lived. Hanabi developed the Death Spear Palm, a technique that destroys every chakra point in the body and obliterates the chakra pathway system, causing immediate total organ failure. It can't be blocked, only avoided. Hinata developed the Heaven's Palm Guard technique, which is the ultimate defense and the only known jutsu that can block-"

"N-No, no. I mean in relation to Naruto," Sakura says, shaking her head. Kisaki blinks.

"Oh. Well, they're still friends and really close to each other. Naruto just didn't marry her. He married you." She frowns. "You're worried about hurting Hinata's feelings, aren't you?"

"She's not going to just give Naruto to me."

"That's why you have to take him. We have to take him. Hinata will be fine. She'll live life and move on. But she's not in danger of vanishing."

Kisaki leans over her bed and reaches into one of the drawers of her bedside table, pulling out the folded pants she arrived in this time wearing. Biting her lip and closing her eyes as she digs around the pocket, she smiles as she's finally able to retrieve a small, square object made of a curious metal. She hands it to Sakura.

"Squeeze it in your fist until it glows. Then open it. Just look at it."

Blinking at the curious device, Sakura does as instructed, and when an odd white light seems to come from her fist, she quickly opens it, peering down at the image before her. The device itself was amazing, as the four corners of the device pulled away from each other, and a flow of unusual chakra between these four corners formed a square that floated slightly above Sakura's hand. It was a picture. A photograph that was stored in the form of chakra and sealed into a little machine. Most amazing of all was what it depicted.

There were her and Naruto, nineteen years older. Over a typical shinobi attire and flak jacket, he wore a black coat with orange flames along the coattail, the Uzumaki symbol over one breast of the coat, and an orange number '7' on his right sleeve. Her own bust has grown considerably, rivaling Tsunade's, and she had returned to simpler attire, a red qipao dress and pink pants. Her hair was still only shoulder-length, and worn back, keeping her large forehead and the Reverse Seal in full view.

Between them was the girl laying in bed before her, her parents' hands on her shoulders. She has a reserved smile on her face, but the happiness in her eyes is too clear. And sitting on Naruto's shoulders and wearing his Hokage mantle was another girl, no older than seven, with one hand raised high in the air and the other pointing a fist toward the camera, her messy pink hair all over the place, her bright blue eyes as wide as they could be, and her mouth wide open in an energetic smile.

"That's the family I have," Kisaki says softly. "That's the family you could have. Is that what you want, Sakura?"

Sakura is silent for a very long moment as she stares longingly at the image in her hands. She opens her mouth to speak, but only a sob comes out, and she bites her lip. Tearing up and trembling slightly, she nods her head.

Kisaki grins. "Then that's the family we're going to get, and you better believe it."

She extends her pinky to Sakura, who smiles brighter, tears falling from her eyes as she gently curls fingers with her daughter.

OoOoOoO

It was a rocky start, but the day was saved, and Hinata was glad to enjoy it with Naruto and her sister. While the snow had not packed quite well enough for a snowball fight yet, they had enough fun as it was just laughing and throwing snow at each other, walking around and seeing the village in a new light under the fresh blanket of snow, and before warming themselves up with lunch at Ichiraku with ramen and zenzai.

After walking Hanabi home, the two of them were finally alone, and Hinata can only recall the warm smirk on Naruto's face, fleeting images of quickly-running feet in the snow, and the sound of the door closing behind them before she's gently pinned against the door to Naruto's home and caught in another deep kiss, much like this morning. Her mind rushes away from her, and she moves all on her own, reflex guiding her to wrap her arms around his shoulders and hold her close to him, able to feel the desire on his lips, and just the slightest bit of uncertainty as well.

Hinata brushes this aside. It must be her imagination, surely. She closes her eyes and savors the feeling with a gentle sigh as he takes a small step back, pulling his gloves off, then hers as well. His trembling, sore fingers tugs the zipper of her coat down with an aching slowness, letting her shrug it away and hang it nearby. As he does the same with his own coat, she slides herself out of her wet boots, her feet aching just as much in the new, slightly warmer presence of Naruto's home.

"Can you tell me what happened this morning?" Hinata asks softly as Naruto returns to cup her hips under the fluff of her long, warm sweater.

"Well, the short version is, I went to go find Sakura so she could use a Detox Jutsu on me," he explains as he keeps her against the door, settling his face close to her neck. "I kind of almost threw up… I didn't want to risk being sick and getting you sick, too."

"W-When can I hear the long version?"

"Nnh… I'll tell you later. I don't want to stop…" he mutters, gently kissing the mark on her neck where he bit her in his passions those few short days ago… She would open her mouth to insist, but she doesn't want to stop, either. She goes quiet and lets him tug her along down the short hall beside his steps and sit her down with him on a nice little loveseat in his living room.

Hinata sighs shakily with budding excitement, pleasantly surprised that Naruto was so eager and energetic in this way so soon after last night. Her arms rise as he pulls her sweater and her underlying bra up over her breasts without removing them, trailing his kisses down to her chest and leaning into her at the same time, to lay her down on the couch and loom over her as his mouth and his hands busy themselves against her tender breasts.

Her sighs turn into moans, the only sound in the quaint, quiet house, and she thinks herself louder than she really is. She looks down into Naruto's eyes and flushes brightly at his brief look of amusement before his kisses trail hastily down her bare stomach, ending just under her naval.

"Turn over," he tells her as he rises back to his knees, and she nods in understanding, shifting on the couch until she's on her belly and rising to face away from Naruto, hands braced on the arm of the couch as she bends over. Her pants slide down to the middle of her thigh, and the gusset of her panties is pulled aside to expose her ready body. Hinata looks back and watches him tug down his thick pants and undergarments enough to fish his thickness free and line himself up with her.

There's a long moment of curious stillness before he finally takes her, and Hinata sighs as that familiar presence and that familiar pleasure fill her body. Somewhere in her mind between now and when he merely tugged her garbs up instead of removing them completely, Hinata wasn't quite sure how to feel about doing this with pretty much all of their clothes still on. Being completely bare made her feel as if she was more connected with Naruto. But in retrospect, after being in the cold for hours, the warmth of her clothes around her was a welcome sensation, as well, and as good as it still feels, and as close as she still feels to him, she forgets all about her fleeting concerns.

Time flies in the throes of passion, and evening quickly turns to dusk. But even as the night air seeks to chill their tempers, the warmth of their clothes and their desire shields them well. Hinata's face is nearly muffled into the couch cushion beneath her as she rests on the brink of exhaustion, moaning tiredly with as much strength as she can still spare after hitting a string of relentless peaks, while Naruto's focused face stares longingly at the back of her neck as he feels himself reaching his one and only.

He's moments away, and he feels it. But his lips twitch as something in his mind compels him. He closes his eyes and pulls out, gritting his teeth as he paints the curve of her lower back this time, instead of the warm home which had welcomed his seed twice before now. Naruto falls back against the other couch arm and pants right along with her, closing his eyes as the shield of warmth around them begins to fade only slightly with the dissipation of their concluded passions. Hinata looks back at Naruto after several long moments of recovery.

"Naruto… Is something the matter?"

"Huh? No," he says, wiping his forehead and raising a brow at her.

"You'd tell me if there was, right?"

"Of course I would."

Hinata blinks slowly and smiles, nodding before pulling her sweater and bra fully over her head, and her leggings and panties down off her ankles.

"Um…" she mutters coyly as she climbs off the couch, feebly covering her front with her sweater and giving Naruto a curious look. "Where's your shower?"

"Oh, it's upstairs, all the way down."

"You have unscented soap, right?"

"Uh, I should."

Hinata nods quickly, moving toward Naruto and bending down to kiss him softly on the forehead before moving off toward the steps with the rest of her clothes in hand. Naruto watches her until she leaves his sight, and begins to think…

Steamy~ Thanks again for reading, guys. I don't think I'll be getting another chapter up tonight, but you never know! If I don't manage to, I'll definitely try to get one up at about the same time tomorrow afternoon, if not a little bit later. Stay tuned!

~M.H.C~

May all your

Hearts beat with

Calamity!

Till next time!