"Helloooo Minato-kun!"

Minato jumped slightly in surprise as his office doors swung open randomly. His surprise quickly turned into happiness as he saw his beautiful wife skip her way into his office. His shoulders perked up as she came strolling over to him, still dressed in her casual long green dress that ended right above her ankles. Her beautiful red hair was perfectly smooth and combed to perfection as it bounced behind her regally. Minato smiled warmly to his wife, kissing her softly as she hovered over him in his chair.

"Kushina I didn't know you were stopping by today."

Minato said, secretly glad she was here. It was the perfect distraction that he was looking for. The past few weeks had been some of the most stressful times for him since he had become Hokage. Every day had either been spent grueling over the Akatsuki ever since Jiraiya had told him they had been starting to mobilize through the Elemental Nations. Word had just come out that Kiri had just lost their jinchuriki, Utakata. The container of the Rokubi to the Akatsuki.

It was a hard pill to swallow for Minato, his urge to train his kids burned more than ever as another jinchuriki had been lost to the world. Their intention was still a mystery, Jiraiya was still working endless days and night shuffling between his spy network and his son's Sage training. And to add more fuel to his already burning and growing fire of nerves, his daughter and team 11 had yet to return from their respective missions. It had been almost 10 days since the full moon and he had no word at all from either of the two teams he had sent out.

Minato fought back a sigh at his thoughts. He knew he was just being overly paranoid. Team 11 was strong, no doubt the strongest genin team Konoha had produced in the last few years, and Anko herself wasn't someone to take lightly. And the rag tag team of Kurenai, Narumi and Naruto were even better.

Mianto winced at the thought of his son, he and Kushina had definitely failed the boy. They were too caught up in training Narumi and Natsu because they were jinchuriki, he was thinking of the big picture, failing every step of the way as a father in doing so.

"Minato-kun? Are you listening to me?"

Minato blinked his eyes as he looked up to stare at his wife. Kushina was waving hand in front of his face but he was too deep in thought to notice. Noticing the pout on Kushina's lips he smiled sheepishly raising his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry Kushina, I've just been stressed is all."

Kushina's eyes glossed over with worry as she took a seat on the edge of his Hokage's desk, making sure not to sit on anything important. Once she was seated she moved her hands over his rubbing her thumb affectionately over his knuckles. They both felt the familiar spark ignite within them both at the touch, like they had all those years ago as genin. Minato felt some of his stress leave his body by the touch alone, allowing his wife's presence to physically calm him down.

"What's been stressful honey?"

Minato frowned as he looked away from Kushina. The feeling of guilt exploding through him again and it made it almost impossible to look his wife in the eyes. Reaching out, he glided his index finger over Kushina's own knuckles, tracing her veins as she stayed silent waiting for him to speak. He couldn't put off this conversation anymore, it had been slowly eating up at him for the longest time and refused to stop chewing.

"I'm worried about Naruto."

The words felt heavy as they left his lips, carrying much more weight that anything he had ever experienced before. Kushina looked at him in silent surprise at the mention of her third child's name. Minato finally had the courage to look back at Kushina, awaiting her response as he slid his hand within hers and gripped tightly. Finally revealing what truly had been bothering him all this time. Kushina felt a strange pinch of sadness swell up inside of her when she thought of Naruto.

"What do you mean honey?"

"Well I mean, we haven't been good parents at all right?" Minato said, quickling getting to nhis feet, surprising Kushina. The beautiful red-head snapped her hand back impulsively as she watched her husband walk to the other side of the desk. Minato ran a hand through his unruly blonde spiky hair as he paced back and forth, a far away look in his eye as his loud footsteps echoed in the closed off room, "We haven't trained him at all, we haven't even seen him come home in weeks. Hell, even months!" Minato rambled off, his face twisting in disgust at himself the longer he talked.

Kushina felt her heart threaten to stop beating when Minato's words reached her ears. She forcefully tore her eyes from her frantically pacing husband, she curled up her hand around her chest and rested it above her heart and frowned. She tried to avoid the subject for the longest time, it wasn't until a scarily accurate conversation she had had with Natsu a few days ago that really had got her mind spinning with realization.

"Come on kaa-san, since when had Naruto ever actually done anything?"

"But we had to focus on-"

"Does that even matter when we blatantly ignore our own sin? Yes I know we focused heavily on Narumi and Natsu, but we just should have known better!"

Kushina flinched at her husband's harsh tone and looked down sadly. She clenched her fists tightly around her green dress. Kushina felt Minato's haze get turned to her but she didn't look up at him, she couldn't bring herself to do so.

"I know...I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for days." Kushina pathetically admitted. She was trying to push down her shame as a mother for the past few months. She vaguely remembered when Narumi came back from her mission from Tuna village. Her only daughter couldn't stop talking about Naruto, on how strong he had become without any of them training him.

Needless to say it was the rudest awakening Kushina had ever experienced.

Minato fought back his tears, blinking them back as he walked over to his wife. Wrapping his long arms around Kushina, resting his head onto hers as she melted into his embrace.

"When did we become such horrible parents?"

Kushina couldn't help but laugh bitterly at herself and the whole situation. Shutting her eyes as she bathed in a cesspool of her and Minato's failure. They never talked about this before and it was only a matter of time before one of them cracked under the guilt. And as horrible as it sounded, she was glad it was Minato. She hated the fact that she had failed as a mother, she tried to ignore it but she couldn't for the life of her. It was hard enough to get out of the bed in the morning or even look at her two other kids the same. She reached her hard up and gently cupped Minato's cheek, the Yondaime leaned into her touch.

"I guess we always were…But we need to make it right."

"I agree. Narumi and Naruto should be returning soon from their mission. I want to start heavily training Naruto with everyone else. I want to do anything I can to prove to Naruto that we love him."

And at the moment some outer deity had headed his call. His secretary had walked in, not even phased by the slightest at seeing Kushina and Minato in such an intimate embrace. She merely smiled as the two of them pushed away from each other, both wearing a matching blush as Minato smiled sheepishly towards her.

"Sorry to bother you Hokage-sama, Kushina-sama. But Team 11 and Team Kurenai have just returned from their missions."

Minato felt his heart rate speed up as he looked at Kushina expectantly. Both shared a silent conversation as he looked back at his secretary, slightly apprehensively he nodded his head.

"Yes please send them in."

The girl nodded her head and quickly excused herself from the room. The door closed with a soft click and Minato tried his best to mask his nerves as he took a seat back down onto his chair. Kushina did the same, wiping her arm over her eyes to rid any evidence of her sadness as she stood besides her husband.

Time seemed to click by incredibly slowly as both adults waited for the door to open in front of them. Minato felt his hands start to clam up with nervousness as he drummed his fingers in a rhythmic pattern on his desk. Neither of them knew what they were going to say to their son, and Minato was excited to hear that both teams managed to come back safely. The two missions had taken them much longer than he had anticipated and he was certain that Team 11 managed to make their way over to Yukigakure to assist Kurenai and her team. It was the only explanation since he had received a letter from a pretty famous bridge builder about upping their trading system with Konoha due to Team 11's success.

He was a happy Hokage when he read that letter.

Mianto and Kushina both felt their breath hitch as the familiar clicking of the door echoed in the room. Minato had already prepared the biggest nerv free smile he could muster up, but it quickly faded as he saw only Kurenai and Narumi waltz into the room. Kurenai and Narumi both bowed to their leader as the door closed shut behind them.

"Gretting's Hokage-sama, Team 11 wanted me to tell you that they will be giving their mission details first thing tomorrow morning. They were pretty wiped out from the trip." Kurenai said, her voice lacking the previous vigor it once held as she spoke. Narumi nodded besides her as she looked at her parents.

Mianto just nodded, he could accept that. It wasn't rare for shinobi to postpone their mission details until the next day to make sure everything was as accurate as possible. And he was already aware that their mission was a success so he would let it slide easily. He did raise an eyebrow slightly, his gaze shifting between the two women standing in front of him. He couldn't explain it but both women were definitely acting strange, much more different than they were back when he had assigned the mission.

"I see, then does that mean Naruto is with them as well? I was hoping to speak to him."

Both Minato and Kushina noticed that both the women flinched at his words, each looking away from his Kage gaze. Minato felt his heart drop slightly as he watched their eyes gloss over sadly. A tense silence pooled in the room as kurenai stepped back and allowed Narumi to step forward. They had discussed this privately between the two of them on who would be the one to tell the Hokage. Narumi insisted that it be her and Kurenai wasn't going to fight her on her decision, as the red-eyed beauty was still pretty shaken up by the whole ordeal herself. Narumi took a deep sigh as she stopped in front of her father's desk, her eyes finally looking up to see deep into her parents attentive gazes.

"Actually, this involves Naruto-nii." Narumi hesitantly said, fidgeting her now fully healed arm back and forth.

Minato and Kushina had stayed silent as Narumi went on and informed them both of what exactly happened on their mission. She didn't leave out a single detail, telling everything that happened that led up to them finding their secret base and saving all of the kids, to Kurenai finding Kagami (Who was waiting patiently downstairs with a group of shinobi council members). She even told them about her completely antagonizing her brother and their fight in the hotel hallway which made everyone in the room grimace at her explanation. Minato and Kushina didn't even blink at their daughters' words, both paying such great attention to her to not miss out on a singular detail.

Minato waited until Narumi finished speaking to voice his own confusion, running a hand through his hair he raised his eyebrow.

"I see. It seems your mission was a complete success then. I do not see how this involves Naruto's absence."

Narumi fought back a flinch as she tilted her head to once again stare into the currently emotional eyes of Kurenai. Kurenai hesitantly nodded her head, fidgeting slightly in pace as her mind quickly flashed the dream she was having when she was under Naruto's genjutsu. At the thought she wanted to wrap her hand around her heart in pain. Every time her mind wandered to Naruto and the dream her heart ached like it never had before, it was almost like she had to experience the very pain Naruto had to go to when he was all alone and fighting with his inner thoughts. She felt his pain, his heartbreak, his struggle.

Narumi, noticing the hurtful look passing through the red-eyes beauty quickly turned back to her father.

"That was when I had found Naruto-nii, he was trying to abandon the mission and the village."

The second her words left her mouth pure silence engulfed the room. Narumi felt Kurenai recoil once again but she ignored it, keeping her blank expression trained on her parents. Both Minato and Kushina both felt their mouth's fall open in shock and their eyes grow wide in disbelief. Kushina actually gasped, covering her mouth with one hand as her other tightened around Minato's shoulder painfully. Minato ignored the pain from his wife's nails digging into his shoulder as he felt the biggest wave of dread come crashing down onto him. His heart had stopped beating for a moment, and for a second he had thought he had just kicked the bucket eternally.

Finally finding it in himself to breathe he traced over his daughter's face for any sign of lying. Once he found none he bit his lip, blood leaked into his mouth from the pain as he tightened his hands around his desk. Minato looked down, not wanting to ask the question he knew the answer too.

"And what happened after that?"

Narumi closed her tired eyes, giving them a moment to rest as she spoke. Schooling her emotions she spoke truthfully.

"He succeeded."

Hearing a gasp, all eyes turned to see Kushina, hand gripped tightly around her mouth trying her best to hold back her now excessive crying. Mianto acted quickly, he scooped his crying wife into his arms and held her tightly to his chest. Both Kurenai and Narumi ignored the motion as Mianto blinked back a few tears himself, trying his best to keep down the overwhelming amount of guilt he was bathing in. The rational side of his conscience was laughing at him, pure unadulterated irony echoed in his head in the most mocking tone he had ever felt.

"You honestly can't say you're surprised can you?"

"How?"

"I found him getting ready to leave and he told me what he was doing. I of course tried to persuade him into staying and it ended up in us fighting just outside the base rather ruthlessly. He broke my arm in the process," Narumi said, holding up her previously broken arm making Minato widened his eyes again. Narumi continued, "He got the better of me and he beat me. When I woke up he was already gone."

Narumi looked expectantly back at Kurenai again, Narumi pursed her lips as she let her worlds sink themselves into her parents. Kurenai noticed the younger girls stare and felt her heart start to stutter. The jouni stepped up, taking her place confidently next to Narumi as her now stoic face looked at Minato.

"Sadly yes it's true Hokgae-sama, I had been fighting Kagami-san in the base the whole time, while simultaneously saving the captured girls. When I had walked out I found Narumi already knocked unconscious, with Naruto-kun nowhere in sight." Kurenai said.

Kushina pulled away from her husband's arms faster, her deep purple eyes still moist with tears as she glowered at the town shinobi.

"And why didn't you go after him? Why did you let my baby boy abandon this village!"

"We sustained massive amounts of injuries Kushina-sama. Narumi had know idea where Naruto-kun was headed since she couldn't sense his chakra signature after I got her to wake up. And when the remainder of Team 11 showed up we were all suffering from chakra exhaustion, if we followed right away we would have most likely been ambushed and killed before we got very far."

Mianto soothed his sobbing wife as she clung into his for dear life, Minato tried his best to not let his emotions show on his face, but he wasn't fairing very well. He was always an honest man who wore his heart on his sleeve.

"How did he manage to get past you Narumi? There was no way he should have been stronger than you." he asked, flinching against his words felt like a dagger that plunged inself his heart. It was the bitter truth, and it hurt like hell for Minato to even say.

Narumi fought back the urge to scowl at her father, quickly schooling her emotions as she looked deep with her father's matching sapphire eyes. She didn't even look back at Kurenai as she spoke, her mind was already made up before they had left Roka.

"He was just stronger than me, nothing special about him. He was just better." she lied.

Mianto felt his heart break again, finally letting loose a singular tear as he placed Kushina down into his office chair. Minato ran his hand through his hair as he turned his back to the room and looked out the giant bay window in the room. He didn't want his family and Kurenai to see his apparent distress at the situation.

Kurenai also did well to mask her surprise at Narumi's words. The young Namikaze didn't flinch as she felt Kurenai's gaze bore a hole into the side of her head.

"M-minato-kun w-we need to send out a search party for Naruto!" Kushina said frantically, her heart pounding inside her ribcage, "He can't be very far, and if we send out best sensors along with Narumi than-"

"About that."

All eyes now turned back to Narumi as she rudely cut off her mother. A rainbow of eyes stared into her all with varying emotions as the room grew quite. Kurenai felt alarm bells start to ring in her head, this wasn't part of the plan that they had discussed before coming to meet the Hokage. She watched on edge as Narumi gave her a sad smile, her eyes shining apologetically as she did so.

"I will not partake in any mission regarding Naruto-nii, no matter what it may be."

"WHAT?!"

Narumi didn't flinch as her parents screamed loudly, well it was mainly her mother as she bursted out of Minato's chair and stared at Narumi with a mixture of shock and anger. Minato wasn't fairing much better as he let his hand fall limp to his side as Kurenai felt her head grow dizzy at her words.

Minato rapidly shook her head trying to comprehend what his daughter had just said. Narumi's words played themselves over again in his mind as he felt her legs start to shake.

"Narumi how could you say that? He's your brother, he-"

"Naruto-ni...Naruto had made it very clear to me when we had fought that he sees none of us as family. And I can't help but feel that it was our fault that we drove him away from us, from the village. And that last thing I want is to force him back into a family that was never actually a family for him."

The room ended up falling so silent, Narumi and Kurenai could physically hear the two Namikaze's hearts shatter completely. Kushina only balled louder as Minato turned away from Narumi and Kurenai, furiously wiping his arm over his eyes to stop the wetness. Minato scowled in disgust at himself, he was truly and utterly a disgrace and was never worthy of being called a father. He leaned on the large bay window, slamming him fist slightly as he tried to calm his emotions. Kurenai had looked over at Narumi, her opinion on the young girl had just raised significantly. She would have never expected Narumi to completely turn around on her attitude towards Naruto. But then again she wasn't sure what they had talked about when they had fought back in Roka.

"You know by refusing your mission you are disobeying the orders from the Hokage himself, and you had also shown heavy disobedience to Kurenai during your mission in Yukigakure. Both are sentenced to a decrease to your shinobi rank." Minato said, his wife turning to look at him in shock.

Narumi then did something no one was expecting.

She tore off her chunin uniform, the fabric shifting together echoed in the room as she threw it on the ground. Everyone stared at Narumi in complete and utter shock as she untied her headband, grabbing it by the cloth and letting it dangle in front of her.

"Then do so Hokage-sama."

Minato bit his lip harder, Kushina had tried to talk reason into their daughter but she just wouldn't hear it. Narumi just kept her gaze on Minato as the Hokage felt the reality check hit him again. He finally turned back to his daughter, he met her challenging glare with one of indifference. Silently shifting his gaze to Kurenai, her comparably less intense gaze was confusing to the blonde man. Minato took a few deep breaths, he grabbed his wife and brought her to her feet. Kushina tried to fight back and was about to scream at him until she saw the voidless eyes stare blankly ahead. Kushina quickly closed her mouth as Minato bent down and grabbed the chunin vest on the floor. He couldn't play favorites or show blatant favoritism.

How ironic.

"Narumi Namikaze, you are here stripped of your chunin rank and sent back to a life of a genin until you prove your loyalty to the village." Minato said, ignoring his wife's outburst and Kurenai's shocked expression. Narumi merely nodded, tying her headband back around her forehead. Minato then quickly grabbed a scroll on his desk and had begane writing a pretty lengthy scroll. Once he was finished he signaled for an anbu guard to come down and handed the mask shinobi the scroll. His heart ached as he did so, but this is what he deserved. He had no excuse for his horrible parenting, and he would have to accept the consequences for them. No matter what they may be, it broke his heart. And his wife wasn't failing any better. It was karma coming back at them with everything it had, and they deserved every single ounce of it.

"As of now Naruto Namikaze is labeled as a high B class missing nin, he is to be brought back ALIVE to Konoha no Sato for a price of 10,000,000, ryo."