Three Hundred and Two.
Jiraiya and Naruto leave early in the morning. Jiraya only stayed a week this time because he is in the middle of following a trail of clues about something he is investigating.
As soon as Jiraiya and Naruto disappear around the corner, Kushina turns to the rest of the family, who are all seeing them off at the gates and says, "Right, now that Jiraiya is gone, we're going to the hot springs. I promised Burifu I'd take her if she learned to take a bath properly and she has."
"Yay!" Burifu jumps up and down in excitement.
"Oooh," says Kimiko, grinning. "I've seen the hot springs, but I've never been inside."
"Let's go then!" says Kushina. "Come on everyone." She grabs the girls' hands and heads off to the hot springs. Kazama, Arashi, Minato and Iruka follow along behind.
They arrive at the hot springs and meet Madara, Sasuke, Tachibana, Lucy, Seikitei, Yatsude and Sazanka outside. Sekitei's hair has grown a bit since the paint incident. Now she has her hair in low pigtails like Tsunade's, but much shorter. Yatsude is keeping his hair short, while Sazanka keeps his long. Sazanka and Tachibana both got their hair trimmed to around shoulder length. Sazanka wears his loose while Tachibana braids his. The twins have taken to wearing matching outfits and Tachibana has started wearing dark glasses.
"...and listen to Sasuke," Madara is telling Sekitei. "She is here to look after you."
"Yes Uncle Madara!" says Sekitei cheerfully and grabs Sasuke's hand. "I will stay with Sasuke! I like Sasuke."
"Hiya!" Burifu calls out, waving.
"Hi Burifu!" says Sekitei. "Are you going to the hotsprings too?"
"Kazama san, Arashi san," Madara greets Minato's parents with a slight bow.
"Hello Madara," says Arashi. "Taking the kids on an outing, I see."
"Yes, they asked what hotsprings are," says Madara dryly. "So I dropped Ajisai off with Mikoto and brought them here to find out."
"And I'm here to watch Sekitei," says Sasuke.
"I can't go with the boys!" says Sekitei. "Dunno why, though."
"Because the girls have their own special area," says Kazama, patting Sekitei's hair. "No boys allowed."
"Oooh," says Sekitei, nodding.
They all go inside to the changing rooms. Kimiko, Burifu and Sekitei all need a run down on what happens. They wash themselves off in the designated shower room and then head outside wrapped in towels.
"This is just a fancy bath, isn't it?" demands Burifu.
"Yes," says Kushina, grinning. "They need to be sure everyone is clean before they go into the hot spring so the water stays clean."
"But dirty water is fun," says Burifu, glaring at a shower head.
"Most people think it's gross," says Sasuke. "You're a weirdo."
When they all get out into the actual hotspring, they find that the only other person there is one Chief Kinoko Uchiha. "Oh hey, you guys," says Kinoko, grinning at them.
"You're Jyuugo's mum, right?" says Burifu. "He's pretty."
Kinoko starts laughing. "You're something else, kid."
"Are Jyuugo and Kimimaro here?" asks Kimiko.
"Yeah, over in the mens' area," says Kinoko.
While they are talking, Kushina heads over to her favourite spot beside the dividing wall between the mens' and womens' areas. There is a small gap in the fence that Kushina knows certain men use to peep. Kushina has never pointed it out to anyone, and she hopes no one closed it up while she was dead. Nope, still there. Good. Time to subtly peep on Minato.
Kazama and Kinoko start chatting about their knitting or whatever, and the little girls start a water fight. Sasuke joins in after getting hit in the face with a rather large splash wave.
While they are distracted, Kushina leans over and has a look through the peep hole. The first thing she sees is Madara. Hot damn, Madara has an eight pack. Ooh, there's Minato. Looking as fine as always. Then the twins get in her way. Apparently they started a water fight too.
"Hey Kushina," calls Kinoko. "What are you doing over there by yourself? Come over here."
Hiding her disappointment that her fun is over for now, Kushina gets up and goes over to where Kinoko and Kazama are sitting.
"How are you coping with being back from the dead?" asks Kinoko.
"It's strange," says Kushina. "Everyone is so much older, and so many things have changed. It's more like we travelled forward in time than anything else, 'tebane."
"I see you haven't gone on a hunt of people who were mean to Naruto yet," says Kinoko. "We were all afraid you'd wipe out half the village."
"Well Naruto begged me not to do anything," sighs Kushina. "I was all ready to go on a rampage, but Naruto stopped me and begged me to leave them alone. I have to settle for glaring at people and whispering ominously that they can thank Naruto that they are still alive."
"Hmm, I wondered why I didn't have a mass genocide on my hands," says Kinoko. "Naruto is a good kid."
Kushina glances over at the peep hole and sees Kimiko looking through it with a very interested expression on her face. Kushina gets up and heads over to the kid. "What are you doing?" Kushina demands, lightly bonking Kimiko on the head.
Kimiko turns a pair of puppy eyes on Kushina. "I saw you looking through here and I wanted to know what you were looking at," she whines.
"Well don't look through there," says Kushina. "I won't have you peeping like your father. Now go and play with the other kids."
Kimiko jumps up and heads back over to join in the water fight.
Kushina heads back over to Kinoko and Kazama.
"She found the sacred peep hole, didn't she?" says Kinoko, grinning.
"Yes," says Kushina. "They grow up so fast."
"I used to use it to peep on my husband," sighs Kinoko. "I bet you were peeping on Minato before, right?" elbowing Kushina in the ribs.
Kushina blushes. "I was, yes." Then she decides she MUST share her discovery. "Madara has an eight pack."
"Hot damn," says Kinoko. "I need to see this." Kinoko gets up and boldly walks over to the peep hole to take a look. After a minute she turns around and says. "Damn that guy is chiseled. And Iruka's not bad either."
"Oh, I wasn't looking at Iruka," says Kushina.
Kazama heads over and pulls Kinoko away. "Don't peep, you'll set a bad example for the girls."
"Excuse me," Burifu pushes her way through to get at the peephole. "I wanna check out Jyuugo in a towel." Quite unashamed, Burifu takes a look through the peephole. "There he is…" then she turns bright red. "His towel fell off…"
Kinoko snatches Burifu away from the peephole. "That's enough peeping for you, young lady."
Sekitei squeezes past Kushina and takes a look through the peephole. "Oh, that's where the boys are." uninterested, she turns and jumps back into the pool.
"Jyuugo has a nice butt," says Burifu, blushing.
Sasuke comes over with Kimiko in tow. "What are you all looking at?" she asks.
"The men are on the other side of that wall," says Kimiko.
Sasuke looks at the peep hole for a second. She looks very tempted to peep. "Just do it," says Kinoko, pushing Sasuke towards the peephole. "We've all had a look except Kazama."
Sasuke crouches down and looks through the peephole. Then she turns bright red. "That's...that's…" Then Sasuke passes out, with blood coming out of her nose.
"Sasuke!" says Kinoko, catching her. "Oh dear, she's too sensitive for such grown up games."
Everyone crowds around to make sure she is alright.
After a minute, Sasuke wakes up.
"Why did you pass out?" asks Sekitei. "It's just a bunch of naked guys."
"Sh-sh-shino was in there," stammers Sasuke, going red and passing out again.