DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, Naruto speaking to Kurama, etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Naruto looked around Minato's apartment, feeling sheepish. Her father was obviously very orderly, although as a Jonin it made sense: hell, even she had been quite neat, tidy, and organized by the time she was his age. Plus, what choice did he have? His apartment was even smaller than the one-room + bathroom Yamato-taicho built en masse that she lived in after her first rather large but cruddy apartment was destroyed in the Pein attack.

"I thought maybe we could make dinner, Naruto-chan," her father/half-brother said nervously from inside the kitchen area. "I would've gone out to pick up something, but I thought this could be maybe... I don't know..."

"We could have dinner here and make it more... family-like?" Naruto asked, not really knowing if that was true or not. She remembered Tazuna's family eating together, and Jiraiya's spy, a guy (not) named Lee whom they'd stayed with for a few days when Ero-sennin was (not) training her. "Lee" did have a real family, though, and his wife made a giant deal out of them always having at least dinner together every day.

"I guess so: yeah," Minato exclaimed excitedly before he lowered his voice. "I don't know an awful lot about that stuff, but..."

"We can make a family dinner however we want to, right, Minato-nii-san?!"

Naruto wondered how and where she'd pulled that out of.

What? When the Sage sent her decades back in time, had he given her an ability to wing it better than she ever could before? In EMOTIONAL situations? Thanks, Sage! And NO THANKS for sending me back in time!

"Yes we can, imouto," Minato said happily, his cheeks all pink and stuff.

"Kawaii," Naruto sqealed in her mind.

Kurama continued growling at her; he was in a terrible mood because (finally: weeks after they first met as siblings) Jiraiya had given in to Minato and allowed them to have some "Sibling Bonding" time alone. Kurama really hated her father. Her biological father. Oddly enough, Kurama seemed to like Jiraiya. It was probably because they were both perverts, not that she was going to say that to either of them. Jiraiya always corrected her, saying that he was a Super Pervert, and Kurama always denied it although he still said some damn pervy stuff.

"I'm uhhh… I'm not much of a cook," Minato admitted. "Do you think you can give me a hand? I bought all the stuff Kushina-chan told me to; we just have to put it together."

"Okay," Naruto said and looked at the recipe that was apparently in her mother's handwriting. Her eyes teared up upon staring at it for a few moments and she had to turn around and behind the refrigerator door. "What's the first thing?"

"I've got the onions, celery, and oh," Minato stopped, bending down to reread the recipe before he flashed away, making Naruto shriek. He flashed back with glasses on. GLASSES! "Sorry about that! I just had to check and make sure that Kushi wasn't pranking me," he chuckled. "What? Oh, the glasses are pretty bad, huh?"

"No! Of course not! I just didn't know you wore them."

"Few people do: it'll be our little secret, ne?"

Naruto nodded her head enthusiastically. "But can you see without them?" she asked, blown away at the whole glasses thing. Future Konoha had statues and pictures of Minato Namikaze all over the village, and none of them showed him with glasses on.

"Of course! Say, can you pull out the garlic in the fridge?" Minato couldn't help but smile as Naruto reopened his refrigerator door, which she was dwarfed by. She was such a cute chibi. She, like Kakashi, was so, so small, though; it really bothered him that the children's fathers had allowed them to become Genin at such an early age.

"How many garlics?" Naruto asked, not knowing any better. At least she knew what they looked like!

"All of them," Minato answered. Fate seemed to be favoring him tonight: so far, the celery and onions were doing exactly what they were supposed to do, dancing around in the oil, smelling heavenly as they became limper and darker or more translucent. He frowned as he took the seven garlic cloves, each of them much bigger than he'd anticipated before buying them at the market. Quick as his moniker, he'd cut and squished them into near-paste before throwing them in with the rest. They had some kind of papery skin over them that he quickly pushed away absently before tossing the smashed bulbs into the wok.

Wow! Now it smelled really good! And strong!

"So," Naruto began, not knowing what to do or say, "what do we do now, and is this Kushina person your girlfriend?"

Minato stuttered all over himself, turning away from his little sister who was holding in giggles at his reaction. He began cutting up a pepper that Kushina insisted was vital to the recipe. "N-n- Yes, WELL. We've uhh, been on two dates, so I don't know if she would consider us boyfriend-girlfriend," he said very nervously. His face slowly turned to an expression that Naruto could only describe as "dreamy" when he sighed and looked up to the ceiling. "She's a wonderful cook."

"Do you think you're boyfriend-girlfriend?" Naruto asked, in disbelief that she was witnessing her father as anything other than the calm, cool, collected, genius, women-fall-over-themselves-for Hokage that she'd always heard about in her childhood. She winced as a memory came back from a bar she'd been in with Jiraiya once as a teenager.

"Well excuse me for not making women drop their panties at the mere thought of me the way your old student did!"

Thank the deities that Jiraiya had punched that guy through a wall. How gross!

"I think I should leave that up to Kushina. Chan. Kushina-chan. Hime," Minato pinched the bridge of his nose and reeled back, struggling to turn the water on. Naruto helped out by holding his glasses while he repeatedly rinsed out his eyes in cold water after quickly washing his hands. "Jalapeno," he explained to Naruto as he dried his face on a paper towel. She laughed at him.

He felt terribly uncool, although the way his little sister carefully washed his glasses and sniffed them for the remnants of the pepper afterward was very cute. "Okay, now the meat!" He re-read the recipe again, internally cursing the way his eyes were still watering, but knowing full well that only reading a recipe once had gotten him into trouble numerous times. "Cut into even cubes..." He looked over in shock to see his little sister flying through the meat with a knife. ...Which she twirled round and round in her hand immediately after. He grabbed it from her. "Guess speed runs in the family, ne?"

She perked up and nodded her head at him. He threw the meat into the wok in order to brown it before he added anything else.

"How'd you learn to handle a knife so well, Naru-chan?"

"There was this guy," Naruto began, trying to decide how to describe Kakashi-sensei, (other than 'lazy, porn-addicted pervert,') "and he thought it was good to be able to turn anything into a weapon. He liked to make us- me use things like knives or torches, just anything really, offensively or defensively."

Yeah, Kakashi-sensei had gotten into a lot of trouble when he threw a butcher knife at her with deadly precision. She had ducked, and it almost hit Sakura.

Sakura had stomped his crotch. Kakashi-sensei was lucky that Sakura-chan didn't have her super-strength at that point.

"I... Hmm," Minato began thoughtfully as he turned over the meat. "While I think it's a good idea to always be prepared, I think conventional weapons suffice." He turned to her and ruffled her hair. "And neither I nor any of your other senseis will turn a kitchen object against you."

"Well that just sucks," Naruto said, standing on a little stool as she took her turn at swirling stuff around in the wok. "I'm gonna grow and I always gotta be sure to be able to evade thrown swords and stuff."

"I need to ensure that I can evade thrown swords, Naruto," Minato stressed the way she should have phrased it. Naruto pouted at him, wondering if he got that habit of correcting people's language from Sakumo-sensei who did it all the time. Minato's face soured. "And who would throw a sword?"

"Some lazy bastard pervert."

"Naruto!" Minato scolded, but his little sister seemed to think she was pretty funny. "What am I going to do with you?"

"I don't know! Love me forever?"

"I can do that," Minato said easily. He was not expecting for his little female near-clone of a spunky sister to break out into big tears.

"Do you throw swords and stuff at Kakashi?"

Sakumo looked at the little blonde in disbelief while his son rolled his eyes. He really needed to pry that mask off him: it drove him crazy, although he fully understood why he wore it today. He was wearing one, too! "Of course not! And like I said at the beginning of our lesson, your sword..."

"Pretend sword," Naruto clarified.

"Shinai, Naru-chan," Sakumo reminded the children. Kakashi looked like he was itching to strike the girl no matter how much his boy always tried to (and did) impress him. "When not in storage, shinai belong in your hands or properly sheathed only. Just like swords. Maa, let's review your kenjutsu katas. Spread out," he ordered, waiting for the chibis to situate themselves at least four meters apart from each other. He wanted to ensure that even when they had real swords of any length that they couldn't accidentally - or purposely - maul the other while warming up. He counted off the stances he'd shown the kids, impressed that they remembered, although they both certainly needed a lot of work. Which, of course, was why he was here.

...Which was why Kushina-chan would be doing the same thing - under his supervision - as soon as she was back from her mission.

Kushina wasn't quite ready for her own team of Genin, although he believed that in the next year or two she would be. His redheaded student was fierce, precise, a powerhouse, and he knew that she'd protect her own Genin team, should she get one, with her life. The problem was her temper. And that was the main reason he'd be supervising her with the cute little twerps in front of him.

There was also the issue with her having been a kidnapped Uzumaki jinchuuriki. If things became worse between nations, Kushina probably wouldn't be allowed outside of the village walls. He was even happier that he wasn't in the Hokage seat when he thought of that: the poor Sandaime would be lucky if he got away with only an earful of very loud expletives from the redhead should he make that decision.

"Maa, maa, you're both doing better than I thought you would have! First position!" Both children got into their opening stance exactly as he'd shown them. "Next," he drawled before studying them, moving little arms, legs, or "pretend swords" here and there as he continued counting off the positions they should be in. Kakashi was better, but he had begun training him a little in kenjutsu over the last few months. Kenjutsu was also in his blood. Naruto obviously wanted to be as good as Kakashi was - her big blue eyes kept darting to her teammate - so he expected that she would one day be excellent, too. Uzumakis were nearly as good with kenjutsu as they were with fuuinjutsu, after all.

The children became more precise as they continued to practice, and Sakumo worked them for hours in kenjutsu before letting them tear each other apart in taijutsu. He winced every time his Kakashi failed to block. Naruto was a little Tsunade in the making, and good gods the girl loved to fight!

"Alright, you two: that's enough." Sakumo bopped his son on the head for clumsily punching Naruto after the girl offered the Seal of Reconciliation to his son. He couldn't tell whether or not Kakashi was just being petty and exhausted, or if that feral Hatake side had taken over. His kid was growling, but he was also clearly exhausted. And naughty. "Kakashi, behave yourself. Naruto: no whacking Kakashi with your shinai. Let's eat then we can go grab a mission." Sakumo paused and looked at his son who was holding his stomach. "Did she break anything?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders and looked miserable.

"Let me see, son." He ran a diagnostic on his son before he began healing him. When his wife became pregnant with Kakashi-kun, he had Tsunade-hime teach him enough medical ninjutsu to be of use to the two of them. He had to pay off her newest gambling debt, but it was well worth it. Sadly, his wife just couldn't recover after Kakashi's birth, even with the help of the Slug Sannin. "What did I tell you, Naruto-chan?"

"I'm sorry, sensei! I didn't use chakra or anything," Naruto said guiltily. "I'm sorry, Kakashi-kun. I didn't mean to break you!"

"Tch. Idiot," Kakashi responded after being healed. He still felt like crap, though.

"Alright, Naru-chan," Minato began later that same night. Jiraiya had decided to have dinner with his teammates outside of the village to celebrate two of his books having been accepted by a publishing house, so Naru-chan was spending the night at his place. They decided to do a little training first, and Minato was glad to put some physical distance between himself and his sensei. He wasn't as angry at Jiraiya-sensei as he had been when he discovered that Naru was his half-sister, but he couldn't say that he'd fully forgiven him for keeping it on the down-low. "Let me see what you've figured out."

He couldn't believe that his little sister was attempting to recreate his Rasengan after their first conversation, but he appreciated her determination. He was also terribly impressed that she wanted to do everything she could to bring Tsunade back to the village so that she could train the next generation.

His little sister was awesome!

She unsealed a box of water balloons. "Did sensei show you this?!" That big pervert! He'd been spying on him!

Naruto almost imperceptibly shrugged her shoulders, not knowing if she should admit that Jiraiya had shown her the steps to creating the Rasengan (in her previous life/the future, which was something she was not going to tell him about.) She hadn't seen Jiraiya make one this time around, and he was being really coy about the whole thing. Weird pervert of a father figure, she thought. She focused her chakra into her hand and popped the balloon before doing the same to the next one.

"H- how? It took me three years!"

Naruto had already decided how to answer that, almost as soon as Minato told her that he wouldn't help her the first time she asked about the technique. (She planned even then to do it anyway.) "I saw you make it in class and," here she scratched her cheek before wiping her wet hands on her orange vest. "I could see it looked like a ball of whirling blue stuff, so anyway... There was this cat! And he was playing with a ball, rolling it back and forth," she said honestly as she mimicked the cat, "and it just helped me think it through a little, but I'm stuck right now!"

Minato shook his head, still looking in disbelief so much that it made Naruto want to try to make him feel better.

"You MADE the jutsu, though! It's yours, and no one had anything like it before, ne? I'm sorry I tried to copy it without your permission, but I was just so desperate! You said it was an A-ranked jutsu, and that's what I needed to get Tsunade-b-hime back, ya know?! I could've never created something like this on my own."

"Maa, I think you could, Naru-chan," Minato said, finally having recovered from his shock. "I bet one day you'll create your own jutsus; I know it!"

Naruto sniffed back her tears of joy at her father's reiterated faith in her behind her hair as she popped another balloon.

"You've got this part down. Now THIS is where it gets difficult," Minato said as he dragged his sister off to buy some rubber balls.

"Blegh! Minato! You smell like... Yuck! Is that... B.O. or Old Garlic? You stink!"

"Sorry, Kushi. I don't know why Naru-chan and I smell like this! It's so bad, the Hokage won't let me go out into the field!"

"I should say not!" Kushina grimaced. She had hugged the smelly idiot upon first seeing him like a moron and now she probably had his stink on her, too. "And here I was gonna make you your favorite."

He caught up with the pretty teenage girl that was running away from him. "That's okay, Kushina," Minato said as his someday-girlfriend walked several steps away from him, keeping that distance as she wrinkled her cute little nose. Her nose was a lot like Naruto's, now that he thought about it. "It was my favorite that made me smell like this, although I didn't realize it at first."

Kushina gawked at him before giving him a look between disbelief and betrayal. "I told you: seven cloves of garlic."

"I know! They were just really big cloves!"

"Oh you stupid genius," Kushina said, wondering if she really wanted a relationship with such a person as she shook her head in disbelief. "You used seven heads of garlic rather than seven cloves, didn't ya?"

"Is - hehe... There's a difference, huh?" Minato realized, his cheeks heating up. "Where do you buy the little cloves, though?"

"UNBELIEVABLE," Kushina yelled, dragging her smelly boyfriend off to the market while holding her nose. She couldn't believe the moron had put at least ten times the garlic in the recipe she'd given him.

Next chapter: Orochimaru and Kushina-sensei