Author Note: N/A
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
-Chapter VI-
About ten months after the three youngsters left the village, Kushina and Minato are becoming more and more concerned. They have not heard any news about the children and Suna has been increasing its pressure on Konoha regarding the location of Gaara. Minato has been delaying the inevitable by stating that the children are on a secret training mission, but he just received a message from the Kazekage demanding that he recall the children and that the Kazekage will visit the village in a week. At the moment, Minato is pacing about in his office, trying to figure out a way to avoid this political disaster. Just as he is about to give up, the entire village is enshrouded by massive waves of chakra, but the chakra waves disappear just as quickly as it appeared. Alarmed, many ninjas gather at the village gate, in the general direction where the chakra originated. What they find there are four small, cloaked figures approaching the gate. With all the attention focused on the four figures, they completely miss the three figures hidden in the shadows of the trees. When some of the ninjas finally shake out of their stupor, they find the four figures have already walked past them in the direction of the Hokage Tower. Before the ninjas can stop them, Minato appears in front of the figures and engulfs one of them in a hug.
"Welcome home children," Minato says, finally letting go of the figure.
"It's good to be home dad."
When the figures remove their cloaks, all the ninjas present are surprised to find the three children that had been mysteriously missing for the past ten months along with a silver-haired young girl they have never seen before.
"I'm glad that the four of you are back. The Kazekage is visiting in a week and he's demanding to see Gaara."
"I figured we can't keep this a secret for too long," Naruto says, "well, at least we got back in time."
"Yes, and I bet Kushina will be thrilled to know that you four are back. Speaking of which, that was quite an impressive trick."
"That was just Kyuubi-sama, Nibi-sama, and Ichibi-sama," Ginko says, "they are hidden in the shadows."
"That'll get some unwanted rumors going," Naruto says, looking back toward the ninjas still gathered at the gate.
"It would appear that way. I'm sure my father will catch wind of this display as well."
"We can use that to our advantage. Look at how strong you got after this secret training. Surely your father can't complain about the result," Naruto says.
"And I'm sure Kumo will regret giving up on me after hearing what just happened."
"You do not need to be concerned. Shinigami-sama cannot be happy that the people of Kumo sealed Nekomata-sama in you. They will feel the wrath of Shinigami-sama eventually," Ginko says.
"Let's go home. It's starting to feel weird having all these people staring at us," Naruto says.
"Yeah, you're right."
As soon as they walk through the doors, Naruto is tackled to the ground by Temari and Koyuki. It's not until Ginko practically tears the two girls away from Naruto forcefully with a low growl that the two girls acknowledge the other two former Jinchuuriki. While he doesn't show it, Gaara is fuming that his sister passed over her own brother for another boy.
"Look Minato-kun, our little boy is all grown up."
"You're right Kushina-chan. He's turning into a heart breaker."
"Mom! Dad! Don't be ridiculous."
"Minato-kun, we should invite Tsunade-baa-chan and the others over for a welcome back feast tonight."
"That's a good idea Kushina-chan. I bet they miss Naruto after not seeing him for so long."
"I'll send someone to tell them…"
"I got it mom," Naruto says, creating a Kage Bunshin and sending him off, "I'm heading back to my room, wake me up when they get here OK?"
With Temari and Koyuki's attention focused on Gaara and Yugito, they miss the fact that Ginko is following Naruto up to his room. While they heard part of the story from Gaara and Yugito, the two girls still have no idea about the handshake agreement between Naruto and Kyuubi regarding Ginko's future. Another thing they don't know is that there is a second handshake agreement, this one between Ginko and Yugito. When Temari and Koyuki ask the two Jinchuuriki to train with them, Yugito says she needs to rest up and heads upstairs, leaving Gaara with the two girls. Instead of going back to her own room, Yugito heads into Naruto's room, where Naruto is already lying in his bed trying to go to sleep and Ginko is sitting on the floor watching him. The two girls' eyes meet for a brief moment and Yugito casts a Genjutsu on Naruto, putting him to sleep immediately. Once that's done, both Ginko and Yugito jump into bed with Naruto, one lying on each side of the boy cuddling up against to him.
That night, when Kushina walks into her son's room, she can't help but smile at the scene in front of her. Naruto is still in his bed, his arms around the two girls' shoulder. The two girls are cuddled up against him, their tiny hands clutching at Naruto's shirt. It's not until Naruto turns his head toward Kushina that she realizes her son is awake.
"Now, I expected you to wait a few years before you go sleeping around with girls."
"They put me under a Genjutsu then sneaked in bed with me."
"Well if they did, how did you break out of it?"
"When my Kage Bunshin dispelled, it generated an influx of chakra that helps me break out of the illusion."
"Well, let's wake up the two girls, everyone is waiting downstairs."
"You do it. I want to see their reaction."
"You are a mean child Naruto."
Naruto winks at her mother before closing his eyes and pretends to be asleep. When Kushina goes and wakes Ginko and Yugito, Naruto can't help but smirk at how the two girls bolt upright, as evident from the sudden disappearance of the pressure from their head on his shoulders. Suddenly, Naruto lets out a soft groan, which causes the two girls to practically leap off his bed and hide behind Kushina. Reaching with his hand, Naruto pretends to rub the sleep out of his eyes and roll over on his side before slowly opening his eyes to see his mother smirking at him, silently telling him that the girls still haven't realize they are tricked. Sitting up, Naruto returns Kushina's smirk as the two girls slowly walks out of Naruto's room to clean up and get ready for dinner.
"You should've seen how red those two's face got when I woke them up," Kushina says as soon as the girls left the room.
"Oh, I can just imagine," Naruto says, applying a certain Hyuuga's blush on the girls' face in his mind.
"Well anyway, everyone's here so you should probably get ready."
By the time Naruto gets downstairs, everyone is already gathered in the living room, talking and laughing. When they see Naruto enter the room, everyone becomes quiet, save for some soft snickering from Kushina.
"Naruto's here, maybe we should start dinner," Yugito says, blushing bright red.
"Yeah, I'm really hungry," Ginko says, her face matching Yugito's.
Without even asking, Naruto already knows what they were talking about before he entered the room. Deciding to spare the two girls from further embarrassment, Naruto agrees with them and clamors for dinner to begin. As soon as everyone is seated, Tsunade reaches into her pocket and pulls out a few bottles of sake while talking to Kushina. Reaching into her weapons pouch, Tenten grabs one of her training kunai and fires it at the bottles. Before the kunai gets close enough for Tsunade to react, Naruto fires one of the unused chopsticks to intercept the kunai.
"Naruto-sama! Why did you do that! Okaa-san shouldn't be drinking!"
"Come on Tenten-chan. We're celebrating tonight. Let them have their small bit of fun," Naruto says.
"I guess Naruto-kun is right Tenten. We should let Tsunade-sama have her fun tonight. She does have tomorrow off after all, so it's not like it's going to interfere with work."
"You too Shizune-nee-chan? Oh fine. Don't expect me to help you carry her home."
Despite how righteous Tenten tries to act, she along with the rest of the children beside Naruto are the first ones to get drunk as the adults decide to let them try a small bit of sake. Naruto, having seen the adults replace the water with sake, avoid drink anything for the entire meal. By the end of the meal, Naruto is the only one awake, which leaves him with the task of taking care of everyone. Creating a mass of Kage Bunshin, he moves everyone to their respective rooms before heading back to his own where he finds Ginko sitting in his bed waiting for him.
"Naruto-sama, you're back."
"Ginko-chan? I thought you're asleep."
"I'm sure you will find that I'm as adapted at pretending to be asleep as you are Naruto-sama."
"Ah… so you knew."
"Naruto-sama, there is something I want to talk to you about," Ginko suddenly says.
"What is it Ginko-chan?"
"You are going to be attending the academy in a few months. Do you believe I should go with you in my fox form or my human form?"
"Well… I'm not sure…"
"I prefer the fox form. That way, I can be on the same team with you even if Yugito and Gaara are on the same squad."
"No matter which form you take, everyone will think something is wrong when the other form is missing."
"I can create a Bunshin of myself, but I need to stay away from the Inuzuka. They will be able to trace my scent."
"Yeah, you're right. Their nose is a big problem. If you stay in the fox form, your Bunshin can stay near Koyuki-hime and use her scent to cover yours right?"
"In a minor way, yes. I would also need your wallet."
"Why?"
"Perfumes can cover my scent as well. Even weak perfumes can daze the Inuzuka if they try to enhance their sense of smell."
"But perfumes are pretty expensive…"
"Chichi-ue will not be too happy that you are refusing to buy me things."
"Go ask my parents. I don't have any money," Naruto grumbles.
"But Naruto-sama… then it wouldn't be a gift from you…"
"Don't give me that look Ginko," Naruto says as he hears a few sniffle, "…I'll talk to my parents tomorrow."
"Arigatou Naruto-sama!"
"Well, now that you've finally gotten that off your chest…" Naruto says, "why did you let Yugito-chan sleep with us?"
"You don't like it?" Ginko says, tilting her head to the side, "chichi-ue said that all boys like to have more than one girlfriend and the more the better."
"Argh, he's as bad as Ero-Sennin," Naruto screams, "not that I'm upset with the… arrangements, I'm more concerned if you are all right with it."
"Why wouldn't I be? It's not all that uncommon for demons to have multiple mates."
"Well… if you're sure…"
"So, you're not upset?"
"No, not really."
"Naruto-sama no ecchi. You call chichi-ue a pervert but you're just as bad," Ginko says giggling, "do you wish for me to arrange for Temari-san and Koyuki-san to stay with us as well?"
"What! No! You can't just go about asking people to join like that."
"But they seemed like they want to join when Kushina-sama told everyone what happened when she woke Yugito-san and I up."
"…You're kidding right Ginko-chan?"
"No. I think they were really interested."
"That… that can't be right… they didn't show any interest in me before."
"But you changed a lot of things in this life already right Naruto-sama?"
"But… I didn't mean for it to change like that."
Yawning, Ginko climbs under the cover and cuddles against her pillow. Seeing that Naruto is still standing next to the bed, Ginko reaches out and pulls Naruto into bed with her.
"It doesn't really matter whether you intend for it to happen or not," Ginko says, "this is the way things are happening, you'll just have to deal with it."
"The question is how to deal with it."
"I'm sure you can figure something out," Ginko says, "now stop moving around and go to sleep."
By the end of the week, news of Gaara's display of power has reached the ears of the Kazekage. When the Kazekage arrives in Konoha, he immediately demands that Gaara return with him to Suna. However, Gaara only needs to bring up the name Yashamaru to gain the support of both Kankurou and Temari. When the Kazekage tries to force Gaara to return, Naruto and Yugito have to step in to prevent Gaara from using his sand to kill his own father. Seeing that he is outnumbered in Konoha, the Kazekage begrudgingly agrees to allow Gaara to enter the academy in Konoha, but he quietly vows to himself that he will take every opportunity to force Gaara back to Suna.
"Gaara's father won't let things go this easily," Naruto says when he and his father are the only ones left in the Hokage's Office, "we should keep an eye out on Suna."
"Suna is our ally…"
"And Suna is also very angry with us right now," Naruto says, cutting off his father, "just because Gaara is living in Konoha now doesn't mean that Orochimaru won't contact Suna for a joint attack when the time comes."
"Sometimes I don't know whether to call you a genius or an idiot…" Minato says, sighing.
"I'm not known as the number one unpredictable ninja for nothing."
"Well, we can't do anything about it now. I'll just ask Jiraiya-sensei to use his spy network to keep an eye out on Suna," Minato says, gathering several documents on his desk, "well, these are the papers admitting you kids to the ninja academy. I just have to figure out how to enter Ginko…"
"She and I talked about this before. She says she'll stay in her fox form through the academy. She wants to be on the same team as Gaara, Yugito-chan, and I."
"That would make things a lot easier. I don't need to come up with an excuse to cover her identity… although I should probably come up with one just in case people start asking about her human form…"
"You can just say that she's the daughter of an old acquaintance of yours that he's leaving in your hands."
"I suppose that would have to do," Minato says, "shouldn't you be playing with your friends right now?"
"I just want to think some things through that's all."
"What's the problem?"
"Remember that day when Gaara, Yugito-chan, and I came back? Mom probably told everyone what she found in my bedroom. Later that night Ginko-chan told me that Temari-chan and Koyuki-hime might feel that way as well…"
"I told Kushina-chan you'll turn into a heart breaker."
"Dad… focus on the task at hand."
"Sure son. What's the problem with having a few girlfriends?"
"What's the problem? I feel bad enough that I'm making Ginko-chan and Yugito-chan share me. I can't possibly ask more girls to do the same thing!"
"Well… there is something you should know Naruto. When I became the Hokage, the council wanted me to take multiple wives to ensure that the Namikaze line continues. Of course I was able to fight them off long enough for Kushina-chan to be pregnant so they can't keep pushing that idea on me. But Kushina-chan and I aren't getting any younger and I don't know if Kushina-chan can handle another pregnancy despite what Tsunade-baa-chan says. The council might try to push the same idea on you, especially since they consider you the hero that chased away the Kyuubi. Why not take advantage of it and take all four of them as your wives?"
"But that doesn't solve the problem of me feeling guilty about having them share me."
"Did you consider that maybe they won't care?" Minato says, "I can tell you that many of the women offering themselves to me back then didn't mind the idea of sharing one bit."
"But those four girls aren't gold diggers like those women who offered themselves to you."
"You can always sit them down and talk to them to see how they feel Naruto."
"Do you think it's easy to approach that subject? I can't just go up and ask them if they love me and do they want to share."
"All right… let me just get through these paperwork and we'll head home and talk to Kushina-chan. We can have her talk to the girls. It should be easier for her to broach the subject."
"I guess that'll have to do."
"Now that that problem is solved. I'll just have to get through these couple of piles…"
"Why don't you ever use Kage Bunshin to help you do the paperwork?"
"Kage… Bunshin…?" Minato says, stopping suddenly, "why didn't any of the Hokage think of that idea before? Argh, you'd think someone with the title 'the Professor' would be able to come up with that idea."
"Maybe he wants you to figure it out on your own and suffer on the way there like he did."
Muttering about selfish old men, Minato creates five Kage Bunshin and orders them to start working on the paperwork while he heads home with Naruto. After going through the situation with Kushina, she adds another name to the mix.
"What do you mean Tenten-chan likes me too! She's supposed to like Neji!"
"Well, she hasn't met Neji yet now has she?" Kushina says.
"But… but…"
"Too late to change that now, I'd bet she's already heads over heels in love with you," Kushina says.
"There has gotta be some way to change that right? All I wanted to do was to make Tsunade-baa-chan adopt Tenten-chan, I didn't think she would fall in love with me because of it."
"Like I said, too late to change that now. I'll have a sit down with all of them when I get the chance."
"But I don't even know how I feel about them!"
"It's not a bad thing to have that many people love you Naruto."
"But it's not fair to them that I…"
"Naruto, don't worry about it. Just let things come as they will," Minato says, "don't change how you are because you're worried how things would turn out. Remember what I told you in the office Naruto. I think that might be the best course of action."
"But I…"
"Don't worry Naruto," Kushina says, "you wouldn't believe how many love letters your father got back in the days…"
"Hey, it's not that long ago," Minato complains.
"Be quiet! I'm talking to Naruto," Kushina says, "like I was saying, your father received plenty of love letters, and I wasn't angry at him at all. I'll talk to the girls and make them understand the situation. If they can't handle it, then I'll suggest for them to back off. If they can, why don't you give it a try?"
"Fine…" Naruto says before whispering to himself, "I gotta be more careful in the future…"
"What did I tell you about letting things come naturally Naruto?" Minato says.
"What's so natural about having this many girlfriends?"
"It's good to know that Ero-Sennin hasn't corrupted you yet Naruto," Kushina says, "but Minato-kun is right. Don't let this change who you are."
"Besides, it's perfectly natural for girls to be fawning all over us Naruto. It's a curse that we Namikaze must bear."
Smiling, Kushina turns her attention on Minato. If Minato is paying attention like Naruto is, he would notice that the smile seems slightly off. Grabbing Minato by the ear, Kushina drags Minato upstairs, twisting it with every step, leaving the Hokage screaming in pain all the way back to their room.
The next day, after a particularly grueling training session with his father, Naruto stumbles back to his room only to find it completely empty. Looking back toward the door, he finds his mother leaning against the door frame smiling at him.
"What happened to my room mom?" Naruto asks sighing.
"This isn't your room dear."
"What do you mean this isn't my room?" Naruto asks again, quickly getting tired of the conversation.
"This was your room yesterday, but since Tsunade-baa-chan says that she's moving in, your father and I decide to give her this room."
"So where is my room now?"
"Down the hall, the second master bedroom."
"What am I going to do with a huge room like that?" Naruto asks, completely awaken by the news.
"Well, you are the second master of this house. Beside, you'll find enough use for it soon enough," Kushina says, "now why don't you go take a shower and get changed like your father. I'll call the two of you downstairs when dinner's ready."
"All right mom," Naruto says, walking past Kushina and down the hall.
"And I expect you to help Tsunade-baa-chan move her things over tomorrow," Kushina says, calling after her son.
"Fine…" Naruto says, walking into his room.
The first thing Naruto notices when he enters his new room is the absurdly large bed sitting against the wall opposite of the door. Then he notices the numerous closets lining the walls off to his left. Thinking nothing of it, he picks up the fresh change of clothes on his bed and heads to the private bathroom in his room. Half an hour later, Kushina is standing outside the bathroom pounding on the door.
"What are you doing in there! Hurry up, dinner's ready!"
"All right, all right," Naruto says, opening the door, "I've never seen a private bath as large as that. I bet I can swim in it."
"For now you can. It's really only designed to fit two adults comfortably…" Kushina says, "remind me to get a bigger one for you later."
Looking at his mother in confusion, Naruto quietly follows his mother downstairs, where all the other occupants of the house is sitting around the dinner table waiting patiently for the last member to arrive. As punishment for making everyone wait, Kushina makes Naruto stay behind after dinner to wash the dishes. Even after feeling refreshed from the bath, Naruto is completely drained by the time he drags himself upstairs. After stumbling in and out of his old room, he opens the door to his new room, takes a look inside, before going back to the hallway to check if he's in the right room.
"What's wrong Naruto-sama?" Ginko asks from inside the room.
"What are you girls doing here?"
"This is our room… at least, Kushina-sama says so," Yugito says.
"And after our talk with Kushina-sama, I think she's right," Temari says.
"Why don't you come in and join us," Koyuki says, walking up behind Naruto and wrapping her arms around his waist, "I think there is going to be another person moving into this room tomorrow."
Pushing Naruto into the room, Koyuki kicks the door close before shoving him into bed. With a squeal, the girls all jump into bed with Naruto and fight for the spots next to Naruto so they can cuddle against him. Sighing, Naruto waits until the girls finally calm down before trying to go to sleep.
Additional Author's Note: Leave a note if you like the story.