CHAPTER 29 Family Matters
It had been a day since Pains attack and Naruto along with Sakura, Jiraiya and recently resurrected Minato and Kushina stood in front of Tsunade's desk in a large tent that was acting as their headquarters since the Hokage building was destroyed in the attack.
"Well you can understand this is a… unique situation." Tsunade said looking at Minato
"Yes it's not everyday someone gets brought back from the dead." Minato replied
"Yes however it seemed a lot of people did that yesterday." Tsunade sighed looking over at Shizune. "But they were only dead for a short time and you have been gone for sixteen years. On top of that everyone knows you were dead."
"Yes very touchy indeed." Minato replied "However we shouldn't keep this information from the people of the village."
"Agreed but not now." Tsunade replied
"Yeah keeping information from people is never a bad idea." Naruto replies sarcastically
"I'm missing something?" Minato said looking at Naruto in confusion
"About sixteen years there pops." Naruto replied
"Well I'm sorry we were dead." Kushina shot back
"Yeah, and I would have shed a tear for you if I had known you were my parents." Naruto said getting a shocked look from the pair
"What?" both of them asked in shock
"Old man third never told anyone about who my parents were, as well as kept it from the villagers." Naruto replied
"Well he thought it would keep you safe from the fourth's enemies in the rock" Tsunade replied
"Yeah and that turned out just great now didn't it, ya old hag." Naruto replied as Tsunade got a tick mark above her eye.
"Don't talk to your Kage like that." Kushina scolded Naruto who just cocked an eye brow at her, as Minato got a better look at Naruto as he realized something.
"She isn't your Kage is she?" Minato stated more than asked as Kushina got a look of shock on her face.
"Kurama always said you were the smarter one of the pair." Naruto said point at Minato
"Kurama?" Kushina asked
"Geez sealed in you for over twenty years and you never bothered learning his name? That hurts." Naruto sighed
"Damn straight it hurt, pinned down by massive pointy rocks on each limb and don't even get me started on those damn chains." Kurama said with a shiver
"Wait you mean?" Kushina asked
"Maybe it's time for story time." Naruto replied with a smart ass smirk. "Let me tell you the tail of a little boy who was beaten daily and hunted down each year for reasons he did not know. Then when he thought he was doing something good he was run out of town for it." At this Sakura dropped her head a bit "And the only one who was honest with you gave a shit was a damn demon."
"The village treated you like that how could they?" Kushina asked in shock and anger
"Well, all they knew was I had the fox sealed inside me so they thought I was him." Naruto replied
"I'll destroy them for treating my baby like that." Kushina said as he hair began to flow up like tails "And I will crush the one who caused you to be run out of the village." At this Sakura got a look of fear.
"Don't worry about that I've dealt with that already." Naruto replied with a grin
"Any way since you're not a leaf ninja what are you?" Minato asked
"I'm a freelance mercenary, bounty hunter." Naruto said with a smirk getting a shocked look from Kushina.
"Any way you three can have your little family reunion somewhere other than my office." Tsunade cut in. "We need to figure out what to do about the rest of the Akatsuki."
"Right." Naruto said "I've already sent messages to the cloud, sand, and mist about having a meeting on how to deal with this."
"Are you sure they will meet?" Minato asked
"The should I'm a good friend of all of their leaders, as a mercenary I have connections all over the place, and I asked the land of Iron to host this meeting." Naruto said
"So you have mist, cloud, sand, and leaf, almost all of the great nations." Minato said
"Yes even the waterfall, I asked cloud to send a message to hidden rock but they will most likely only attend if all the other ones do. They don't really like me over there." Naruto replied "I wonder why that is?" he said looking over at Minato who just smiled and put his hand behind his head. "Any way I told them to bring their jinchuriki, well the ones that remain any way."
"And how many remain?" Minato asked
"From what Akatsuki's real leader told me they have the one, three, four and five." Naruto replied
"That is quite a few, almost half." Minato said
"What do you mean real leader?" Tsunade asked "I thought Pain was their leader?"
"No merely a puppet being controlled by the shadows." Naruto replied "Their real leader is the one called Tobi and claims to be Madara Uchiha." At this everyone in the room got a look of shock
"That isn't possible." Tsunade said "my grandfather defeated him long ago."
"I know, it wasn't him the fox confirmed that." Naruto said "He also confirmed he was someone else that has done wrong by this village."
"How so?" Minato asked
"He has a mask with a single sharingan eye." Naruto said getting Minato and Kushina to look at him in shock "sound familiar?"
"Yes he is the one who ripped the fox out of while I was giving birth to you." Kushina stated
"Yes the fox also confirmed he was the one who used him to attack the village that day." Naruto said as five foxes appeared in front of him in puffs of smoke.
"Lord Naruto we have finished our mission." The older looking grew fox said
"Good what do you have to report?" Naruto replied
"The sand, cloud, mist, and waterfall have all agreed to the meeting, and the land of iron has agreed to host it." The fox said
"Thank you Mako, and the stone village?" Naruto asked
"As you requested the Raikage has sent a messenger to them." Mako said
"Good." Naruto said as he pulled out a can of Tuna slices and tossed it to the older fox. "share it evenly among those who were involved."
"Yes sir." Mako said as he caught it in his mouth and they all disappeared
"Good the meeting is good to go." Naruto said as he looked out the window and saw the window and saw the sun beginning to set "wow we have really been here that long?" he sighed
"Well when will this meeting take place?" Tsunade asked pointing out he left out that little detail
"Oh right." Naruto said with a chuckle "one week at the capital of the land of Iron, and you can bring two escorts."
"Very well four day's travel. So we will leave in three days." Tsunade said out loud to herself. "I think I'll bring Kiba, and Hinata." Getting Naruto to get a look of annoyance on his face
"Why not us?" Kushina asked annoyed
"Because we don't want people knowing your alive yet." Tsunade replied "And before you say anything, you old pervert I need you here to help maintain order and make sure everything stays on schedule." She said as Jiraiya was caught with his mouth open ready to say something but stopped just before he was going to saw it.
"But why them?" Naruto groaned
"Because I know bringing Hinata will annoy you, and Kiba is her teammate and really the only one that is willing to work with her." Tsunade replied with a smirk
"And they call the fox evil." Naruto sighed as he turned around and was about to head out of the tent but was grabbed by the should by his father.
"Can we talk a bit?" Minato asked
"Guess there is no avoiding it." Naruto sighed "But I think this is more of a private conversation. But I don't think the hotel survived the attack."
"Oh I think I have a place." Minato said with a smile "From the reports I've seen the old Namikaze compound on the outskirts of the village wasn't damaged by the attack."
"How did you read the report?" Tsunade asked
"Oh I read it on your desk I'm kind of a speed reader." Minato said "more than one reason I was called the yellow flash"
"I don't want to hear about yours and mom's love life." Naruto said with a shiver
"Oh no I definitely did not call him that in…" Kushina said with a perverted smirk but was cut off
"Nannanana. No no I said I didn't want to hear about that." Naruto said waving his hands in the air.
"Well any way I have a seal at the place can you sense it." Minato asked
"Yep." Naruto said
"Well I'll let you guys catch up." Sakura said as she started to head to the door but felt two hands on her shoulders stop her.
"Oh no you don't." Kushina said as she pulled her back into the room
"What?" Sakura asked confused
"You are Naruto's girlfriend, as his mother I want to hear everything from you." Kushina said with a grin that said she wasn't giving her a choice. "While they are talking we can have a girl to girl talk, and you can give me all the details."
"Well ah ok." Sakura said with a bit of fear not wanting to upset this demonic aura that was radiating off of the red head.
"Great." Kushina said as they went back to the center of the room.
"I'll meet you there." Minato said as he walked up and put a hand on Kushina's shoulder as a look of shock went across the woman's face.
"Wait we're going that way, can't we just w…" she blubbered as they disappeared in a flash of yellow.
"Well can't let them get there without us." Naruto smirked as he put a hand on Sakura's shoulder as a look of realization went over her face.
"No wait." She got out as they disappeared in a flash of light as well.
The group appeared in the living room of a very nice but dusty main house. Once Sakura and Naruto appeared Sakura staggered over to a the wall to support herself. They looked over and saw Kushina was doing the same thing.
"Damn't Naruto kun give me a little better warning next time." Sakura said as she steadied herself "I'll never get used to that."
"You're right, you never do." Kushina said as she righted herself.
"Well can we talk." Minato said as he sat down on the couch and gestured to the lounge chair, and Naruto walked over and sat down in the chair.
"Well what do you want to know?" Naruto replied
"About what has transpired in the past sixteen years." Minato said
"Tell you now it ain't pretty, and doesn't cast this village in the greatest of lights." Naruto said
"Well I'll go talk with her in the other room, if I listen to this I'll probably go on a rampage and destroy what is left of the village for what they did to you." Kushina said trying to suppress her rage as she walked out of the room with Sakura who had a pleading look on her face to Naruto.
"So how bad did I fuck up by putting that thing in you?" Minato asked
"Oh so royally." Naruto said shaking his head "As I said I had pretty much daily beatings then the yearly 'demon hunt' where they would form massive hunting parties for me and beat me to within an inch of my life. I always recovered from them never knew why until I turned five."
"What happened then?" Minato asked
"Well I was rooting around a dumpster for some scraps, and avoiding the annual demon hunt. When I heard someone crying for help, I went to check it out. I found an old man trying to force himself onto a girl about my age. I was able to get him away from her and told her to run. The old man fought with me and I killed him. When I turned around I saw a group of villagers waiting for me and the little girl I saved leading them."
"That is horrible, you saved her and she betrayed you like that." Minato said
"Yeah well, she thought she was getting help for me but she didn't know they would turn on me. Since I had killed someone I figured I would be locked up so I ran away, that was when I first talked to the fox. We talked he promised to train me and tell me the truth about what happened. I then wondered for a little while then worked on a pirate ship and went to the other side of the ocean where I met a wizard's guild and stayed and trained with them for a while. I then came back over here and became a mercenary for hire. On one of my jobs for the mist I ran into a leaf team and had to work with them a bit to complete my mission, after working with them I returned to the village and recovered the family scrolls the Hokage had and left and trained with the old perv but when I learned the flying thunder god and the chains blood line limit I ditched him and after a year or so I ran back into the leaf while trying to deal with the Akatsuki. Now I have a strained relationship with them." Naruto explained
"Well you did come running to help when Pain attacked." Minato said
"Two reasons." Naruto said holding up two fingers "It was the first time I heard he left the rain village and was a good opportunity to take him down. Second is I may not like this village but I do love Sakura and this is her home so I did it for her."
"Well love does make you do some crazy things." Minato said with a smile, then his face turned down into a solemn frown "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you."
"Hey I was mad at you for a bit. But I understand you couldn't have known they would treat me that badly." Minato said
"But I knew it would be hard for you." Minato replied getting Naruto to look at him confused
"While we were kids your mother had the nine tails sealed inside of her, and people treated her differently. They would avoid her never acknowledge her or sometimes attack her." Minato replied "But once she grew up she would fight them and very viciously to so she got the name the red hot blooded habanero."
"Yes but like I said you couldn't have known that they would go that far over, or that the third would do so little to help me. Granted he did try but he failed in protecting me from them most of the time." Naruto said "So I'm not mad at you, annoyed yes. But you had to seal it in some one and you couldn't ask someone else to do something you wouldn't do yourself."
"Yeah but it just feels like I could have done more." Minato replied
"Hey I may have it hard but I like where I'm at now." Naruto said getting Minato to look up at him. "I am free not tied down to any village and can choose my own path, I'm also the first fox summoner pretty much ever and I just achieved becoming a sage. Also I'm one of the top ranked mercenaries after this fight with Pain I haven't checked yet but that probably brought me up to S-class." He said with a smirk
"Not to mention that little pink head in the other room." Minato said with a smirk
"Yeah you could say that." Naruto said with a smile
"And I feel sorry for her being questioned by Kushina chan." Minato said with a strained grin and chuckle
"Yeah I can sense her fear rising." Naruto replied getting a confused look from Minato
Meanwhile in the kitchen Sakura sat at the table across from Kushina who looked like an interrogator with a sick grin on her face.
"Ah Miss Namikaze." Sakura stuttered
"Please call me Kushina." Kushina replied "You are dating my son after all."
"We are actually mated." Sakura spat out. Without thinking
"Oh and what does that mean?" Kushina asked
"You idiot why did you say that it already looks like she wants to kill us." Inner yelled in her ear
'I don't know it just came out.' Sakura replied to herself
"Ah well since Naruto is a fox summoner he has taken on some of their qualities." Sakura stopped herself before going into detail about this with essentially her mother in-law. "In the eyes of the foxes we are married." At this Kushina looked like she got a smack to the face.
"So do you love him?" Kushina asked
"Yes I do." She said sternly getting angry she would even question it
"Good." Kushina said with a sigh as she relaxed catching Sakura off guard. "As long as you two love each other."
"Wait what just happened?" Sakura asked in confusion "It felt like you were about to rip my head off."
"Well last time I saw my Naruto he was a just a newborn, now he is almost a full grown man. I'm just upset because I wanted to watch him grow up, train with him, watch as he falls in love. But it was all taken from me. Now I see him he is a mercenary, and has a wife." Kushina said with a drooping head
"Well we aren't married yet." Sakura replied "It's just his summons sees us as mates."
"So you haven't had a wedding?" Kushina asked with held in excitement
"No." Sakura replied
"Yaya." Kushina nearly shouted in excitement. "Me and Minato had to get married in secret because of all his enemies, but now I get a chance to do one right."
"Well we haven't talked about it yet so don't go overboard." Sakura said trying to calm the red head down.
"Right sorry I just get excited easily." Kushina said calming herself down. "But anyway tell me about my son then."
"Like what?" Sakura asked
"How you met, how you fell in love. All that stuff." Kushina replied with a smile
"Well we first meet on the celebration of fourth defeating the nine tails when we were five." Sakura said
"Oh what did you two play a game together or play with each other in the firefly fields and watch the fireworks together?" Kushina asked as her imagination started to run away with her with all these romantic ways to meet someone.
"Actually the circumstances weren't so… shiny." Sakura replied as her head drooped down. "You see I got separated from my parents and an old man offered to help me find them. So I followed him down an alley where he tried to molest me."
"That is awful." Kushina gasped
"Yes but fortunately Naruto jumped in and saved me, and told me to run away." Sakura said "So I did. I found my parents when I came out of the alley and brought them to help, but by the time we got there the old man was dead and Naruto was covered in blood."
"My god." Kushina gasped in shock
"I was mortified and didn't realize my dad had gone and gotten a mob." Sakrura said as tears began to slowly drip from her eyes "Last thing I remember about that night was my mother carrying me away and his demonic eyes and his mouth saying traitor. I had no idea my parents would act that way toward him, I wanted to help him."
"No I understand you had no idea you were just a child." Kushina said in an understanding tone then an evil look went across her face. "Who are your parents?"
"Calm down," came Minato's voice as she looked up and saw him and Naruto at the door
"But they…" Kushina began but was cut off.
"And he has dealt with it, I am sure" Minato said gesturing toward Naruto. "If we keep digging up old wrongs we will never get past them and live on."
"Fine." Kushina sighed then looked at Sakura "but I would still like to know who they are."
"Ah I'm a Haruno my mother is Mebuki and my father is Kizashi Haruno." Sakura said getting a shocked look from Kushina.
"I know them." Kushina said as Minato nodded his head. "She was one of my best friends. I remember when you were born. I should have realized it with the name but you were completely bald as a baby though so I didn't realize it." Kushina said as a bit of embarrassment shot through Sakura and Naruto gave a small chuckle that received a death glare from the pinkette.
"Yeah they were really nice people I don't know why they would treat Naruto that way." Kushina said
"Well my mom only talked about the fox attack one time and when she was really drunk, she said both her and my dad's parents were killed in the attack along with her best friend." Sakura said "So I'm assuming that friend was you."
"Well a tragedy like that can change people." Minato replied
"And fear makes them change more radically than anything else." Naruto added
"But I'm still going to let her have it for treating my baby like that." Kushina replied crossing her arms sitting back in her seat.
"Well she may freak out because you haven't aged a day." Naruto replied "You're supposed to be in your forties and dead, but you are what early thirties?" Naruto asked suspiciously only to receive a punch in the back of the head.
"I'm twenty-four." Kushina yelled at him
"But you're really forty." Naruto replied
"Well yeah but…" Kushina tried to argue
"Why are you antagonizing her?" Minato whispered to Naruto
"Because Kurama said it was fun." Naruto whispered back "And he was right." He added as he watched Kushina get flustered.
"Now I have to deal with this." Minato sighed to him "I wish I could ground you." He shook his head "Now calm down Kushina chan you may be… that old but you still look like your twenty-four." Minato said as he pulled out a mirror and showed her.
"Hey are those cro…" Naruto began but was punched through the door into the living room.
"I'm sorry it's the only way to shut him up sometimes." Sakura sighed
"She's right you know." Came a new voice. "He can be an ass at times." They heard as they a black, and white foxes standing at the doorway, getting Kushina and Minato to jump back.
"Talking foxes." Kushina said pulling out a kunai.
"Calm down it's just Naruto's summons." Sakura replied "But how can you understand them."
"Me speak hu-man." Kuza replied sarcastically
"Nartuo isn't the only ass." Kira sighed "They can understand us because they had lord Kurama sealed in them at one point."
"Well fine suck all the fun out of it." Kuza snarked as Naruto walked back into the foom "How many tails do you see?"
"Oh ha ha fuck you." Naruto said as he shook his head "Gotta watch out for that right hook. But you guys finish your mission?"
"Of course." Kuza said "Even if I had to drag her around." He gestured to Kira
"Well I'm sorry if traveling by shadows is weird to me." Kira replied "I just can't get used to it."
"Preaching to the choir." both Sakura and Kushina sighed
"Well you are a light. We don't tend to get along." Kuza replied as he walked out of the room
"He has been like this since the battle." Kira sighed watching him walk out of the room
"Well you are a light." Naruto replied
"Why do you think I kept it a secret?" Kira replied "If others knew they would treat me differently, that is why I said I was a wind."
"I'm missing something?" Minato replied
"Yeah Kuza the black fox that was just in here is a shadow fox, and she is a light fox. Let's just say they haven't gotten along in the past, and they caused the last war that nearly wiped out the foxes. So they are both treated poorly." Naruto replied as he looked at his father
"Ok I get it a bit." Minato said
"Only reason my grandfather is our grand elder is because he is so old." Kira replied
"Yeah it is really bad." Naruto said "Shadows have it worse than lights, but it is still bad. I've worked with them a bit but old wounds are hard to heal."
"But why is he being such an ass to me now?" Kira asked annoyed
"Well you hid it, and had a normal life without the other foxes treating you like he was treated." Naruto said "He couldn't hide it, so he might be sore you could while he was treated the way he was."
"Well my father told me to hide it, I had no choice. Why do you think I was always in the archives?" Kira replied "I should try to talk with him." She said looking at the door he had gone out of.
"No let him be." Naruto said "He is like me and needs time alone to think thing through. I'll talk to him later."
"Very well you have known him longer than anyone." Kira sighed
"Now did you finish your other task?" Naruto asked
"Yes." Kira said as she held out a scroll with her tail and Naruto took it then laid it down on the table and it had a single signature in blood.
"Here is the fox contract." Naruto said looking at Sakura who just walked up to the table and cut her thumb and signed her name to it. Then Kira walked up and placed bloody paw under Sakura's name.
"There you're all set, and Kira here is you partner." Naruto said "However you'll only be able to summon three tails and below, other than Kira."
"Why?" Sakura asked
"Because you have to earn their respect before they will let you summon them. Three tails are still in training so they need the experience and you need it in fighting alongside them." Naruto explained
"Alright." Sakura said looking at Kira "I look forward to working with you."
"Me as well." Kira said with a smile.
"Alright, now shall we have some dinner like a normal family?" Kushina asked with a smile
"There is nothing normal about this whole situation." Naruto replied
"Shut up and don't ruin this for me." Kushina said glaring at Naruto "I've dreamt of having a family dinner like this forever." She added then looked over at Sakura and said "would you help me cook dear?"
at this both Kira and Naruto got a sick look on their faces. "NO!" they both shouted getting a shocked look from Minato and Kushina
"Sorry, I'll help with dinner." Naruto said as he pulled out a scroll that had some fresh ingredients in it.
"Yeah I can't really cook that well." Sakura replied with a weak smile.
"It's alright you can help me set the table then." Minato said as they walked to the dining room.
Later that night after dinner Naruto jumped to the roof where Kuza was sitting looking up at the stars.
"Brought you some dinner." Naruto said as he placed the bowl down inbetween them.
"Thanks." Kuza said not looking at the bowl.
"So what's the problem?" Naruto asked
"Oh like you don't know." Kuza spat
"I have an idea, but till you tell me I can only guess." Naruto replied
"Fine, she is a light." Kuza replied
"What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto asked
"Because it... it" Kuza began but couldn't find the words
"You're a shadow and your two kinds are born to hate each other?" Naruto asked
"Well no they…" Kuza tried to think of something.
"Have done nothing to you." Naruto said getting Kuza to narrow his eyes at his longtime friend. Who sighed and continued "That war was long before either of you was alive, neither of you had anything to do with it. So you treating her like this is like how the villagers treated me and how the other foxes treated you."
"Well yeah I guess." Kuza replied lowering his head.
"Now, so what if she is a light. Does that change who she is?" Naruto asked
"Well she kept it from us." Kuza replied
"Because she was scared of how we would react, if you were in her shoes you would do that same." Naruto replied "Now does this change how you feel about her?"
"No." Kuza said with a sigh. "I mean. In that I still find her annoying and a pain." He said trying not to blush
"Sure whatever you say." Naruto said with a grin as he got up "Just remember how you would tell me how obvious it was that me and Sakura were with each other. now I'm seeing it from the outside."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Kuza said
"Whatever you say." Naruto replied as he jumped off the roof.
Kuza sat on the roof for another hour eating his dinner and thinking before he jumped down and found his way to the room Naruto and Sakura where staying in. He jumped up on to the foot of the bed on Naruto's side. He then looked over and saw a white ball of fur curled up at Sakura's feet.
"He has no idea what he's talking about." Kuza mumbled to himself as he curled up into his own ball and went to sleep.
END CHAPTER 29
A/N alright sorry it's taken so long for me to come out with a new chapter but I have been busy, with school and stuff. So I've had few people asking to see what would happen with Minato and Kushina, so here it is. And since I just did the kage summit in my other fic I didn't want to do the same events over again like I did with the attack from pain. I wrote it where Naruto isn't really mad at them, just really soar about it. Also a little more with Kuza and Kira and how things are going with them, and now she is paired with Sakura who is the new summoner.
