Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin or Naruto. There it has been said now go read the rest of the story!

-)::(- Did you know your Father was an animal lover? -)::(-

Jiraiya paused and gathered his nerve, he had been told to reveal the whole truth to Naruto, including who his father was, but the idea of facing the boy after the tale was told was something he wasn't sure he could take. If Naruto felt he had been abandoned by his father then the toad sage was certain he would never be able to look the boy in the face again. Even so, he told himself, the gaki had the right to know, and whats more, needed to know – or else there would be a dangerous confrontation with the priests at the Hi Inari Taisha. Maybe if he eased into it by telling the brat and his teammates the story of how Naruto's parents had met, it would help him build the nerve before he got to the proverbial bombshell

"Oi, gaki, and lovely young ladies, there's something you should know about Minato and Kushina – about their relationship and how they met, this will probably take some time so sit down."

Jiraiya's tale, Uzugakure Border 18 years ago

A smiling blonde haired man dressed in a white trench coat with red flames in his early twenties was walking backwards along the roads approaching the small town of Uzu near the Hi Inari Taisha. The reason for his reversed posture was he was currently chatting with his two old teammates from his gennin days, Hyuuga Hiashi and Inazuka Tsume. He was of course Namikaze Minato, yondaime Hokage.

"Ne, Hiashi, I hear you finally worked up the nerve to ask out Tsuki-chan for a date, about damn time eh Tsume?" The Hokage said with a grin.

Hiashi frowned and rolled his eyes, "We came along with you, yondaime-sama, because you said you needed skilled guards, not so you can wheedle into our personal lives."

The young leader gave a mock expression of shock, "Wheedle! I do no such thing! I am merely trying to get a feel for the emotional state of my subjects"

Tsume snorted, "Emotional state of your subjects?! You've been hanging around Sensei when he's drunk again haven't you?"

Minato grinned impishly, "He does get punchy when drunk… but no, I'll have you know I made that one up on my own."

Hiashi smirked, "with how terrible the joke was, Minato, I would have gone with claiming Sensei had come up with it"

Minato pantomimed a chest injury, clutching at his heart, "I am slain by the cold words of my false friend!"

Hiashi merely shook his head at his commander and turned to Tsume, "I wonder what the Hi Inari Taisha wanted with him? Do you think they plan on trying to cure him of his stupidity?"

Tsume laughed, "If his mom couldn't fix that, I doubt some priest could"

Hiashi made a show of holding his chin in a fairly passable impression of their sensei's 'thinking pose', "Maybe it's a form of possession?"

Minato glared at his teammates, "I'm right here you know"

Tsume and Hiashi's laughter did not improve Minato's disposition. They had only gone a little further when they could see the vermillion Torii that stood to mark the entrance to the shrine compound. To their surprise, there seemed to be a commotion at the gates, as several of the priests were gathered around the closest Torii of the thousand gates yelling up at a belligerent red haired young woman sitting on the gate's cross-beam. Minato's breath caught in his throat as he saw her, several years later he would tell Hiashi that he knew he wanted to marry the mysterious woman right then, Hiashi would respond that that just proved his friend had been crazy for longer than originally thought. At the moment though, he merely watched as the scene unfolded, though he did note that one of the priests was none other than Sarutobi Asuma

"Uzumaki-sama please, the new Hokage will be here soon, don't you want to make a good impression on him?" one of the monks pleaded to the red-head.

The woman stared down at him and stuck out her tongue, before responding, "I don't care about impressions, I'm the Kyuubi, he should be honored to be working with me regardless"

Minato, Hiashi, and Tsume shared a look that obviously conveyed a common question, this is the Kyuubi?

The priest sputtered and was about to respond when Asuma spoke up, "Uzumaki-san, yondaime-sama isn't all that for formalities either, but if he sees you behaving like this he'll take it as a challenge"

The young vixen raised an eyebrow at the guardian, "Challenge?"

Asuma nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama is very fond of pranks, and often repays childish behavior in kind"

Hiashi and Tsume risked a glance to their leader and saw him spinning one of his three-pronged Kunai on a finger with a tell-tale grin on his face. Minato himself had a feeling Asuma had seen them approach and being the only one at the temple who knew what Minato looked like had desired to set up this scenario to give the two lovers of pranks a "proper" introduction.

Asuma meanwhile was still trying to convince the Kitsune leader to get off the Torii, "Uzumaki-san as much as i'm sure the view up there is enjoyable, we really do need to get to the temple to greet the Delegation from Konoha."

Kushina made a rather rude gesture towards Asuma, "Like I care, i'm sure he isn't here yet, whats the rush?"

Kushina jumped and nearly fell off the Torii when a smooth male voice spoke out from next to her, "Asuma, I take it you aren't having to much trouble with the Kyuubi here?"

Asuma shook his head, "Not at all yondaime-sama, no more than I have ever had from this childhood friend of yours"

The male voice next to Kushina responded in a surprised tone, "childhood friend?"

Kushina was staring wide-eyed at the man on the Torii next to her, how he had gotten on it without her knowledge she had no idea. He certainly looked nice, she noted, and his carefree smile brought memories of her childhood un-bidden to her mind. She blinked, and then suddenly her expression changed to one of incredible excitement. "MINATO!" she yelled latching onto the now quite startled Hokage.

Minato fell of the Torii with the red-haired vixen on top of him. He groaned as he cleared his head and stared at the woman in confusion, as she continued to hug him as if he might vanish at any moment. He reached out to tap her shoulder to get her attention and asked what he thought a perfectly innocent question, "Have we met before?"

Kushina's expression changed from excitement to confusion, and then to anger, her eyes glowing red as she began to shake the poor Kage by his coat's collar, "You Teme! What do you mean have we met before?! I gave my houshi-no-tama to you you insensitive jerk!"

Minato struggled to piece together the statement, "Houshi-no-tama … Wait… Ku-Kushina-chan?! You're the new Kyuubi?!"

Minato's mind snapped back to his gennin days, when a twelve year old version of himself had found a young fox kit injured in the woods while training. He had nursed the poor thing back to health in his apartment. One morning he had woken up to see, instead of a small red fox in his bed, a naked twelve year old red haired girl holding out a small wooden charm out to him.

"Thank you for saving me… I can't thank you enough so I thought Id give you this, its my Houshi-no-tama!"

Minato blinked, "who are you? What happened to the fox?"

The red-head grinned at him, "I am the fox silly, I'm a Myobu! Name's Kushina, and I'm gonna be the Kyuubi one day!"

Minato smiled, "So you made it to Kyuubi after all?"

Kushina smiled back at him, blushing slightly as she noticed their proximity, "Fastest gaining of tails in my clan's history, I am the greatest Minato-kun!"

Minato smiled at her cheekily, "Obviously, you were able to take out the Hokage after all… knocked him clear onto his back", Minato winced, "and onto a tree root"

Kushina gave a nervous chuckle as she stood and helped the blonde to his feet. Minato couldn't help but stare at the red headed kitsune as she smiled at him.

"Something wrong Minato-kun?" Kushina asked obviously confused by his stare.

He blinked and shook his head, "Nothing, lets get the ceremony over with…"

Kushina cast a sour glance his way, "But its so boring. And besides, I already gave the Hokage my Houshi-no-tama. This whole ceremony is pointless."

Minato shrugged, "Its more for the retainers and local feudal lords to see the alliance officially stated. As my teammate Hiashi here would say," he pointed to the Hyuuga leader who was talking with the elder priest. "Sacrifices must be made for the sake of the Village, Minato-sama" His mocking impersonation sent Kushina into a fit of giggles.

She paused when she noticed his hand had found her own, when had that happened? She risked a look at his face and saw him glancing at her out of the corner of his eye with an odd glassy eyed expression.

'Oh Kami… why is he looking at me like that?' the young Kyuubi thought in confusion. She suddenly blushed as another conversation from their childhood meetings came to her.

Young Kushina sat on the railing to Minato's balcony as she watched him pace around it muttering. "Ne, Nato-kun, why are ya so upset"

The young blond looked up from his pacing to see the fox girl and sighed, "It's the Spring Festival, everybody I know has a date, but I don't even have a girlfriend."

Kushina cocked her head to the side in confusion, "Have you even asked anyone?"

Minato sighed again, "Yes, none of the girls like me."

Kushina thought for a moment and then a wide grin spread across her face, "Well then I'll be your Girlfriend, cause I like you!"

Minato sputtered in shock, "What, Really?"

Kushina merely nodded smiling.

Kushina blushed and her tails became visible as her emotions got the better of her. She had meant it as a way to cheer him up back then. Now though, the simple statement felt like it meant so much more. She was suddenly not so unwilling to participate in the ceremony.

A year and a Half Later, Office of the Hokage.

A Young Kakashi leaned into his sensei's office, a small clipboard under his arm, he was not at all surprised to see Minato Namikaze sitting at his desk pouring over the forbidden scroll and his notes on the Rasengan. On the floor in front of the desk lay a large red mass of fur Kakashi knew was Kushina Uzumaki, the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Kakashi knocked on the door frame and announced his presence, "Minato Sensei, I have the documents you needed."

Minato looked up from his work and smiled. "Kakashi, that was quicker than I expected," he motioned the young Anbu in "don't just stand in the door come in."

Kakashi nodded and stepped carefully around the sleeping Kitsune sprawled out on the office floor. "Its still odd to me that she sleeps in that form Sensei… she seems so set on fitting in with Ningen that I thought she would prefer to sleep in human form."

Minato stared at the furry body of Kushina for a moment and sighed, "She can't"

Kakashi blinked as he handed the clipboard to his Sensei, "Can't?"

Minato smirked as he saw Kushina's leg twitch and a soft yip escape her mouth as she dreamed of some chase or similar action. He turned to Kakashi and looked over the papers for a moment before continuing, "Kitsune have to concentrate to hold their human form, if they fall asleep or are knocked unconscious they return to their animal form. Except…"

Kakashi caught the slight look of embarrassment on his Teachers face and raised an eyebrow, "except what?"

Minato glanced at his student "unless they are pregnant with a hanyou child, the child's presence anchors the human form for the safety of the baby."

Kakashi looked his Sensei in the eye "she told you that?"

Minato nodded, "we decided to take the next step, we are officially engaged as of this morning." His smile was bright and Kakashi knew he would never forget it.

The Present – Training ground 7

Kakashi smiled to himself at the memory of his Sensei and his wife, and looked over to see the reactions of the three gennin as Jiraiya finished his tale. Naruto had fainted and Sakura had exclaimed in surprise and then begun trying to revive Naruto, but Hinata had merely stared at Jiraiya with a calm steady gaze.

Jiraiya blinked at her and questioned, "You knew?"

Hinata nodded. Jiraiya frowned, "For how long?"

Hinata smiled, "When I looked at Yondaime-sama's face on the monument today, they look exactly alike. The village is really quite blind that it is."

Jiraiya laughed, "That it is indeed"