Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

Chapter 25: 3rd of September

The next morning Kakashi woke up to the sound of Naruto's purring. He sat up from his makeshift bed and saw Sasuke lying on Naruto's chest with a smirk on his face and his eyes closed. Kakashi decided to let it go and keep to his books as he walked to the bathroom.

When he came back however he saw Sakura lying with her head on Naruto's chest and a softly grumbling Sasuke next to them. Naruto was still fast asleep and purring. His mouth was slightly open, probably due to his sharp long canines brushing his lower lip.

Sakura began giggling a bit. "It does feel nice to lay on him when he's purring," she stated.

Kakashi was about to make (another) threesome remark, but thought twice before doing so. Perhaps now wasn't the time; well it was, but he would be nice today. He had to sleep near them for at least another night until they got back in Konoha, it would be better not to say anything. They might 'accidentally' kill him in his sleep. So he just watched where this situation would get them. (He could bring this up some other time to annoy them). Besides, looking over to Naruto, knowing him, he thought this could get interesting.

Naruto had slowly woken up because he could feel a glare aimed at him - correction, not at him but to someone close. Sasuke's glare was probably directed to the person lying on top of him. He hadn't needed to hear the giggles or take in her smell to know it was Sakura. This was the moment to make them pay for yet again making fun of his purring.

He suddenly put his arms around Sakura and cuddled her. She stiffened at his touch, turning red and immediately becoming quiet. Sasuke's glare had stopped as he took a short sharp inhale, to be replaced by a shocked expression. The shock was partly because of the action Naruto had taken but as well of the words he mumbled, still pretending to be asleep.

"Hmmm, Sa-" He inhaled a bit, making Sakura and Sasuke stiffen up even more, "Sakura-chan."

He only wished he could have seen their faces, hearing Kakashi snicker silently confirmed it was hilarious.

Sakura slowly tried to pry herself loose from Naruto's grip, but Naruto wasn't finished yet. He wanted to know how far Sasuke would let this go before he became too possessive. So Naruto reached a hand up to Sakura's hair and began to fumble with it, very much like he always did with Sasuke's hair.

Sasuke apparently couldn't handle this anymore and as he leaned forward, Naruto let Sakura go. She immediately shot up away from him and Sasuke. It was quiet for a moment and then Naruto began snickering, first softly but slowly it became a laugh as he opened his eyes and sat up.

Sasuke gave him a smack at the back of his head, looking rather pissed.

"Oh, come on, Sasuke. Don't tell me you couldn't tell it was a joke?" he asked rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head. Apparently not by the look on Sasuke's face. Naruto turned to Sakura, who looked down at her feet, hands clenching into fists. Naruto abruptly stopped purring.

"It's your own fault, you know, trying to make fun of me purring… again." He glanced from the one to the other. They looked even angrier than before.

Through a lot of experience as a prankster he knew this might be the right time to run. Before they could even blink, all Sasuke and Sakura saw was Naruto's tail disappearing around the corner and hear the bathroom door closing.

Kakashi decided this wasn't the best time to be around his students and headed outside, still chuckling.

-x-

Breakfast came and Sasuke and Sakura were still a bit pissed at Naruto, who pretended nothing was wrong. Wolfing down his thick layered ham sandwich, Takahashi looked over to him.

"How can you be so hungry, when you already ate a plate full of meat a couple of hours ago?"

Naruto shrugged and continued eating.

"So what do you want us to do today, Takahashi-san? We already brought you the items you needed from Konoha, so our mission is done. But seeing there is a storms outside, we are forced to stay here and help you a bit on the farm," Kakashi said.

Sakura looked outside. A beautiful sun was already shining high in the sky for this early a time in the morning. Kakashi obviously didn't want to disappoint the man and leave already.

"Well in that case, I could use some help with the garden, the cabbages can be cut off and the last beans plucked so the stalks can be pulled out. The vegetables also need to be watered, because it is so dry and the-"

"Me, me. I want to take care of the plants," Naruto said as he raised his hand like he was in class, knowing the answer to a question.

Sakura giggled and Naruto knew this might mean she was over her grumpiness.

"I have never even seen you once raise your hand in class," she giggled.

"So? Iruka-sensei never asked if someone would like to water the plants back then."

"True. Still, I've never seen you so interested in plants before."

"I just like watering plants, that's all."

"I remember a few weeks ago when you were drowning one," Sasuke said not even looking up.

"But I thought I had really broken something that's very important to you!" Naruto said taken aback.

"Doesn't make things up for that dead plant."

"It didn't die, I let the excess water run away. It was very healthy last time I saw it." Naruto directed an angry look to Sasuke, who smirked back.

"Alright kids let's get to work."

"Hai, Takahashi-san."

-x-

Naruto was happily watering the plants after he and Sakura had done the other garden chores; Sasuke and Kakashi had helped Takahashi in the barn. Now they sat on a bench in front of the house after finishing all the chores, watching Naruto; he was humming and his tail was happily swishing around.

"He really does look a lot like Minato-kun, doesn't he?"

"On the outside," Kakashi said, "but on the inside he is more like his mother."

"Really, what was she like?" Sakura asked.

"She had real pretty, long red hair," Naruto said, smiling.

"How could he-? Oh, the ears," Takahashi said.

"Have you ever seen your mom?" Sakura asked confused.

"Yeah, we sort of met." Naruto turned around again to the plants, looking away from them. "The same way I sort of met my dad."

"You met them? How?" Sakura was perplexed.

"My dad put some chakra of the both of them in the seal."

"Wow, must be great to have been able to meet them, even though it was once," she said softly.

"When did you see your okaa-san?" Sasuke asked, Naruto had told him about meeting his father, but had never mentioned meeting his mother. Hadn't he told him he had never met her back then?

"Yeah, well, it was after the re-sealing of the Kyuubi. I thought it had been just a dream for quite some time. Recently I became to realise it wasn't just a dream," he said with a small voice, still his back to them, not stopping with watering.

It was silent except for the watering for a while.

"So you mean she had a loud mouth as well? Minato-kun was always so calm." Takahashi grinned, trying to lighten the mood.

"She was," Kakashi nodded.

"Hm," Sasuke smiled.

"What's so funny, Sasuke-kun?"

"I can already imagine them yelling at each other."

Naruto turned around pouting. "You're mean."

"At least I never yelled at my mom."

Naruto looked back, one eyebrow raised. "Do you even hear what you just said?" He had trouble keeping his face straight. "I never yelled at my mom, though I did accuse her of being the Kyuubi." His hand was now on his chin, pensively.

"What?" Sakura said. "How could you think that?"

"I don't know, I was walking in front of the Kyuubi's cage when she was suddenly there. I thought the fox was trying to trick me. She did have very red hair," Naruto blushed a bit.

Kakashi laughed. "That sounds like something you would do."

Naruto pouted again, turning back to face the plants once more, grumbling. Sasuke laughed as well and soon Sakura and Takahashi followed.

"I haven't laughed so much in a long time. I'm really glad you came over to help me."

-x-

It was almost evening as they had stayed to talk for way to long, having forgotten the time. But it was about time they headed home. They could only stretch their delay that much.

"Goodbye, Takahashi-san."

"Sayonara!"

"See you, jiji-san!"

They turned around and headed into the dark forest.

-x-

They had picked a place to camp for the night and were sitting around a small fire. They were all silent except for Naruto, who was purring once more. Sakura and Sasuke had at first given him some glares, but after a while they had let it go.

"I still can't believe it."

Everyone looked up to Sakura.

"What?" Naruto asked. Sakura turned her head to him.

"That Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi inside his own son."

Naruto abruptly stopped purring. "Eh?"

"Why?" she asked. She looked down at her knees as her arms were folded around them.

Silence fell.

"I'm sorry, it's not my business." She turned around and lay down on the ground, covering herself with a blanket.

It was silent again. Kakashi leaned back to a tree and closed his eye. Sasuke glanced at Naruto before he lay down too.

Naruto sat there, staring at the fire and Sakura lying at the other side of it. He poked into the ash with a stick.

He sat there like this and an hour past.

"Kaa-chan was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki before me," Naruto suddenly whispered into the fire. Everything was silent except for the crackling of the fire.

"When I was born, Madara showed up and threatened to kill me. My dad saved me, but instead Madara took my mom with him to extract the fox, because of the weakness of the seal during birth." Naruto didn't know why he was telling this, or why he was whispering. He just did.

"She survived the extraction and Madara send Kyuubi to attack the village." He fiddled with his tail and thought of what Kushina had told him about what had happened that day.

"Yondaime somehow was able to lure the fox away and performed the Dead Demon Seal. He sealed half of Kyuubi's chakra into himself." Naruto heard the silent breathing of the three shinobi around him. "Kaa-chan didn't agree at first when he told her he would seal the fox inside me. But he told her how important it is to protect the village and the country. That we all are a family of shinobi." He was surprised how calm he was while telling this. Perhaps because he knew they were awake, but did not move. Because they kept 'pretending' to be asleep, so he could pretend they were. Because he actually felt good to tell someone. Because in some strange way it felt like he was thanking them for everything they had done for him.

"That he did it for me."

Naruto heard Sakura's breathing hitch. When he looked up a bit he saw she was still lying still. He couldn't see her face because of the blanket. He didn't hear anything coming from Sasuke or Kakashi, but he knew they were listening.

"They died protecting me. Because they loved me."

He didn't say another thing and sat still for a long time. Then he just turned around, pulled his blanket over him and closed his eyes. He smiled as he drifted off.

-oXo-

A/N: Mhuhahahaa, I'm looking forward to what you will think of the next chapter...