The moon used to be a bad thing,
A horrible omen.
When my eyes
Were seemingly shut for good.
Good things happen
Under the moonlight.
The full moon was there
For the reason I'm here.

It was late. Naruto sat on the balcony of the hotel room, leaning his head on the railing, looking at the stars. They were staying the night in the town where they found Tsunade and would head back to the village in the morning. Jiraiya walked out of the bathroom in his nightwear and sat next to the boy. "I used to stare at the stars when I was upset, kid," Naruto continued to stare at the night sky, "it reminded me of a stress-free time, especially during the war. If those stars can stay put and be so peaceful, then so could I."

There was silence for a while. "Can you tell me that story again? The story about dad." Jiraiya chuckled. Naruto spent a lot of time with Jiraiya when he was in the academy and he had told him plenty of stories. Naruto took a liking to one in particular.

Minato lie on the log staring up at the night sky. He needed to take a walk. Living alone had been rather boring and he enjoyed gazing at the stars. He lived in a small cottage a little bit outside the village. The moon was full and the sky was beautiful as always.

Naruto smiled at that. He loved this story so much. It felt so familiar to him. As he listened back into the story, he was back in that white space. Kushina and Minato were sitting next to each other, sharing the story.

"Minato," said boy turned around to see his master standing in the opening, "Kushina Uzumaki has been kidnapped."

Minato gasped at this. He had always admired Kushina. She was brave, bold, and didn't care what anyone though of her. He had always liked her hair in particular. "Right. Let's get going."

He had searched almost the entire forest. Minato saw no signs of the red hot habanero.

"And then Minato saw a lock of red hair," another voice said this. Jiraiya and Naruto looked behind them to see Tsunade leaning in the doorway. She made her way to the two on the balcony as Naruto put his head back down. She continued the story.

Minato followed the trail of red hair until he could hear a faint shuffling in the distance. He leapt through the forest and saw Kushina walking along three men. She was bound by a rope. Seeing that made the boy frown as he snuck behind the closest man and swiftly knocked him out. Kushina didn't notice, she kept shuffling. The other two noticed their fellow man fall and turned around, still unaware of the yellow flash. He cartwheeled and kicked the second man, knocking him out. The third noticed the boy and jumped back, brandishing a kunai. Minato pounced the man from the shadows, slashing him and sending him flying into the forest. Minato jumped down, landing gracefully and silently in front of the still walking girl.

"Are you hurt?" Kushina continued to walk for a moment. She stopped and looked up as the moonlight shone through the trees, illuminating Minato, "I came to save you," the boy said as he grinned. Kushina smiled in response and started to fall. Minato rushed to her and caught her before she could hit the ground, "You'll be all right now."

He stood and brought her up with him, carrying her bridal style, "Hey wait a minute," she said to no avail as the boy leapt into the trees. She stared at him as the moon shone on him. She noticed a lock of hair in Minato's hand.

"Your hair is so beautiful. So I noticed it right away."

Kushina looked away and frowned, "But you've always ignored me."

"Because I know that you're strong, in body and spirit." Minato landed atop a tree, "But this is a fight between two villages. It's different from your other fights so..."

"So?"

Minato grinned, "I didn't want to lose you."

Kushina gave a faint smile before frowning again, "Even if I'm an outsider?"

"Why do you say that?" He closed his eyes and grinned, "You live in the hidden leaf village, so you're one of us."

Back in that white space, Kushina beamed, "Before that I honestly saw your father as unreliable and even kinda girly," Minato's head dropped as his forehead went purple, "But in that moment, your father was a great ninja in my eyes."

"You know, Naruto, your parents would be incredibly proud of who you are today," he looked over to the now teary-eyed boy. He sniffled and wiped his eyes. Jiraiya continued, "I just wish you got to meet them. You would've loved those two I just know it."

"I do love them," Naruto replied, "and I did meet them." The two sannin looked confused at the boy. "I met them in this weird dream thing. It's too hard to explain," he usually just said it was tsukuyomi without torture, but then he would have to explain fūinnome to Tsunade. He didn't even know if he was allowed to. "Anyway," he paused, "I'm going to bed. So unless you want to cuddle, granny, you should get to your room," she laughed and ruffled the boys hair. She put a little too much force into the "ruffle" and Naruto's hair and the top of his head were completely flattened.

"Goodnight, hema," Tsunade walked out the door and shut it behind her.

Naruto couldn't sleep. When he showed Tsunade his memories, he had to live through them as well. He started to see them play through his mind again. He left a little note on his bed and disappeared from his room.

He was standing outside Konoha, by one of his markers. He placed one for easy transport from far away places. He was lucky that Tsunade was only located about a day's walk from the village, as that was about the extent of how far he could travel with hiraishin. He placed a marker on the back of the note as well. He would go back in the morning, but he just thought it would be fun to mess with the old geezers.

It was late, around midnight. Naruto landed silently outside the hospital room window. Hinata was fast asleep. He slid the hospital window open and stepped inside. The bed was quite small, so he curled up in the chair next to her. 'Seriously?! You can sleep like that? I could never imagine,'

Naruto had slept in worse situations. One time he had to sleep upside down after he got stuck in a small cavern head first. It was more like he passed out upside down. That's not the point. "n-Naruto-kun?" He heard the soft voice from his left. Hinata picked up her head and rubbed her eyes to see Naruto sitting on the chair.

"I couldn't sleep. I came to see you."

"That's nice but," she paused, "can you just lay on the bed?"

"Well, uh, it's uh," he sat up and rubbed the back of his neck, "there's not a lot of room-ttebayo."

"Why are you chickening out?"

"I'm not a chicken," he was interrupted by Kurama and Nuibari squawking in his head. He chuckled at the pair, 'You two make a good couple,' they immediately stopped and looked away from each other. "Are you sure it's okay? Like with your leg and stuff?"

"Positive-ttebayo."

"Hey wait that's my thing!"

"You don't own it," she closed her eyes and stuck her nose up at the boy. He got up and lowered himself onto the bed, latching himself to her right side, where there was no broken leg. Hinata felt warmth fill her body. She let out a soft whimper as the boy snuggled his head on top of her shoulder. Hinata could feel something on her thigh. Was that his... oh goodness. She felt faint until she heard Naruto speak.

"Sunny place," Naruto whispered as he moved closer. Hinata turned a little bit on her right side and looked at Naruto's eyelids. The boys eyes slowly opened to see Hinata slowly moving closer and closer. The two met in the middle, lips to lips. After the two released the kiss, Naruto snuggled deeper, placing his arms around her waist as she fell back to her old position. The two fell asleep easily after that.

Minato and Kushina watched over the boy. They looked at each other and leaned in for a kiss of their own. Kushina leaned her head on her husband's shoulder, "I'm so proud of him-ttebane," she said as she let out a tear, "he'll be better than you I think."

Minato raised an eyebrow at her and frowned before letting out a laugh, "Of course he will Kushina." He paused, "He will."

Naruto felt the presence of his parents, making it easier for him to fall asleep knowing they were protecting him. He drifted off as he began to hear Hinatas soft breathing right next to him.

Hey all!
Relatively short chapter here, hope you don't mind. I know I said that this would probably be chūnin exam finale, but I wanted to do some more story stuff. Next chapter is going to be training stuff for all of the main characters so be ready for some more Jiraiya. There's been a severe Jiraiya deficiency so far so that will be fixed.
Anyway~
Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. This story broke like 70 views at the time I'm writing this. Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy this as I don't think I'll be stopping soon. I love writing these chapters and I'm glad that people are able to enjoy it. Hope you have a good day/night (or else!)
Xoxo
Jerry out!