Four
Sitting on a bench beside a bulletin board, looking haggard and a far cry from the vision of beauty she was when she was younger was Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's Mother.
Naruto was shocked to say the least.
Red, long hair neatly coiffured to reveal a long, sad face. Hooded black eyes, set narrowly within their sockets, watch cheerfully over the people they've befriended for so long.
Scars stretching from just under the right eyebrow , first running towards thin lips and ending on her right cheekbone and leaves a tormenting burden of redemption.
The is the face of Kushina Uzumaki, a once proud opportunist among humans. She stands high among others, despite her delicate frame.
There's something captivating about her, perhaps it's a feeling of anguish or perhaps it's simply a feeling of hospitality. But nonetheless, people tend to assist her, while trying to hide from her.
Naruto then took in his Mother's state of dress, it slightly depressed him.
What was once a shirt is now nothing more than dirty pieces of fabric barely held together, hanging from her shoulders like a discarded old towel.
The bottom's worn and tattered and there's a huge hole in the front, leaving much of her exposed to the elements.
She's wearing an old fleece over her shirt. It's a torn, dirty, stinking mess, but at least it helps her stay relatively dry, even if only for a little.
Her pants are in terrible shape as well. The pants are covered in small tears and covered in unknown stains. But at least she has shoes to protect her feet. Although they're broken, barely the right size and there's a hole in the right heel which lets in water and dirt.
She wears a small scarf around her neck and has it wrapped around her face to just below the eyes. It's torn and slightly stained, but otherwise in a decent shape.
Her head is covered by a bandanna, there are a few small stains here and there, but it's otherwise in a relatively great condition.
Steeling himself, Naruto walked over to Kushina and stood in front of her.
"Hello, Mother." Naruto said as impassively as possible.
Startled suddenly out of her thoughts, Kushina looked up and saw her Son, Naruto standing over her, looking at her impassively.
"Na-Naruto? I-is that y-you?" the redhead asked hoarsely. When he nodded Kushina sprang to her feet and embraced her long lost Son warmly.
"It's you, I can't believe it's really you. I'm so-." Kushina sobbed, but was shocked when Naruto shoved her away from him which shocked the redhead.
"Don't you dare touch me or act like you care about me now! You and my so-called Father abandoned me, or have you forgotten that?" he roared angrily.
"What are you doing here, s-Son?" Kushina asked, still in shock to see her one and only Son standing right in front of her.
Naruto grits his teeth and clenches his right hand into a fist tightly.
Just then, a woman with short salt and pepper gray hair ran up and got between Naruto and Kushina.
"That's enough you worthless cow, this fine gentleman doesn't have anything to give you." Veronica De Barge, the shelter's Director snaps angrily at Kushina.
"Don't speak to my Mother like that." hissed Naruto, surprising Veronica.
"E-excuse me, but did you just say that she..." Veronica said, pointing accusingly at Kushina. "Is your Mother?"
"Yes, I did." Naruto said, glaring at the older woman.
Veronica quickly turns and hurries away.
Naruto returns his gaze to his Mother, one of the people who had abandoned him, his gaze became cold and impassive, seeing this broke Kushina's heart.
"N-Naruto, I-I am so sorry, please forgive me...y-you have to understand, your F-Father and I weren't re-ready to be parents when you were born."
"You both could have made it work instead of abandoning me when I was four and a half! I had to live on the streets all that time until one night while I was rooting through a trash can for some food and some drunks chased me all over town until I made to a church where Sister Edith Killbevel and Sister Jeannine Lumpmash saved me and took me in and raised me, they taught me all about God and serving those less fortunate than ourselves."
Kushina drops her gaze as tears began flowing freely from her eyes.
Naruto felt his heart ache for his Biological Mother, the woman who birthed him and nothing more, she along with her Husband had left him on the streets destitute while they went on with lives, but now it appears that things have changed, the rolls have been reversed.
"Where's your Husband?" Naruto asked.
"H-he's in another facility in S-Star City." Kushina replied sadly.
Meanwhile...
Harley Quinn stayed true to her promise to Kitsune about reforming, once her sentence was up in Arkham and she went on probation, she got a job at a book store called The Page Sage, though she had a rough start, now the blonde former criminal is a beloved member of the staff, she's even made a few friends.
Namely Muriel Rogers and Sophie Griggs. Her Boss, Maude Baxter however constantly looks down on Harley just because of her past.
It's now Friday night and Harley, Sophie, and Muriel are out having a girls' night after work at Club Nova.
Harley, having gotten completely sober while in Arkham is the group's designated driver while Muriel and Sophie got totally trashed.
Back with Naruto and Kushina...
Naruto sits down next to his Mother on the bench, his tension and resentment has since subsided the more time he spends with the redhead.
Just then a portly man with huge pork chop sideburns and a goatee walked up to the Mother-son duo.
"Who are you trying to swindle now, Uzumaki?" Jasper Reynolds, the Owner of the building says to Kushina.
Naruto narrows his eyes at Jasper, the sleazy man gasped when he recognized Naruto and realized that he just put his foot in his mouth big time.
"Uh Mr. Uzumaki, h-how l-long have you been here?" Jasper asks nervously.
"Long enough, Mr. Reynolds, I would like to buy this building from you." Naruto says matter of factually.
Jasper scoffed and rolled his eyes, there was absolutely no way that Jasper would give this place up, he is making money hand over foot, he decided to humor Naruto.
"What are you willing to pay for this place, Mr. Uzumaki?"
"10 million dollars." Naruto answered flatly.
Jasper's jaw nearly hit the floor.
"Wh-what!" Jasper shouts, getting everyone's attention.
"Yes." the blonde replies.
"Why would you do that?" the small, round man asks.
Naruto suddenly looks at his Mother, the years of resentment and hatred slowly dissolving away and he smiled at her.
"You can't hold people hostage for what they've done to you in the past."
Kushina smiles at her Son's heartfelt words, but then frowns when she sees him stand up.
"You're leaving, Naruto?" asked the redhead.
"Don't worry, Mom. I'll be back in a few days." said the blonde, Kushina's smile brightened when she heard Naruto call her Mom.
Later that night...
Ino was so flustered, she was going on a date with Naruto tonight, their first "official." date and she wanted to absolutely blow his mind when he saw her.
She's been agonizing of two of her dresses for the past half an hour before finally deciding to wear her tight royal blue mini dress and four-inch stiletto heels.
A limousine promptly arrived at 8:00 to pick Ino up and drive her to Naruto's mansion.
When she entered the lavish home, she finds Naruto in the Sitting Room dressed in suit that closely matched her dress, he smiled and stood up when he saw her enter the room.
Naruto was so awe-struck by Ino's appearance he had to blink a few just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Hello Naruto, you look handsome tonight." Ino said.
"Uh-y-you look stunning yourself, Ino." Naruto said as he felt his mouth go dry.
"Where shall we dine this evening, Naruto?" Ino asked.
"There's a nice French restaurant about two blocks west of here, it's called le Moisson Royal, it sits right on a lake." Naruto replied.
"All right, let's go." Ino said as she takes Naruto by his left hand and walks with him to the limo, Naruto opens the door for Ino before getting into the car with her.
Half an hour later the couple have finished their meals and paid for them, Naruto and Ino are walking barefoot side by side on the by the lake.
"This was a wonderful date, Naruto." Ino said, leaning into Naruto as the couple continued walking.
Naruto blushed, suddenly-.
"Well... Look at this, a cute little couple out on a date." a gruff Male voice said.
Ino looked up, startled.
In front of the blondes stood six burly men and four women, all armed with various weapons, chains, bats, pipes, and knives.
"What do want?" Naruto asks, glaring at the lead man.
"For starters, we'll take your wallets and jewelry." the man hissed.
Ino was shocked, but Naruto just gave him a deadpan look, but with a noticeable hint of anger, stepping up in front of Ino.
"Oh look at this, Mr. Tough guy's gonna-." the Leader said, before be knocked out cold by Naruto and a hard running knee strike (V Trigger) dropping him like a ton of bricks, shocking the group.
Loud clanging is heard as the weapons all hit the ground, the gang was still speechless.
"Now, will you be on your way or...?" Naruto asks with narrowed eyes.
Two days later...
Naruto was walking down the street, heading towards Ava's tea shop, when suddenly four men armed with knives appeared in front of him.
"Oh boy, it's the rich boy who nearly offed Nico, let's teach him-."
"Now now boys, is that any way to act, I mean really? Four against one?" a woman's melodic voice was heard and then she slowly descended down in front of Naruto, like an angel. Naruto was left speechless at the goddess that is now before him.
"Wh-who are-?"
The blonde's words die in his throat as a pair of lips crash into his own, Gsptlsnz eagerly shoves her tongue into the blonde's mouth, losing herself to the ecstasy of the kiss. Naruto, who was caught off guard at first soon recovered and got into the kiss with the gorgeous redhead.
All too soon the kiss had come to an end.
"I'm Gsptlsnz handsome, hope we can do this again." she said before disappearing.
"Whoa, she's hot." Naruto says before continuing on his way.