The week Naruto spent without Izumi was the hardest to endure in the past year and a bit outside of Konoha. Being without Izumi's constant presence was almost unbearable. While he knew he was very fond of his sensei it wasn't until she left that Naruto really understood how attached he was to her. She was someone he never thought he would meet, a person who understood and lived the life he had, one of constant isolation and emotional neglect. To top it off she actually wanted to spend time with him, no one in Konoha actually encouraged him visiting except for Tsunade and Shizune. While his wind elemental training went well he just felt restless without Izumi and her calm aura surrounding him, making him feel secure and sure of himself. The constant feelings of self-doubt and insecurity that hounded him in his childhood began to spring back up, he felt weak. After the second day he asked Fukusaku-Sama if he could begin learning the kata to frog kumite. While told the style was more than halved in effectiveness when used without the application of Senjutsu chakra, the elder toad agrees to let him learn the style as both a head start for once he becomes a sage and to have a more primarily offensive and defensive based taijutsu style to work alongside the reaction based interceptor style of the Uchiha. For the rest of the week Naruto would be summoned to Mount Myoboku for three hours a day to learn his new style of taijutsu along his familiar Gamakichi. His Wind elemental training had progressed much faster than either he or Izumi expected, being able to cut a leaf in half on the third day and splitting the river two days later. After completing this feat he decided to work on his wind chakra skills in a more creative way, by cutting the spiral design he saw on jonin uniforms onto the leaf, during his trip with Ero-Sennin one of the few things he was taught was about the Uzumaki clan. From their relation to the Senju, to their destruction in the Second shinobi war, to his affectionately coined 'Baa-Chan' actually being a quarter Uzumaki, meaning he was actually related to the woman. Learning this bit of knowledge was what honestly drove the largest wedge between Naruto and his perverted master. If Jiraiya knew all of this Uzumaki history then he had to have known of the Uzumaki's in the village before the Kyuubi attack, his first solid link to who his parents may be. Before the lesson on Uzumaki history he honestly thought Uzumaki was a name the Sandaime made up for him, like Namikaze was made for the man he had grown up looking up to but had a muddled outlook on after learning of the sealing done on him and the resentment pointed towards him that directly followed the momentous event, The Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze. He understood that the Uzumaki were not a Konoha clan but if they had such close relations to the Senju, one of the founding clans of Konoha, that one married Hashirama Senju why wasn't the clan mentioned even once in all of the academy lectures and textbooks? Was his generation purposely hidden away from the knowledge of his clan so he would grow up thinking of himself as a lowly orphan who only had the hokage and Konoha as a whole to thank, cherish, and protect for his life? Naruto honestly didn't want to dive too far down that rabbit hole because in all actuality he did love Konoha and the Sandaime and didn't want his view to be shrouded in such a negative light. What did he have if he didn't have Konoha? No, Naruto would take being happy and ignorant over informed and miserable on most subjects, his parents and the knowledge of the Kyuubi being sealed inside himself being the only exceptions he could think of.

When Izumi finally returned after nine days had passed Naruto was overwhelmed with relief, Izumi was late by two days and he was scared she was caught by the patrolling ANBU. As soon as she noticed Naruto she ran up to him and gave him a large hug, laying her head on his shoulder. She retreated after a fairly long time and breathlessly started reporting her findings.

"I'm sorry I'm late Naruto-Kun but once I got your blood tested in Konoha I needed to retest it twice before going to where your parents lived and taking anything that could be useful to you!"

"Slow down Izumi-Chan, let's just start out with who you think my parents are and why you're so excited."

"No Naruto not who I think your parents are but who I know your parents are! I started off with an assumption that your mother was a woman named Kushina Uzumaki, my mother's best friend. She hadn't visited the Uchiha compound to see my mother in over a year before the Kyuubi attacked and my mother got the confirmation from the hokage that she was dead. Apparently she disappeared because she got married to you father, disappeared from the public eye and got pregnant with you. She was an S-ranked kunoichi nicknamed both the 'Red Death' and the 'Red-Hot Habanero' and also lovingly called the 'Tomato-Baka' by my mother. What surprised me is that according to my mother Kushina had never been in a romantic relationship throughout her life in Konoha, but once I found out who your father was I understood why she kept it so secret that she didn't even tell her best friend. Naruto-Kun, your father is Minato Namikaze, Yondaime Hokage of Konoha. I know this is a lot to hear so please tell me what you're feeling, we can talk it over for the rest of today and tomorrow morning we can go over your training and what I brought back for you."

Naruto just stared at her, his face as still as a pond on a windless night. His own father sealed the Kyuubi inside of him? While his current relationship wasn't as negative as it was when they met before the Chunin exams it was still far from good. His own father doomed him to a life as a human sacrifice? His own father encouraged the Sandaime to tell the entire village about the sealing and damning him in the process? His father was the reason he couldn't buy his own food until he learned the henge? His father was the one who forced him into having so little meaningful relationships that he could count them on two hands with fingers to spare? How the hell is he supposed to feel? Leaning forward he wraps his arms around Izumi and whispers in her ear in a cracked, hoarse voice:

"Please tell me whatever you can remember about my mother or what your own mother has told you about her, I don't even want to think about the Yondaime at the moment, my thoughts surrounding him are too jumbled up to bother talking about."

Izumi just nodded and began to talk in a soft, gentle voice about the many stories she had about the excitable, tomboyish, slightly immature, but exceedingly beautiful and inspirational woman that was Kushina Uzumaki. After a while she saw the slight shine of tears threatening to fall out of the blonde's eyes. She slowly laid his head down on her lap, pet his hair, and solemnly sat there supporting Naruto as he began to weep. The sounds of his sobs soon got drowned out by Her soft murmurs of support that danced in the air as the distraught shinobi slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep, utterly exhausted by his emotional turmoil.

Naruto awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and the harsh glow of the dawn sunlight in his eyes. Realizing he had slept outside he looked around and noticed that he fell asleep with his head still in Izumi's lap as she leaned against a tree. As he slowly sat up Izumi's eyes snapped open due to the sudden loss of the weight on her thighs.

"Good morning Naruto-Kun, how are you feeling now?"

Looking up at her angelic face framed in the glow of the early morning sun, surrounded by the picturesque forest behind the Uchiha stronghold Naruto was baffled by her flawlessness. He could finally understand why the Uchiha were sometimes seen as the children of the sun goddess Amaterasu because if the perfect woman above him wasn't a product of a goddess boasting about her perception of beauty Naruto honestly couldn't imagine how a being as amazing as Izumi Uchiha could exist.

"Beautiful." He whispers, just loud enough for Izumi to hear him and blush. Regaining his wits he comes to a realization, if he doesn't act fast Izumi would no doubt eventually move on and leave him.

"I'm feeling much better Izumi-Chan, although that is all thanks to you. Without you I would have been a mess for days after learning of my parents, not just for one embarrassing night. Izumi-Chan I have something I need to say, and before I do I need you to promise me something. Do you promise that after hearing what I say you and I will still share a bond of friendship? I could care less about stuff like you training me but I need you in my life someway Izumi-Chan, do you promise me? No matter what you feel after I've said my piece will you still try to keep our friendship?"

After seeing Izumi hesitantly nod her head Naruto takes a deep breath, What would come next would be the biggest challenge he has faced so far, fighting Zabuza and Haku on the Great Naruto Bridge? No problem. Orochimaru in the chunin exams? He wasn't killed so no biggie. Facing gaara and a fully released Shukaku? He yawned just remembering when faced with what he was about to do.

"Izumi-Hime I'm in love with you. After a week or two with you I developed a crush on you but over the past two months of spending hours with you just getting to know you the attraction I've nurtured towards you has grown and grown until it's the last thing I think about when I sleep, the first thing I think when I awake, and keeps me constantly distracted while I train. You're beautiful, no woman compares to you. People all around the Elemental Nations parade around saying women like Koyuki Kazehana or Tsunade Senju are the epitome of beauty and the most attractive woman they've seen. I'm just thankful that you're bingo book entrance is under your 'Itachi' persona so I'm the only man to have been blessed enough to gaze in wonder at your mystifying beauty. From the minute I saw you I was enamoured, you caught me under your spell and I've never been so thankful to blindly love a woman. While we both know you're attractive what made me fall in love with you is who Izumi Uchiha is. You're a woman who has been forced into such a little box, 'Itachi', the Uchiha prodigy whose like hasn't been seen since the days of Madara and Izuna. You were told to be one single thing when you are so much more, from a stunted childhood you have grown to be an inspiration to me. You're empathy for others is unheard of, your love you have for your mother and little brother, the care you've shown me in only two short months of friendship and training. Izumi you're my entire world, nothing compares to you. No one has sacrificed more than you. You were forced to sacrifice both your childhood and your womanhood to become the pride of the Uchiha and you did it because you were asked. You sacrificed a happy life in the village so we could gain an insight into the crazed schemes of Madara. I hate to ask you to sacrifice more but I must ask, will you sacrifice once more and date me, someone so far below you that it's embarrassing to ask?"

Izumi froze, this long, weighty confession was coming out of left-field for her. She knew Naruto valued both her and their friendship but she had no idea the depth of how much he cared. This innocent, kind, and wonderful young man thought the world and beyond of her and how should she respond? Without uttering a word she gripped his shoulders and brought him to her in a passionate liplock. Dropping Naruto she could see the confusion, the hope, but most of all the love for her in his deep blue eyes.

"Baka, I don't deserve such a huge speech, I'm just a confused woman who has found out someone is the dark world is willing to brighten it with his love for me. Will you help me Naruto, I don't know my way around romantic love, I've never felt anything like this before and I can honestly say I'm scared. I love you too but I have no clue how to show it. I'm willing to try and start a relationship if you are."

The two young lovers locked eyes, pure love and adulation showing between them, as they slowly leaned forward to connect their lips each with relief visible on their faces, as they had finally connected with the one they loved.