"…And that concludes tonight's update on the current status of discussions between the CEOs of Uchiha Corp and Senju Shipping." In a news studio in the city of Konoha — Japan, there was an amicable woman, whose hands were clasped professionally in front of her.
She stood on a stage, facing a number of industrial cameras, with two large LED screens flanking it. The first reflected her appearance back at her. She was in a modest, buttoned top, which strained a little holding back her sizable chest. She also had on a plain, straight skirt that modestly went down past her knees. Most eye-catching of all was the head of soft, crimson hair, which had been neatly rolled up into a bun.
The other display screen had a series of scrolling texts. Quick and barely noticeable, her lavender eyes flickered to the screen, where she saw her next lines and she paced herself, ready to say them.
The wall of electronic lights used as the backdrop was currently emitting a bright blue light, which helpfully illuminated the shapely figure of the woman from behind. Added on to her dazzling smile and porcelain skin, which seemed to emanate with youthful energy — it was hard not to think of her as a woman in her early twenties.
"That's all for tonight on KTV for this Tuesday." The woman bowed slightly, before raising back up, flashing yet another dazzling smile towards the camera, "Thank you for watching. I'm Namikaze Kushina and I'll see you all tomorrow!" The dozens of TV's in the large studios flickered as the scene transitioned to a panning shot of the city at night before the logo of KTV appeared and cutting to commercials and their pre-filmed slot for other shows.
"And we're off the air! Great job as always Kushina-san!" A young voice shouted from the back of the studio, followed by a short round of clapping from numerous spots in the dark studio from other members of crew and staff. Kushina stepped off the set's stage gingerly, her heels clacking against the tiled floors of the actual room. As she did, there were even a few wolf-whistles thrown in as well as all eyes were on her long, slender legs, which were wrapped in a tight, black stocking, which seemed to accentuate her legs to appear even longer.
"Looking good as usual, Kushina!"
"Yeah! You did amazing as always!"
"I love you!"
"Please marry me!"
The redhead brushed their comments off, repeatedly waving them off with her hand. Though she did giggle and blushed at the attention she received from the numerous men that were working on cleaning up the area, all of whom were much younger than her.
Her hands busied themselves for a few moments, fishing into the tiny pocket at the back of her skirt, and fished out a golden band that she quickly slipped it back onto her finger. It was her wedding ring, an item that she had removed for the first time in years in order to prepare for the possible upcoming changes tomorrow. KTV was getting new, higher quality cameras tomorrow and her boss had warned her that her ring may cause glare to viewers at home and blind them, hence why Kushina did her report today without it on in order to prepare in case its removal became standard practice going forward.
Kushina had only recently landed the job at KTV just a few months ago. Her husband Minato had recently passed away in a tragic accident and the young mother still missed him dearly. Aside from a few part-time jobs during her youth, Kushina didn't have much work experience. After all, she married Minato and became a mother at quite a young age and was a stay at home mom for their son.
Her husband left her a small fortune, along with his life insurance money, but Kushina didn't want to touch those yet unless she needed to. She had only spent a good amount on building the backyard pool that her husband and son had always wanted, a worthy purchase as it definitely helped lift Naruto's spirit since his father's passing. Instead Kushina opted to find a job, and in addition to providing for her family it also served to keep her distracted from her husband's recent passing.
As she stepped slightly further away, the exchange of whispered words between the men was lost on her.
"Seriously… I can't believe she's 34!"
"Wait, Kushina is 34?!" Another bit back a shout of surprise, "I just joined so I thought she was in her twenties…"
The response he received was gruff, "Yeah… She used to have a husband, some good-lookin' blond bloke, and a kid too…"
"That explains those knockers…" The first had mumbled, still staring at Kushina's large chest, which swayed and bounced with every step she took. "She must be DD-cups or something, right? What'd I'd give to suck on those…"
"Hey, don't look too long, or the others will poke your eyes out." The pair quickly returned to their tasks, terrified of the possibility that the rabid fans in their own workplace would turn on them.
If it wasn't already obvious from the way her staff spoke of her, Kushina was a popular news anchor. This was strange considering she was a novice in the job, having only worked in KTV for less than half a year. But it wasn't hard to see why she was popular given her gorgeous appearance. She had applied for the job on a whim, partly to try and fulfill her long-time dream of wanting to be on tv.
The woman continued to wave to some of her die-hard supporters, who could be found even in her own workplace. It was rather odd now that she was in this position of popularity.
Once she had been an old housewife. Now, she had turned into a minor celebrity with a few thousand fans online, both in Konoha and in the larger sphere of Japan as a whole. Her social media platforms had gone from 'friends' in the double digits to 'followers' in the quadruplets nearly overnight. In fact, she was close to reaching nearly 35,000 followers on Instagram. Indeed, a minor celebrity, but a celebrity nonetheless!
Ever since they had gotten her to replace their elderly male anchor, KTV views had skyrocketed considerably. And the company was more than happy to promote her. Besides the usual types of advertising, they had taken full-body, life-sized photos of her and turned them into adverts as well. Each advert was in its own cute and mischievous poses. These adverts had been planted around the city of Konoha, and it was a trend for people to take and post selfies with the Kushinadverts (as they were endearingly called by fans) and tag both the station and Kushina herself for a chance to win a lucky prize.
There were multiple fan-groups sprouting online, whole communities of a few dozens to even in the hundreds of fans, dedicated entirely to her and her appearances on KTV. There was even a fan-group dedicated to moments where she had bent over a little, and the camera could see a bit more cleavage than she normally showed or even one for the rare occasion where she wore a skirt with a larger slit on the side.
There were several more 'extreme' fans who had done rather rude and naughty things to the cutouts. Such as a number where men with masks and caps groped the Kushinadverts' breasts, or they were posing with the cutouts in sexual positions. This wave of perverted actions cast the way of the Kushinadverts had earned these mysterious, perverse fans both admiration and backlash alike.
Still, the number of 'extreme' groups like these was limited in scale. And while it had all grown to be a bit of a concerning obsession, Kushina couldn't help but feel encouraged, appreciated, and even somewhat embarrassed by her adoring fans, who clamored for her every appearance on TV.
Now that her shift was nearly over, Kushina couldn't wait to head home. She thanked a few more crew members before grabbing her coat, bag in tow, and already heading towards the door where a lone, neon-green sign hung, illuminating the exit. But before her hand could grasp the handle, she heard a man clear his throat behind her. Kushina was quick on her heels, turning to face the person in question. She was greeted by the distinct face of her boss. How could she miss him? He always had that stone-cold face with deep frown-lines etched into his brows, which already had plenty of wrinkles from aging. These features, which would have once been considered to have been handsome in his younger years, now sat under a head of spiky, brown hair, which had noticeable sprouts of silver.
Not to mention his most distinct feature was the fact that he looked completely different from everyone else, with all the additional stuff he had on. One hand was holding onto a walking-stick, and the other was heavily bandaged. He still had full control of the arm, yet Kushina had never seen the skin on that side in the time that she had known him. He also had an eyepatch covering one of his eyes, and a deep, distinct X-shaped scar on his chin.
"Ah, Danzo." Kushina politely said, bowing slightly to him. He reciprocated the act slightly. Kushina continued, joking, "You're looking as cold as ever." Danzo's face did not change.
Kushina smiled regardless and she brushed his lack of emotions off quickly. He was a quiet man, who spoke naught more words than was necessary. In fact, Kushina rarely ever saw him speak to anyone else besides her. Either way, she wasn't very afraid of him like the other staff members were, who had spread multiple rumors around about how he had ended up looking the way he did. Stories of him having been from a circus where a fire act had gone wrong to being a member of the Yakuza at one point in his life — with the scars, bandages, and his eyepatch being his 'trophies' from his golden days of fighting. Kushina knew a lot of what they said was pretty much bull. She was not the slightest bit intimidated by the elderly man in the sense that he was scary. In fact, she viewed the current man in-charge of KTV to be her personal savior.
To her, he was just her eccentric boss, who had given her a second chance in her life, to be more than just a housewife and her dream to be on TV. And for that, she would be eternally grateful. Suddenly, he tapped his cane on the floor lightly. It was a habit he had, one that he often did around the building. Apparently, those same ones spreading rumors also claimed that it was some form of 'psychological warfare' he used to 'disrupt the concentration of whoever he was speaking to', so whenever one heard the tapping, they should run. Kushina begged to differ. She felt perfectly fine.
"Kushina." His voice was hoarse, as it had always been. "May I speak to you in my office?" Though it may have been phrased like one, it was not a question.
He sounded serious. Yes, it was hard to tell, but Kushina could. He was more serious than usual. The redhead knew better than to argue against her boss. The staff gave the pair a wide berth as they walked down the middle of the dimly lit hallway, heading straight towards the boss' office.
Kushina hopped into one of the chairs that faced the chairman, who hobbled over towards the large black office chair that towered over that of his guests. A subtle bit of intimidation that worked surprisingly well when trying to close deals. Kushina remembered being intimidated herself when she had gone to sign those documents to start working with KTV.
"Let's keep this short. Our ratings and views for your time slots are good. In fact, they're better than ever…" It was true. Kushina's current time slots, even at this time of the night, brought it over twice the amount of viewers their next anchor did. "But they've been projected to be stagnant by our analysis team." Kushina's brow raised at Danzo's comment.
"Stagnant?" Kushina frowned, "Really? What do I have to do next? Juggle some balls? Swallow a sword down my throat? Put on a clown costume?" The accidental innuendos Kushina had made seemed to have been lost on her, but Danzo smirked at her words.
That… now that had sent a chill of terror down Kushina's spine.
"Well, not a clown costume." Danzo coughed, his smirk vanishing as quickly as it had come. He reached under his desk and pulled out a thin file, placing it on the table and opening it. From the file, he extracted crisp documents and slid them over to Kushina. "However, some new reviews have come in from fans and shareholders alike. And they have requested that you 'loosen up' while on camera."
Kushina plucked the papers from the desk and inspected them. Indeed, one sheet showed a projection of the stagnation of her time slots, including the estimated date of eventual decline. The other piece had several comments from both commenters and anonymous shareholders. None of the words were scathing, to say the least, but Kushina found herself oddly hurt at the words 'boring' and 'simple' that had been used numerous times in their reviews of her. She glanced up from the papers,
"And just what was recommended I do to amend this?"
"Like I said. Loosen up." Danzo scoffed, shaking his head. "I've heard talks about them considering hiring a new, younger girl to replace you once you've plateaued." The intentional emphasis on the word 'younger' was not lost on her. Kushina's eye twitched, and she felt something inside of her sting hard. Her age was a bitter pill to swallow, but she thought she had been past it since she grew popular enough.
Hearing that she could be replaced by a younger girl as a news anchor when she had worked so hard for this job… Kushina clenched her fists, crumpling the papers into small balls. She needed this job now more than ever to take care of her son. Then she noticed what she did.
She gave Danzo a chagrined smile, offering the two crushed balls to her, "Uh… Oops? Hope you didn't still need that, 'ttebane." Her tic, normally a habit she actively held back as she had done with her accent, slipped through.
Despite sitting, he still banged his cane on the floor. "—Unless you want to lose your job before you've even come close to reaching your peak, I suggest the next time you're in front of the camera… Like the responses you just read said. Show a bit more skin. Be more feminine or cutesy. Release a button or two, shorten your skirt, wear a tighter shirt." Despite having said it so calmly, each suggestion was like an order that he barked at her. With each word, Kushina felt herself sinking deeper into her chair, like a child being reprimanded by their parent.
"Don't disappoint me, Kushina. I hired you knowing full well the difficulties that came with it, trusting that you could be one of the best news anchors in Japan. Especially now that we are under new ownership we have to impress not only our viewers but the new board of directors as well. In fact, I heard one of them will be here tomorrow and they're preparing a suite for him upstairs." The elderly man waved his hand, signaling her to leave his office, "Go home. Think about what I've said."
Kushina bit her lip and picked her bag off of the floor, sullenly heading out of the elderly man's office with a sigh. She threw her coat on and slung her bag over her shoulder, feet clacking as she stepped back towards the exit. In her head, her mind was racing, furiously thinking of how she could keep her job. But then she realized that the answer had already been presented to her by Danzo. As Kushina walked towards the taxi her company had always prepared for her, the woman's head was filled with thoughts of what her boss had said…
It had taken only ten minutes for Kushina's cab to take her home. Her usual driver, a huge fan of hers, and had complimented her as he always did on the rides home. He always caught her shows with the help of the miniature TV he had on his dashboard. She thanked him and struck up a minor conversation with him before she had gotten off.
The journey up her long driveway was effortless, and as Kushina drew nearly to her front door, she slowed her pace and made sure to make as little noise as possible, all of which took a great deal of effort considering she was still in her heels.
As she cracked open her front door, the smell of a cooked meal hit her in the face, likely the reheated leftovers from yesterday. She stepped in and kept her shoes aside, before heading down the hallway. Turning the corner, she was greeted by the sight of her son, who had his head propped in his hands, trying his best not to fall asleep. Unfortunately, he wasn't doing that great of a job staying away, as his eyes were barely even open. The two plates of food that had been laid out for the two of them looked cold. It seemed as though he had been waiting for quite a while. She felt a little guilty having made him wait so long, but she figured he could wait a moment more.
As he had just started highschool, she had hoped for him to remain as obedient as he always had been. His early sleeping schedule had left him, more often than not, missing his mother's presence. Though she did try to spend as much time with him in her off days, though he seemed rather mature and understood why she was busy. Secretly, she thought that he was just proud of her, and bragged about his popular mom to his friends and classmates.
She crept back to the dining table and slithered up to her son. She cupped her hands around her mouth and placed them next to his ear.
"Naruto!" Kushina whisper-cried to her son, who jolted awake in surprise. His eyelids fluttered wildly before they opened wide.
"I'm awake! I'm totally awake!"
"I can see that." She gave him a wry smile, "I'm so sorry you had to wait on me again." The mother and son said their greetings and began to dig in. Despite being her own cooking, Kushina could still taste the love and care that had been put into reheating her dinner just the way she liked it. It wasn't often she got to have a meal ready for her when she got home and she savored every moment she got to shove another spoonful into her mouth.
"This is so good!" Kushina moaned, to which Naruto flushed slightly at.
"It's nothing much mom, it's literally just your cooking" Naruto said, chewing slightly. His heart rate had settled back down. "Gee, you really scared the crap out of me."
Kushina chortled at her son, "I gotta keep you on your toes, y'know. You're in highschool now, what if you need to protect yourself from bullies?"
Naruto scoffed light-heartedly at his mom's ridiculous idea, "I highly doubt anyone is gonna pick on me mom, I can handle myself." He said as he cutely flexed his arms above his head
Kushina laughed wholeheartedly at his response. Her son was doing his best and now that he was the man of the house he felt obligated to be strong.
As they ate, Kushina had discussed the new ownership change at her workplace and asked Naruto about how he was handling freshman year. Luckily for him, Naruto had the same group of friends since childhood and they looked out for each other….most of the time.
As the pair finished they headed to the sink together to clean the dishes before saying goodnight and heading to their respective rooms. Kushina undressed and took a nice long shower to wash away the day. She put her hair in a towel and wore a bathrobe as she stepped back out into her room and her eyes crossed the little shrine of her late husband that she had made in the corner of their room.
She sighed and let a sad smile grace her face. She missed her husband dearly but she needed to be strong for her son. Lately she had been able to avoid crying herself to sleep, the new job really did help bring her out of isolation and boost her self-confidence after being sheltered as a housewife for so many years.
Kushina's phone suddenly vibrated, breaking her out of her grief but dropping her phone in the process which rolled away towards the bottom of her bed. As she bent down to pick it up she noticed something pink sticking out from the bed skirt. She grabbed her phone first before reaching for the pink object and was shocked to see it was her old vibrator. She hadn't touched this thing since Minato passed.
Kushina wasn't necessarily a prude, but she definitely didnt own many sex toys. This pink vibrator was all she owned. Having only been with Minato all her life, she was content with his size and performance. The vibrator stood exactly 4 inches tall, just a tad longer than Minato and noticeably girthier as well. While she loved Minato, she found that masturbating with the dildo was better than sex. Minato was very gentle, and didn't last very long. Many nights she had to wait for him to fall asleep before bringing out the vibrator and having it bring her closure.
Her thoughts were interrupted by another loud vibration from her phone and she saw that she now had 2 texts from her friend Mikoto. She had known Mikoto since highschool and the two were practically sisters. She was heir to the Uchiha corp fortune and played a vital role in some of the companies recent deals and advancements. Their relationship had of course simmered down a bit since both of them got married and started their families but recently they had rekindled their friendship after Minato's passing. It also helped that Mikoto's son Sasuke was Naruto's first and likely best friend.
Mikoto had invited her out for coffee, something that became somewhat of a biweekly outing for Mikoto to check up on Kushina and see how she was faring. Kushina told Mikoto she would be there before putting her phone away at her charger. Kushina flopped down onto the bed with another sigh, the bathrobe becoming slightly undone and exposing much of her cleavage and thighs while the towel wrapped around her hair became undone and scattered her hair all over the mattress.
She craned her head up and to the left one more time to look at her husband's shrine. She spotted the vibrator near her on the mattress and reached for it as well. As if she was stuck in a trance, Kushina slowly pulled the sash holding her bathrobe closed and her modesty protected. The sash came undone and Kushina's nipples hardened as the robe slid over them to reveal them to the open air of the room. Kushina propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at her exposed crotch. She really needed to shave. MInato had never cared about how she groomed herself down there so she always kept it well grown, but nothing over the top like a bush. Now however, it was starting to resemble a small bush and Kushina knew she would have to shave soon.
She clicked the power button on the dildo and was surprised when the device did not begin to vibrate. She then remembered it had been a few months since she last used it and the batteries probably needed to be replaced. What a buzz kill.
Kushina had been reluctant to masturbate since her husband's death. Both out of depression, and because she felt like that may be considered cheating in a way. She knew it was silly, and that Minato would want her to take care of her sexual needs, but Kushina wanted to hold on a bit longer until she was sure that most of her grieving was over.
She sighed as she dropped the vibrator back down to the floor and turned over on her side, not bothering to cover up.
"Goodnight Minato…" as she drifted off to sleep.
Luckily, her door had been locked when Naruto came knocking in the morning.
"Mom, are you alright?"
Usually she was always up before him so poor Naruto always knocked on her door the few times she got up late. She stood up and noticed her state of undress and quickly re-tied her bathrobe before reaching for the door.
"I'm up sweetie, just give me a second." As she opened the door, Naruto was there waiting with a big smile on his face.
"Good morning mom! Today's a new record, even for you, we're supposed to leave in 2…what's that?" He said as he pointed at something small and pink that he noticed on her floor.
Kushina turned back and was horrified, she totally forgot about the vibrator. She hastily shut the door a bit just enough to cover up her crime.
"It's nothin sweetie, just eat your breakfast and I'll be down in a bit." Naruto just shrugged and headed back downstairs. Kushina let out a sigh of relief as she turned back to pick up the vibrator and place it into her bedside drawer. She then got ready and changed into a modest outfit much like the one she wore the previous day except different colors.
As she descended down the stairs, she saw Naruto gorging on his cereal, always so focussed on his food while eating.
"Hey!" Kushina cried as she saw her son, who was in the middle of shoveling another spoon of cereal into his mouth, "There's my baby boy!" She rushed towards him and grabbed him into a tight hug, pulling him into her chest and squeezing the life right out of him.
"Mooommmm" Naruto whined, his face pressed into the valley of her breasts, just thankful that he was at home when she had done this instead of being at school. He could not imagine how embarrassed he would've been if she had done this in front of his friends and older peers, most of whom had followed her on Ninja-gram.
In fact, Namikaze Naruto was somewhat popular in the Academy, as many of the students knew of him through the association of his surname to Konoha's very own, Namikaze Kushina.
It also helped that he would occasionally appear in her social media posts, where amongst other things, she would gush about her endearing and amazing little boy. Though these particular posts didn't earn too many likes in comparison to her usual 'Outfit of the Day' posts, or random selfies she took at work. He knew that a lot of his male peers found her to be very attractive and sexy, even his close friends who were fairly blunt about how they felt about his hottie of a mom. The topic of Namikaze Kushina was a topic that plenty of seniors seemed keen to discuss, though to what extent, Naruto didn't fully know.
"Awwww, don't be like that, Naruto…" Kushina pinched his little cheeks, nuzzling her head into his, "You know I have to fill in for your father's love for you up too now that he's gone." His giant smile, though embarrassed, was filled with love for her.
Kushina sat down and poured herself her own bowl, unaware of just how much their lives would change from this day onwards.