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Ch.22: Kushina… a love story.

"You can't be…" The women said, her eyes glowing with fear. Naruto moved over to her and offered his hand to her. The women just looked at his hand.

"I wanted to apologize for bumping into you in the street." She just stared what he thought was blankly. "My name is…"

"Uzumaki Naruto?" The women said stunning Naruto. Naruto was well famous and so his name was around. It wasn't enough. There was a small reflex in his arm.

"Yea how did you know?" Naruto said trying not to make it obvious his mind has became a congested highway of thoughts and clutter. Naruto saw she wasn't going to say it. She was still too stunned by meeting him. "Do you need a hand up or are you…"

"You sound and look just like him…" the women said thinking out loud. Naruto now had a bunch of evidence towards proving she might be his mother.

"Are you my…"

"Yes." Kushina said finally realizing after all these years her baby boy was here. In truth, she felt like she never deserved to see him again after what she tried to do. Naruto was in shock. All this time, his mother was in Suna and he never knew her.

"Why did you never try and contact me?" Naruto sadly asked. "Where were you all these years?" Tears started falling from his eyes. Kushina was confused but then she realized he didn't know.

"They never told you?" She asked trying to figure out what was going on.

"Tell me what? Who was suppose to tell me?" Naruto said tears falling from his eyes with his voice cracking. Kushina knew now why he did not hate her at this moment. She stood up and looked into her son's eyes.

"I was banished from ever seeing you again by the third Hokage." Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. The old man he referred to as his grandfather growing up banish his mother from seeing him?

"That makes no sense! Why would he do that?" Kushina's eyes fell to the floor. "Tell me!" She wanted so bad to not tell him.

"Because when you where first born, in my grief I thought you were responsible for my husband's, your father's death, and that you would kill again… so I tried to kill you." Naruto's entire mind broke in half and he felt as if he was thrown into a dark hole, falling until he crashed and felt his body being crushed into a pancake. Kushina watched as her son underwent a mental breakdown. She hated herself for doing this to him but he deserved to know the truth. She mentally kicking herself stopped when she heard him fall to the floor with the same confused and hurt look in his eyes looking at her.

"Why? Why would you do that? Not you too…" Just then Jiraiya and Tsunade came bursting through the wall. They saw Kushina standing over Naruto's body and his eyes like they were. Both grabbed an arm and started to break it. Kushina screamed in pain as they both screamed at her.

"What the hell did you do to him? You better hope he's not dead or we swear you will go through (Tsunade) 5 years of ultimate pain! (Tsuande's punishment were she inflicts so much humanly damage the person dies then revives them, then inflicts the pain again... over and over…)(Jiraiya) my full body Rasengan!" Naruto snapped out of his mental break when he heard Tsunade and Jiraiya nearly break her arm and listen to her scream.

"STOP!!!!!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs. Tsunade and Jiraiya dropped Kushina and went to check on Naruto. Tsunade did a full body scan and found nothing wrong with him. Naruto looked at her as Kushina squirmed in pain and tears fell from her eyes. Part of Naruto wondered if she could even feel pain because of what she did, the other half wanted to hold her and still embrace her as his mother. Both sides agreed to one question. Naruto pushed both sannin aside and crawled over of Kushina who held each of her arms and looked up from her back to see him crawling towards her. She thought she was going to die from Naruto's own hands. She saw both sannin look at her every move. Naruto stopped a few inched in front of her. With tears in his eyes he asked his question. "Why?" Kushina thought there might be a chance, a chance he wouldn't hate her.

"I watched while my husband die in front of me and watched the thing that killed him go into you." Jiraiya blew his lid.

"Same damn excuse you lying piece of…"

"SHUT UP!" Naruto screamed at Jiraiya. Jiraiya never heard him talk like that to him before. Tsunade kept her mouth shut but still tried to voice her concerns through her eyes. The yell from Naruto surprised Kushina and almost could feel how much Naruto was hurting right now. She figured he was hurting a lot more then what she was feeling. "Anything else?" Naruto said calmly towards Kushina.

"I… I just… I couldn't kill you but I tried and the third found me trying. I thought that you where possessed by the fox and you would one day do what you did that day again. I found out a few days later from a journal entry in your father's dairy that he had heard about a possible attack on the hidden leaf from the nine tailed demon. He said if it came down to it he would seal it inside you because of the bloodline passed down from him that could suppress the fox's control over its 'container.' After I read this I knew I made a terrible mistake but the third had already banished me. I tried to sneak in a few time to try and say I was wrong but they always caught me and threw me out again. Eventually I stopped trying and found my way to Suna where I lived in shame the pasted 19 years." Jiraiya and Tsunade felt no pity towards her. To them she was just the women who tried to kill her son then tried to finish it by sneaking back in. Naruto's mind and body processed the new information. "I never wanted to hurt you, I just thought that the fox had taken you away from me too." Kushina watched as Naruto's body and eyes disappeared behind his head and shadows. Jiraiya was going to say something but was a little afraid of what Naruto would do if he tried to open his mouth again.

"Naruto are you alright?" Tsunade said watching him but at the same time blaming all of this on Kushina. Kushina knew this was all her fault, she couldn't even deny that. If she had been there for him and never had tried to kill him, he could have been spared so much pain. Kushina put her hands over her eyes and face and started crying into them in heart break of watching her son go through so much pain that she caused. Jiraiya couldn't just watch him go through this and looked at Kushina.

"I think it is best for him that you never see him again." Jiraiya said trying to move Naruto. Naruto pushed away any attempt by both of them to move him. After what seemed like an eternity of trying to move and comfort Naruto, Tsunade and Jiraiya both looked at Kushina with death glares. Kushina felt so helpless and scared. For one, her only son probably hated her and she was scared of what he was going to do to her when he finally snapped out of his mental break. She was going to feel dead inside anyway so she decided on one last course of action on her part. Kushina got down on her knees and reached out to touch Naruto before being stopped by Tsunade.

"You're not going to lay a hand on him ever again." She said with a death stare at her. She didn't care. She placed a hand on his shoulder and felt a kunai to her throat from Tsunade. "Did you hear me?" Tsunade asked rhetorically.

"You can kill me after if you want, but I want to do something that I shoulder have done a long time ago…" Tsunade's mind went to places that frightened her. She froze up for a moment, a moment that Kushina used to flip Naruto over and place his head and shoulders on her lap. Naruto didn't struggle against her. She looked down as Naruto's eyes were still wide awake and his mind cluttered with debates. She stroked his hair and started humming a soft tune. Tsunade broke out of her freeze and tightened her kunai over her throat. Naruto's eyes widened for a moment and then his eyes returned to normal. Her humming sounded innocent but Tsunade didn't believe her intentions were good. His eyes slowly vanished behind his slow moving eye lids. After another moment his eyes where gone behind his soft lids. She continued to stroke his hair and hum to him. Tsunade then noticed Naruto smile when he was sleeping. He obviously still liked her. "Shhhhhh…" She said giving his hair one long stroke. Tears filled her eyes as she also smiled for the first time in 19 years. Her tears hit his face a rolled down part way of his cheeks. Naruto stirred and reopened his eyes. Her hands still ran in his hair and he felt tear drops hit his face.

"Hey…" Naruto said softly. Kushina smiled down at him and chuckled a little, having hope that he was going to be her son from now on.

"Hey…" She replied softly as well. Tsunade let her go. Tsunade still didn't like her or if she was still trying to kill him, but Tsunade was sure Naruto was happy. It mattered to her dearly but still thought what she thought of Kushina. Naruto's mind was still clouded and unstable and slitting her throat in front of him would only send him deeper. Tsunade and Jiraiya watched carefully as Kushina stroked Naruto's hair behind his head. "Just like your father's hair. It was spiky and soft." Naruto just stared into his mother's face. "He was strong and brave and always smiled. I know I never got to know you Naruto-…" She really didn't know what to call him at the moment. "I know what I have done to you is unforgivable but I would like to be with you. I want to know what you like, what you are good at." She placed both her hands on his cheeks. "I want to be able to call you my musuko." She said closing her eyes. Naruto still didn't know what to do. On the one hand here was this women, his mother, that had tried to kill him, trying to get close to him, on the other hand… he never had his true mother hold him and smile with him. Memories from his childhood watching children's mothers smile at them and hold them tight, he was envious of them. This was his chance to know what the phrase 'a mother's love' meant. Naruto realizing that he may never get this chance again, decides on one course of action.

"Maybe you still can…" Naruto said stunning Tsunade and Jiraiya. Kushina was also surprised by this but happy that she might of got her wish. "I wanted to have my mother everyday of my life and now I have that chance."

"think about what you are saying Naruto-kun." Tsunade said not wanting her to hurt him… again.

"I am, I still don't trust her completely, I don't want to be hurt again but I want to give her a chance." Naruto said smiling up at Kushina.

"I promise you that I will never break that promise if you make me it." Kushina said sticking out her pinky. Naruto was surprised by this consept. She was serious about this.

"If I make a promise I keep it." Naruto said reaching out his pinky and wrapping it around hers.

"So do I." Kushina said pulling him into a hug. Tsunade and Jiraiya sighed. They didn't even like her and now she is back in their lives. Tsunade figured she could at least be sort of kind to her… for Naruto's sake of course.

"Great… another Naruto…" Tsunade said playfully smacking her hand on her forehead. Kushina and Naruto laughed.

"What do you mean Tsunade-chan?" Jiraiya asked confused.

"You mean you don't remember the file on her?" Jiraiya shook his head no. "Pranks, obsessive chearfulness, running with a grin on her face… sound firmilar?" Jiraiya signed too.

"Oh great… does that mean I'll have more people calling me…" Jiraya was cut off by the new mother and son unison.

"ERO-SENSEI!" Jiraiya acted like the world ended. He didn't like one kid, Naruto, saying that every time he saw him, now he has two people calling him that. (note: Tsunade only sometimes calls him that so I didn't include her.) Kushina and Naruto started laughing at Jiraiya.

"Was he a huge pervert back then as he is now?" Naruto asked him. Tsunade and Kushina looked at each other. They both in unison could agree on this.

"Yep, just as bad." Jiraiya felt a little betrayed but soon got over it. Naruto got a kick out of knowing that he was always a pervert and could hold that over his head. Tsunade hated to admit it but maybe Kushina could help out Naruto. It seemed like it. She really didn't have to like it, but it made him happy so all she could do was just shrug. That didn't stop her, however, from making sure if she hurt him, she would be punished heavily.

"By the way Naruto-chan, I hear that there are rumors that Hinata's marriage documents and proof seems to have all disappeared…" Tsunade said smiling. "On top of that there are more rumors that the marriage arranged was not approved and signed correctly by the 'right' people." Tsunade gave her a wink. It took Kushina a moment to figure out what they were talking about but after Naruto's next outburst, she knew.

"REALLY? That means I can marry Hinata-chan?" Tsunade nodded. "Want to go over right now and tell her the good news?"

"You bet!" Naruto screamed with a huge grin on his face.

"So my little boy has a girlfriend… fiancé now huh?" Kushina wanted t frown because she only got to see him today and to see he's already getting married was more than expected. Then again, her and Minato got married when they where young too. Ninja usually marry young because of their life expectancy.

"Yeh! You've got to meet and be there when I ask her!" Naruto demanded. Kushina couldn't say no. She nodded and smiled at him letting him know she would.

"Oh by the way Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan knows that her marriage was not legal and the papers were lost. So don't make it seem so obvious.

"Alright… I don't get it but if you say so baa-chan." 'baa-chan?' Kushina thought thinking of Tsunade as an old women. Then again Tsunade was almost like his godmother since Minato and Kushina made Jiraiya his godfather. Garra appeared out of nowere it seemed. He had his arms crossed and his usual frown on his face.

"Garra-sama." Garra twitched at the word –sama.

"Don't call me that. It's –kun to you my friend." Garra said all too eerily

"Right!" Naruto said with a smile on his face.

"So Garra-kun why are you here?" Naruto asked him.

"People of Suna reported a young boy with spiky yellow hair jumping around Suna and making a lot of noise. I thought of you." Naruto knew that sounded like him but Garra made it sound like he was really bad. "Since I thought it was you, I decided to check it out myself since you and I have some things we need to discuss." Garra said taking out a sheet of paper. "Most of the problems I've taken care of but the main problem is that in Suna, we have no real written exam, we have two main parts, the survival and retrieval section and then a fighting section. Your team is going to be at the main stadium in less an hour for their briefing. I'd suggest you head there after we are done. I've already alerted the two women looking for you were you will be." Naruto looked back at Kushina and she already knew what he wanted.

"Can you come watch me?" Naruto asked.

"Yes" Naruto didn't need any further information. Naruto proformed one hand seal and his entire body was covered in flames. He and Kushina disappeared after a few seconds. Jirayia and Tsunade thought and said out loud.

"What the hell was that?"

End of chapter.

a/n: I have been having troubble with my computer and it had to be sent away for awhile. it may be 2-3 weeks before i can start / release my next chapter.