A/N: Hello readers~

Here's the next chapter as promised, although a little later than I wanted. I was waiting for some reviews to actually show up for me on the sight, because for some reason I never got e-mail notifications, but the number of reviews for the story over-all had gone up even though all the chapters remained the same. This chapter is a little bit shorter, and a little bit fluffy if you ask me… but it was a lot of fun to write.

Hope you all enjoy it~


Chapter V: Crush


Jaw set in a firm line, the sunshine blonde shinobi came to a careful stop. Unsurprisingly Jiraiya noticed immediately and waved the other two genin to a halt as well. His onyx eyes met his pupils blue ones questioningly. Minato held his sensei's gaze for a moment, before he turned his full attention to the child he'd been carrying on his back. Her grasp had slackened on his shoulders, telling him the toddler was unconscious.

As carefully as he could he shifted the toddlers slight weight into his arms, and then balanced her on his left him so he could feel for a temperature. He felt the tension rush out of him when her skin felt normal. She was just tired. He wished he could let her continue sleeping.

"Makiko-chan," he called lightly, not wanting to raise his voice too much. He tried shaking the girl's shoulder when she did not respond to her name, and when that still didn't wake her, he called to her just a little louder. "Makiko-chan, wake up."

The little toddler let out a soft whine as she stirred, her eyes blinking open and her lips pulling into a clearly grumpy frown. "Makiko-chan… I need you to stay awake and hold on tight," he told the girl in what he hoped was a soft and soothing voice. She screwed up her eyes and practically glared at him for a moment, but then her expression slackened, and she gave him a slight nod. He smiled at her, and shifted her back once more. He waited until he felt her grip tighten, and then nodded to his team who had been silently watching the exchange.

Tree branches shook slightly as the shinobi bounded through them on their way to their next destination.


"Sensei," a boy's voice whined, "why are we in such a hurry?" As he said this he came to a stop, as if he was going to stubbornly refuse to go any further because he just didn't get why they were suddenly rushing. "We have until noon tomorrow, don't we?" His small chest was heaving from exertion, and his drab brown, messy hair was slick with sweat.

She said at the boys petulant attitude. He wasn't really much of a teammate, at least to her. Nor was the other boy. Both of them usually just ignored her or were afraid of her. The rest of the time the shot snide remarks her way, or mumbled amongst themselves about how 'woman were scary violent'.

Looking forward to see how their sensei was going to react, she only needed to look at the ashen face of that other teammate (baby faced boy with cropped black hair) to know that their sensei was not at all pleased.

Low blonde pig-tails whipped around with the motion of their owner turning. Brown eyes were narrowed, but lips turned upward in s a smile. "Who's the leader of this squad again, Isamu-chan?"

The winded boys face paled, and he sputtered out a nearly incoherent "Sensei."

"Hmm, what was that?" the Jounin inquired, smile still in place. She was absolutely terrorizing the boy.

"Tsunade-sama!" said boy practically yelped.

And just like that the woman's smile turned genuine, and she nodded in satisfaction at the response. "So then, If I decide we should get there by noon Today, that's what we're going to do, isn't it?"

"Yes Sensei!" both boys answered immediately. Tsunade's gaze leveled on her when she did not respond. Unlike the boys, she didn't back down, her dark blue eyes unwavering in the face of her sensei's gaze. "Kushina-chan." The woman spoke her name expectantly.

"Sensei," Kushina began, keeping as much emotion out of her voice as she could, though the look on the woman's face told her Tsunade could tell she was annoyed. "Did something happen to the team we're relieving, ttebane?"

Not that she cared. It had that absolute sissy blonde who watched her sometimes, and two other drab boys. But the team's sensei was Tsunade's old Teammate and important to the woman somehow (though she swore Tsunade -sensei always seemed annoyed with him), and she really liked the authoritative blonde. It was nice to see a Kunoichi who wouldn't take any shit from the chauvinistic male Shinobi.

For just a moment Kushina caught a frown on Tsunade's face, before it was replaced with a look of irritation. "Nothing much. They found… something." The words seemed dismissive, along with the shrug the Jounin gave, but Kushina didn't believe that for a moment. "Now get your little asses moving!"

And that was the end of the conversation. Kushina was not a big enough idiot not to recognize that. She quickly was on the move, leaving the boys sputtering behind her before they leapt after in near panic.

Really, boys were such babies.


"Finally!"

A light thump behind him signified that the speaker of the word had slumped down on the ground in relief. There was a second moments later, and he knew it was the other genin aside from his Fa- his Brother.

That was going to take some getting used to.

He tugged insistently on Jiraiya's flak vest with one of his bandages hands. "Crusty," he called out petulantly, screwing his face up into a scowl. Because he was a toddler and a toddler would whine and be petulant about his discomfort, right? The bandages on his hands and feet really needed to be changed. Of course he really needed a change of clothes too, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon unfortunately. If they'd had anything for the two toddlers to change into, they would have changed them already.

Jiraiya effortlessly swung him about in front of him, before sitting him down on a rock. "Alright Masato. You just sit tight right there for now." The white haired man instructed, patting him lightly on the top of his head.

Masato tried to swat the hand away, but it was already gone. His cheeks puffed out in a pout, and he whined out "Crusty!" again. Purely for effect. Yup.

And then his eyes were riveted on his brother who was walking over with Makiko. "I know it's uncomfortable," he was saying, as he sat Makiko down beside him. "We'll get rid of the crusties soon, I promise. Just hang tight for a bit, okay?"

Masato started to nod, still looking completely petulant, until it occured to him he shouldn't know 'uncomfortable'. He grimaced (and hoped the look made him look confused.) "Uh - Un.. Crumf… uncumftable?" He attempted to mangle his saying of the word… did it sound strange? Was that how a toddler would stumble over it? He had no idea…

"It icky!" Makiko suddenly piped up from beside him.

Minato blinked, and then gave a sort of sheepish smile. "Uncomfortable… sort of means Icky. It means something doesn't feel good." he attempted to explain.

"Icky better!" Makiko insisted, and Masato found himself inwardly wondering what she was playing at. But the look on Minato's face… well, she seemed to have a bit of a better idea of how to play a toddler than he did?

"Okay… I know it's icky. We'll fix it soon," Minato acquiesced, clearly not wanting to deal with a temper tantrum of some sort. But to Masato's surprise, rather than sitting there and 'behaving', Makiko kept pushing.

"Stinky too!" she huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at Minato, and Jiraiya who had been watching the exchange with a barely perceptible smile. This prompted the man to look up at the sky, a calculating expression, and Minato to look… well, just short of aghast.

"Uh…. we don't have anything to change you into," he was saying, and Masato really thought he was on the verge of panicking. Makiko was glaring at him, a full pout on and her little arms crossing, repeating the word 'stinky' a touch louder. Minato seemed completely at a loss on how to deal with this near temper tantrum.

"Actually," Jiraiya spoke up suddenly, drawing all eyes to him (even the two genin who had been flopped down on their backs until now). "We should have time to give them a bath in the stream and wash their clothes." The man stated matter of factly.

Minato frowned at this however. "But sensei… we don't have anything to put them in while their clothes dry," he pointed out. "they could catch a cold…"

Masato's head was moving back and forth between his now brother, and once mentor. Jiraiya simply shrugged with a "We can just wrap them up in our cloaks for awhile." To which Minato didn't respond, but remained looking rather troubled. Makiko didn't pipe back up in a petulant tone again, so he was left looking between the two, waiting for some sort of agreement that seemed might not come for awhile (in reality not even a minute of silence had passed yet)

The water of a stream would be really cold… but to be clean again! Well… cleaner, anyway. That would be amazing, honestly. It had been what, a week since they'd last got a bath? Longer maybe?

"Clean!" he found himself shouting out, and he nearly shrunk back as all eyes focused on him immediately. Instead he tried taking a page out of Makiko's book. "Icky bad! Clean!" He screwed up his eyes again, and crossed his arms, cheeks puffed out again in a pout.

"Clean! Clean!" Makiko repeated insistently.

Their brother pursed his lips for a moment, and then his expression broke, a sigh slipping passed his lips. "Alright. Lets get you two clean," the boy relented.

Masato reached out towards him immediately with a "Minato-nii." Then he felt the little hand of Maki on his shoulder, her face now in a confused frown rather than a petulant one.

"Mi-nato-nii?" she said the name and honorific questioningly, and he immediately realized his mistake. Or rather, his and Minato's mistake. Neither of them had told her that Minato was their older brother all through the day (although to his credit, Masato hadn't realized that Minato hadn't told her before, while he was out).

Minato seemed unfazed however, and with surprising ease he lifted them both up, one on either hip. "You're Ka-san was also mine, Makik-chan" he explained simply as he balanced the two. Masato clutched at his shirt, as the sensation of being carried still sometimes was a bit off putting. He'd rather use his own feet… but he had no footwear and they had already taken quite the beating. "So that makes me you're older brother."

"Masa-nii older brofer," the girl stated, and now Masato was wondering if somehow it was really a toddler mind in control of her words right now. Was Makiko not as in control as he was?

"You can have more than one older brother," Minato explained with a slight smile, even as he started walking towards the sound of a burbling stream. Makiko was silent for a time, and then burried her face into Minato's shoulder. He was just able to make out the two words she murmured.

"Okay, Nii-san."


Older brother…

That was honestly not the relation to Minato she'd been expecting. Of course, she hadn't had time or the presence of mind to wonder about it when she'd first seen him. She'd been more concerned with Masato. Today though, while she rode on his back, she had spent a little time pondering it. She hadn't really thought Haruku was old enough to have a child of Minato's age which she'd put in the range of ten to twelve since she remembered her mother saying he'd been small for his age until into his teens. And while Haruka's hair had definetely been graying, she thought her look of age was more stress induced than actual age.

She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about having two older brothers in this new life. She'd lived her first essentially wishing she had an older brother, and thus deciding rather selfishly to view her male conterpart as one. And now she had him as her real older brother… well, assumed real older brother. They'd never actually found out which was truly the older twin, but since Haruka never corrected her when she called him 'nii', they'd silently agreed to just go with that.

She also had the man she once knew as her father as her eight years older brother. She'd never gotten to know him as her father, but thinking of him as her brother now was strange to say the least.

But an uncle who was only eight, nine, or ten years older than you would get kind of annoying wouldn't it? A cousin would kind of just be like an older brother if he was all the family you had left, and eight years older wasn't that bad. It was the kind of age gap of a real older sibling who would look out for you and take care of you. At least that's how she saw it.

But again, this man… boy, was her father in her orginal world. It wasn't so easy to look past that. Still, she should just be happy they were still closely related, shouldn't she? That she would get a taste of what being a family was like? Even if that family didn't have parents… it was still loads better than how she grew up the first time, wasn't it?

Yes it was. It had to be.

That decided, she pulled her face out of Minato's shoulder and turned it towards the sound of water. Her blue eyes fixed on the happily gurgling stream that was their destination. The water looked cold.

She shivered.


A sigh of relief escaped the genin's mouth as he tucked his sleeping bag around the now sleeping toddlers. Trying to bathe two toddlers in a stream, without someone else to help was hard to put it lightly. The two decided to try and have a water fight, and for awhile there it was all he could do to keep them from toddling out into water that was too deep for them. It took him nearly fifteen minutes to get them to sit still after they started, so he could finish washing their hair with the little soap he had (shinobi didn't often have time to clean on missions like this, but they usually brought a small amount of unscented soap with them just in case the chance arose.)

Undressing them and getting them clean had given him a glimpse of just how hard life must have been for them so far. Heartbreakingly he'd been able to count each of their ribs, and even the joints of their spines. Yet this entire time neither of them had complained of being hungry. They were so used to going without food it seemed, that it was honestly a miracle they'd showed so much energy in the water.

He had to protect them. Give them a better life.

"Sensei," he called over his shoulder, his voice only just loud enough for the Jounin to hear him. He didn't want to wake up the two slumbering toddlers after all. "It was you're idea to give them a bath, you could have helped." Was he pouting? Damn… he totally was right now. He schooled his face immediately, hoping Jiraiya hadn't caught his lip being jut out.

If the man did, he didn't mention it. He just laughed at him.

"You're their brother, Minato," the white haired shinobi stated simply, as if that obviously made it his job.

Minato wanted to sigh, but forced it back when there was some rustling in the bushes nearby. His eyes snapped that way, but he immediately relaxed when he saw it was just Kenta and Inoru returning from the stream with the damp clothes the two toddlers had been wearing. They were grumbling about having to wash them, but still hung them by the smokeless fire their sensei had lit while they'd all be busy at the stream.

"Anyway, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato continued, eyes moving back to the jounin. "What do you make of this?" he asked, his head gesturing to the two twins. Jiraiya frowned, and stood from where he'd been lounging, walking over to see what his sunshine-blonde pupil was on about. "Their hair," he added, pointing towards the mismatched patch of hair that sat to the left of Masato's brow.

Both twins had messily chopped, shoulder length hair (and the stuff was terribly unruly) in a mainly sunshine blonde like his own. Both also had a patch of hair that stood out from the rest that more or less framed the left side of their little face. That was were the similarity stopped however. Masato's patch of hair was darker. A medium brown that stood out starkly from the rest of his hair. He'd almost missed Makiko's at first, but now clean and reflecting the sunlight, it too was an unmistakably different colour from the rest of her hair. A pure white.

Jiraiya squated next to the sleeping barely-toddlers, and gently pushed the hair to the side at Masato's scalp, before doing the same with the small girl. "Birthmarks," he said simply. "Their scalps are miscoloured in relation to the hair."

Minata allowed himself to sigh this time. "Sensei… their in the same spot… what are the chances of twins having two identically placed birthmarks."

"Two?"

Oh… right… he hadn't gotten that far yet. "On their stomach's, the right side. It starts at their hip kind of like a curved gash, and ends in something more akin to a puncture… there's even a roundish mark on their backs that matches up." As if they'd been impaled by a sword that was then twisted in the wound. That's what it had made him think of immediately when he'd seen it on Makiko, the light colour making him think it was a scar. But the skin was smooth, and the darker mark on Masato definitely wasn't the right colour to be a scar.

Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment, but then shrugged dismissively (much to Minato's displeasure). "I wouldn't worry about it kid. Birthmarks have never hurt anyone."

"Right…" the boy muttered, completely unconvinced that there was nothing there. No meaning behind these nearly identical birthmarks that his two little siblings shared.

"Alright Minato, go find some food," Jiraiya's next words caused him to start. Food?

"We've got ration bars, sensei…" he reminded the Jounin… and then realized it was kind of foolish to do so. There was no way Jiraiya didn't know that.

"You really think they've got strong enough teeth to eat em?" was the man's response, and Minato went from feeling foolish to completely chagrined.

"Right," he muttered again, and getting to his feet quickly. He needed something that could be mashed up for them to eat, probably…

Minato was finally beginning to realize how much work it was going to be to take care of a pair of toddlers. Could he handle it?

He didn't really have choice did he? He had to.


Tsunade ignored the pleas for a break that the two boys in her little squad had started to make over the last thirty minutes(seriously, what was old man Hiruzen thinking giving her a genin squad with two whiny boys... giving her a trio of genin at all seemed senseless enough.) Honestly, she had reservations about kids their age being made shinobi (she wasn't really one to talk when she'd become a shinobi at six), but considering there was an impending war…

They were also almost to their destination, which meant if she pushed them a little further then she could finally have peace and quiet from their winging. At least Kushina was silent, and easily keeping pace. The Uzumaki girl was a firey one, that was for sure. And had boundless energy. But she brought her own fair share of troubles to the team (Tsunade was hoping they'd all reach chunin soon so she could be rid of the boys at least.) First was the fact that being firey meant she had quite the temper (not unlike her own). She terrorized the two boys more than Tsunade herself. However, there was also the concern that enemy nin would target the girl, seeing as she was an Uzumaki, her bright red hair all but giving that fact away.

And why had Konoha taken in an Uzumaki following the destruction of Uzushiogakure? It wasn't purely because the two villages got along so well, she knew (although others might not make the connections she did.). Her Grandmother was nearing the end of her life… the Uzumaki brat would be her replacement as Jinchuriki. Though she knew this, She didn't tell Hiruzen she was aware… the old man probably already knew. Since he made no mention of it, Tsunade decided the best course of action was to keep the knowledge to herself.

Kushina, who was already at odds with the majority of the male population around her age, did not need the added stigma the Kyuubi would bring her if the population at large knew what Tsunade did. Though, after that week of Kushina being utterly unbearable to be around, Tsunade had a feeling the girl knew what her future held; She also believed the red-head had yet to come fully to terms with it. Another good reason to keep her knowledge about it to herself, at least for now.

Really, the girl on her team was causing her more stress than the two infantile boys combined.

And then there was the fact that not one of them was interested in iryou-ninjutsu.

Really, what had Hiruzen been thinking?

Tsunade almost sighed, but instead yanked herself out of her internal reverie when she caught the sounds of grumbling boys. It wasn't from behind her however, but ahead. With a finally leap she passed through the cover of foliage and touched down in a clearing. Eyes immediately pinpointing the the two grumbling boys (who were now utterly silent). She didn't spare them more than that glance, instead moving her attention to the white haired man who sat beside a smokeless fire, and the sleeping bag that was next to him.

Her genin landed behind her, casting their gazes about the clearing, and then freezing completely when they saw two sunshine blonde heads poking out of the sleeping bag. Honestly, Tsunade was a little bit surprised herself for a split second. Sure, she'd read Jiraiya's message, but she'd half expected it to be some sort of a prank.

With the two little heads squarely fixed in her vision, the blonde made a b-line for Jiraiya. "Where's the Namikaze brat?"

Jiraiya, who hadn't even looked up when she arrived, finally lifted his head, only to find her eyes weren't even on him. "Gone to look for something we can feed the mini-namikaze Brats."

Tsunade nearly stopped where she was, eyes snapping to Jiraiya. Mini-namikaze brats? Certainly, Jiraiya had to be brief with his words when he'd sent the toad to her (and one back to Konoha she assumed), but the fact that the two toddlers they'd found were related to Minato was important. Certianly she'd know there had to be some reason as to why Jiraiya had decided to bring a pair of toddlers he found along with him, but she hadn't expected it to be a relation between Minato and them. She figured it simply had to do with the deceased missing Konoha nin that was mentioned.

"The nin?"

"Haruka," The man responded, leaving of the last name, perhaps to not some how trouble the three genin who were still standing there, trying to figure out what was going on. Tsunade however, quickly made several connections from the name. Namikaze Haruka, Minato's mother, and it seemed, the mother of the two toddlers.

Her gaze returned to the sleeping bag, as she knelt on the ground beside it. Their hair was just slightly damp she noted, before her attention moved to the discoloured strands. Strange. She filed it away for later perusal, and instead carefully pealed back the sleeping bag, only to find their slight bodies were wrapped up further in konoha issue travelling cloaks. "How old?" she asked, slipping easily into medic mode as she went about unwrapping the sleeping toddlers so she could better examine them.

"Twenty-three months," her former teammate responded, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him waving an arm at her genin, likely gesturing for them to come take a seat.

Not quite two years? After her initial look, she'd guessed younger but at least half a year. But after she finished unwrapping the boy, the reason for that became clear. He was borderline emaciated. He was shivering now as the air touched his exposed skin, but he remained sleeping. Which didn't surprise her… he hardly had a single ounce of fat on his bones throughout his entire body. She'd, sadly, seen children in a worse state, but not one so young.

Her gaze momentarily moved away from the boy to her genin, who had moved over to sit on the other side of the fire. The boys… were uselessly sprawled out on the grass. "Kushina-chan."

"Yes Sensei?" the girl immediately responded. Tsunade turned her eyes back to what she was doing, her attention now on the boys bandaged hands.

"Help the Namikaze brat in finding some food. Berries, and something a little less sweet to mash them with." She didn't need to look to know the girl was already on her feet again, although the reply she gave sounded just slightly annoyed. She put that to the girl finding Minato annoying (although in a different way to other boys). Satisfied with what she'd gleaned so far, she wrapped the boy back up since it would be bad if he got sick from the chill. His immune system would have no strength at all given how undernourished he was.

"What happened to their hand's and feet?" she asked Jiraiya as she inspected the girl, immediately noting said appendages were also bandaged. The girl wasn't much better off than the boy, having only a little more meat on her bones than he did, but her knees also being wrapped in bandaging.

"They were on the run, barefoot," was the man's response… and it told her very little to be honest. It explained the state of their feet, but not exactly their hands, or the girls knees. She couldn't imagine they'd been on the run crawling after all. She glanced and Jiraiya sharply, expecting him to elaborate, but the man simply met her gaze.

Frowning, the woman turned back to the girl, and reached for the hand closest to her, deftly loosening and unraveling the wrapping from her tiny hand. When she'd exposed the girls palm, she found herself staring at the most unexpected thing yet. Among the scraps that littered the small palm and fingers, there was patches of raw skin from what was unmistakably chakra burns.

She nearly cursed, but realizing just why Jiriaya hadn't told her about this she bit back the swear on her lips. These to, most likely, had climbed something with the use of Chakra. While she was certain Jiraiya would be forthright with the Hokage, there were other individuals in the village that very well could take… cruel measures in reaction to this knowledge. To her, these were just two terribly neglected (and likely amazingly prodigious) toddlers. To others they'd be seen as a raw resource to be forged into superb shinobi tools, if not a down right threat, considering who their mother was.

And sure, the four genin there answered to them, but could they be trusted not to mention this to someone? Not really… they were just kids, even if they were Shinobi. It was just as likely as not that they would say something they didn't realize was bad for the toddlers, as keep their mouth shut.

Tsunade sent her gaze back to Jiraiya sharply, the man meeting it for a moment before giving her a nearly imperceptible nod. She returned it. Jiraiya had clearly decided to do what was right (though she wondered if his reasons were because it was so, or because of Minato) and would be careful with the knowledge. She would do the same.

Now with an entirely knew understanding of the situation her former teammate had found himself in, Tsunade bent back down to the child, wrapping up all but the arm she was inspecting, and then pulling out some supplies from her pouch. If she treated the chakra burns now, then a less practiced medic would hopefully mistake them as regular burns that had been healing for awhile.

It seemed that Jiraiya's knack for getting into bizzare and tight situations was rubbing off on Namikaze Minato.

Hopefully the blonde was better at getting out of them than his Sensei.


"There you are, Namikaze!"

The unexpected, feminine voice almost caused Minato to jump. He whirled around, his body tensing… until he saw a head of gorgeous red hair. Oh shit.

Kushina.

"Ku - Uh - Uzumaki-san!" He sputtered out, completely at a loss now. In fact, it was a bit amazing he'd managed not to drop the berries he'd gathered so far. The girl was marching towards him, her own arms cradling various scavenge-ables as well.

"Show me what you've got, ttebane!" she barked at him, but didn't wait for any sort of response, leaning over to look at what he had. What did he do!? She was way to close! Before he was able to try and figure anything out, the girl had straightened with a sigh, and gave him what he thought was a disapproving look. What had he done wrong? He immediately averted his eyes. Was he blushing? Damn… he was wasn't he.

"Just berries…. you suck, ttebane," the girl stated simply, and then he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye that he figured was her shrugging. "Oh well, I got enough other stuff. This should do I think… Tsunade-sensei mentioned once that eating to much after starving for a long time will a person sick, ttebane."

Did she know that her 'ttebane's' were adorable?

"Earth to the Sissy!" Kushina nearly shouted. His eyes refocused and snapped to her. She was clearly glaring at him now. "Lets get back, ttebane."

Feeling a little bewildered, the boy followed after her. She talked on and on (much to his surprise, as he'd never seen her talk that much to any of their classmates in the academy). Her words were riddled with the occasional ttebane, and he felt like his cheeks were nearly on fire with the adorableness of it, coupled with her breathtaking red hair, and just being in her presence this long. He'd never been this close to her before had he?

As another ttebane fell past her lips, Minato decided that no, she had no idea how adorable it was.


Word Count: 5218


To the Reviewers:

PriceTage: Thank you~ I certainly will.

Skylark Sky : Oh goodness… how would one work out their heart I wonder. Well I'm glad your health is improving. Thanks for taking the time to review~ I'm definitely going to keep at this ;)

Aggronaist : Thank you~ I hope this chapter met your expectations

KaixDecayx : Thank you for you're kind words, and your time reviewing~ It's going to be an interesting ride.

Thanks for the reviews~