THE DICHOTOMY OF FAMILY AND GENETICS
Naruto never though much about her own family; then she got one whether it was wanted or not. All of a sudden, she finds herself missing what she had never had, and what she had never missed, before. SasuNaru (FemNaru), slight GaaSaku, ShikaIno, KakaRin, JiraTsu, MinaKushi, & YahiKonan.
CHAPTER VIII
~ SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER ~
Tell me what you want to hear;
Something that will light those ears.
Sick of all the insinceres,
I'm gonna give all my secrets away.
"Pink." Sasuke insisted stubbornly.
"Yellow!" Naruto snapped back in reply.
Sasuke growled and attempted to snatch the can of paint form Naruto's hand; unfortunately for him, Naruto had gained a smidgen more time getting used to their speed demon daughter, and she dodged the grabbing motion and snatched his can of vomit coloured paint instead, before darting out of the room.
"Damn it Naruto! Just because you hate pink doesn't mean she does – look at the way she plays with Sakura and Tayuya's hair all the time!" he yelled, chasing after her in an attempt to reclaim the paint pot.
A month since Christmas had passed, and the two of them had finally decided to make the flat look a little better starting with Tamamo's room; unfortunately, that meant agreeing on the colour of paint. Sasuke felt like he had been sucked into a horrible cliché, but yellow was such a boring colour.
Well, unless it was the hair of Minato – then it was worth noticing, but mostly it was bland. His original instinct had been to go with red, but that was probably a bit much for a two-year old's room. So, as much as he hated the colour himself, he had dimmed it down a bit. It wasn't a very bright pink anyway – it was paler than Sakura's hair. He hadn't counted on Naruto though.
Of course she would want something stupid like yellow; it wouldn't be such a problem if he could catch her, but Tamamo got her demonic speed from someone, and it wasn't him. He was the bookworm, Naruto was the artsy, sporty one, and catching her when she was running away was an utter nightmare.
"What does that have to do with anything? Its a weird hair colour! It not gonna be pin-"
Before Naruto could continue her sentence they were interrupted by a knock at the door, and Sasuke turned to open it. Kakashi stood on the other side of he door with the serious expression that usually adorned his hidden features when he found something useful. After the usual greetings, and Naruto had handed Tamamo her crayons and paper to keep her occupied, Kakashi got down to business.
"Well, I cant say much for finding your mother, but I'm pretty certain I've found your father."
Even Sasuke's jaw dropped at that, but Naruto, she was floored. He had found her father? He was alive? She didn't... know how to react to that. Her father was alive. That meant he had abandoned her too, didn't it?
"H-How did you-?"
Sasuke cut himself off mid sentence, his surprise clearly highlighted with the uncharacteristic stutter; she couldn't blame him. They had both been under the impression that her father was dead (probably an attempt to give her some peace of mind on one of her parents at least).
"Actually I found him through a friend of mine; he heard I was looking for Kushina, and called me up. He conducted a search for her himself several months before Naruto turned up at Iruka's, and a few years ago too"
He glanced at their stunned faces for a few moments, then continued.
"Turns out it was a bit of a scandal when she disappeared; your mother was a teacher, sciences if I remember, at a school in the Hokage district. She lived in the whirlpool county before that. Anyway, she left the school very suddenly. I don't think it would be hard to imagine why..."
Because of her. Her mother had left her job because she was pregnant. Well didn't that do wonders for her self esteem? Why did she have to quit anyway? There was paternity leave and stuff for teachers!
"I wish I had a picture, but I couldn't find anything a written description– turns out she had red hair though. Her eyes were a blusish colour, but not bright. She was twenty five when she disappeared, so that would put her at 42 now... "
One of her hands moved to her thick, fiery cadmium hair in slow automation. She took after her mother then. Her hair. Tamamo's hair. They were from her mother. She had thought her mother was blonde. Apparently not. She glanced at her daughter, happily scribbling away with a variety of green crayons (there was the answer to the paint question, she thought absently).
Tamamo's eyes, they came from her mother. They had to – Kakashi had just said as much. That must mean hers came from her father. They were far brighter than Tamamo's were. She was a half-half blend as far as her head went.
"The search itself was conducted by one of her students."
A student? Why would a student... Naruto's eyes widened, and she stared at Kakashi with even more surprise; no way! That was why she left? No way! It certainly explained why she left though... wow. Dislike for her mother aside, she sure had guts having a thing with a student... wow. That was kind of... wow.
"I have every reason to believe that he has no idea of your existence, but I do have his address and phone number for you."
Kakashi slid a small piece of paper across the table, and Naruto's human paws quickly snapped it up, allowing her eyes to scan the dried ink atop the paper surface; Minato Namikaze, 4 Hermit Avenue, East Hokage, Konoha. 01573-857-099.
"...I haven't made any contact with him; that's not for me to do. The address is there if you want to get in touch. I did some digging on him, and he works at-"
"He works at Konoha General..." Naruto whispered, staring at the small sheet of paper.
Naruto stared at the piece of paper in the swimming feelings of disbelief and confusion. There couldn't be any mistaking that name – Namikaze wasn't that common a name, and Kakashi didn't have a shred of doubt in his findings to her eyes.
He was her father? He had been that close this whole time, and she didn't know? What kind of twisted mess was this? She felt Sasuke tug the small square of paper from her fingers, then heard the sharp intake of breath as he read the words scribbled in Kakashi's untidy scrawl.
"Minato?"
"You know him?" Kakashi asked, looking a little surprised.
"He's Tamamo's doctor; after she caught pneumonia, he sort of took charge of her permanently..." Sasuke replied, the stun in his voice evident.
Naruto felt eyes on her, but she couldn't think anything of them; he was her father? Well it certainly confirmed the fact that he didn't know who she was, or there would have been fireworks when they first met outside the neonatal ICU. This... he was her father?
That... so Tsunade was her grandmother? She had been there all along too? Who thought up shit like this? The gods? Screw them! This was just cruel! She had been looking for her family all this time, and they were right under her nose? That wasn't fair!
"Didn't you say that Kushina had blonde hair?" Sasuke asked, jerking Naruto's attention to the conversation.
She had thought that too, especially since she had heard it form the old landlady her self. Did that mean it was someone else who had dumped her at the orphanage? Or had Kushina dyed her hair? She couldn't imagine it would have been cheap or easy – she had dyed her hair that shade once herself, and getting all the red roots covered had been a nightmare.
Salons were expensive, so she couldn't image Kushina splashing cash on hair dye without a job... it just wasn't practical, plus Tsunade had advised her against using those strong chemicals when she was pregnant. She hadn't planned on drinking any or something, but Tsunade was insistent, so she had obliged... Tsunade! She was her grandmother!
"That, I admit, puzzles me. Mrs. Utatane told me she was a nurse too, but that theory has been blown out of the water... My guess is that it was someone acting on her behalf, but I can't even guess who. She's done a good job of hiding herself..."
Not a nurse, not blonde, who had left her there then? Did her mother even have any clue she had been left at an orphanage? Why would she go to all that trouble to hide her appearance? To sign with her own name at the hotel, go to all that trouble to make sure she was looked after, even if it was only for a month?
"I think I'll come back another day; this seems to have been a bit of an earthquake. I'll leave the file I've gathered here for you."
"Thanks Kakashi..."
There was a sound of footsteps, of a door opening and closing. This... This was so surreal. She had been searching for anyone she could be related to, and now she had found her father and her grandmother, hiding right under her nose. At least she had the comfort that they were nice people, not druggies or murderers or something (Sasori didn't count since his murderous act was requested).
"Naruto?"
She looked up, felling like she was blinking for the first time. Sasuke was seated beside her again, looking only a few fractions less shell shocked than she was.
"I can't... They were right there? All this time wondering, and they were right there all along?"
Minato; the nice doctor with the stupid grin was her father, and Tsunade! She had been there even longer than Minato! She had been her Obstetrician or whatever it was called, as well as her midwife... right from the start! Right from that stupid notion to get an abortion, she had been right in front of her!
Water spilled from her tear ducts completely of their own accord; damn it, why was she crying? Why waste tears on this? Were they happy, sad or frustrated? Why was she crying? It was stupid!
Stupid as they were, she didn't stop the reassurance from the arms winding themselves around her shoulders.
Naruto glared at the piece of paper that laid on her coffee table with a passion before turning it towards the telephone instead, and back to the paper once again. it had been a month since the meeting with Kakashi, and she had yet to call the number on the piece of paper.
It wasn't that she hadn't tried, but there was always something better to do, or she didn't have the time; she was running out of excuses, but picking up the phone had never seemed so terrifying - Sasuke, for his part, found her dithering around the phone to be an irritating amusement.
Everything seemed to have snapped back into place with the arrival of the information; Yahiko had started letting Sasuke loose on actual plugs, Killer Bee had given everyone a pay rise because the new shop in Suna had taken off so well, Sakura was back on speaking terms with Tayuya, and her father was out of jail. Even Itachi had some good news of his own; he had a girlfriend now – Kiba's sister, of all people.
Everything was good, except for the matter of the piece of paper.
"Mama!"
The energetic little blur dashed from the doorway and clambered onto the sofa with impressive speed, and Naruto resigned herself to the routine attempt at squashing. Sasuke snickered as he hung up their coats by the door.
"Hello hell spawn; did you have a good time with Papa?" Naruto asked, giving the almost-two-year-old a suffocating squeeze of her own.
"Grams made shaved ice!" the redhead squealed.
The traces of sticky lemon flavouring at the edges of her mouth told Naruto that Tamamo's visit with her grandparents had been a very enjoyable one.
"Really? What else did you have for dinner?"
"Soup and Mice! Papa and Unca Tachi made it!"
"That's Rice," Sasuke corrected, pulling off his shoes.
Alarm crossed Naruto's face and she mad no effort to hide it as Sasuke took a seat of his own in his second-choice chair - Mikoto had let Tamamo eat food that Sasuke had played a hand in making? Had she gone insane? He was good for chopping only – and only because he was a filer. He had the DVD's alphabetised by genre, and his need to organize everything stretched to even food portions. That didn't mean he could cook though.
"I didn't cook anything - just chopped the cabbage. Itachi burned the water when he tried boiling it though; mother threw us both out at that point..." Sasuke reassured her, sounding very much like he was sulking.
Naruto let out a sigh of relief - the last time she had eaten something Sasuke had made had been on white day in her second year of middle school. She'd had digestive problems for three days even if the food had tasted all right at first bite.
Half listening to her daughter chatter on about interaction with her grandfather - who knew Fugaku Uchiha was capable of the coin-behind-the-ear trick? - she allowed her eyes to wander back to the piece of paper.
She didn't understand what she was so afraid of; being dumped on a doorstep was a pretty big one to top, but if Kakashi was to be believed Minato didn't know a thing about her.
"Grams said Mama has to visit next time!" Tamamo informed her pointedly, making a very determined expression.
Naruto nodded, and her daughter resumed the chatter. Family was such a foreign thing to her, but the craving for it just wouldn't die. This was nothing more than nerves really, and she'd played in enough music contests to handle nerves right? It had to be the same sort of thing; just pushing it to the side and getting on with the show was the best way to go.
Tamamo dropped her chatter in favour of the TV; it was a nature documentary on forest animals. Naruto's attention was perked by the appearance of a litter of fox kits. Tamamo was equally fascinated and dropped off the sofa to get a closer view of the screen.
After giving a warning about screen closeness, Sasuke took the opportunity to steal back his usual corner on the furnishing. Naruto proceeded to turn him into her usual pillow; she'd used it a lot the past few days.
"You should just get it over with; I doubt the guy's going to eat you through the phone."
"I never said I was thinking about that."
"You were staring at the address again" Sasuke replied.
His eyes glanced at Tamamo, and he issued a warning before she got too close the screen; he glanced at the programme, and winced as a fox tore into a mole on the TV screen.
"Is this really safe for her to watch?" he asked, gesturing with a raised eyebrow to Tamamo.
"Are you kidding? She hasn't made a sound since it came on! She loves it!" Naruto grinned.
Indeed, Tamamo sat in the chair closer to the screen, staring with wide eyed fascination as the baby foxes chewed on the dead mole with vigour. Sasuke remained unconvinced until the girl began yawning in the chair as the documentary neared it's end. It was hardly the typical bedtime story, but anything that would get Tamamo to sleep was game in his book.
As Sasuke carried the sleepy girl to her room, Naruto glanced at the paper once again, and then to the clock on the digi-box. Eight PM; there was still time to make a phone call, and she was more likely to avoid interrupting any business now. It was as good a time as any really. Taking a deep breath, she snatched the paper from the coffee table, moved to the phone an removed it form it's dock with determined resolve.
The three rings before the line was picked up were agonizingly slow, but oddly not slow enough. Naruto suddenly found herself in conversation with her father.
"Hello, Minato Namikaze speaking."
Naruto felt her breath stick to the back of her throat.
Minato answered his phone curiously; it was odd for him to receive one. He had a completely different number for work, and he didn't have that many friends, so he didn't often receive them at home.
"Hello?" he asked, curiosity peaking by the second.
He heard something reminiscent of a choking noise, but received nothing in the way of a reply. his curiosity peaked again.
"Hello?" he asked again.
There was another choking noise before a squawk of shock emerged through the speaker and there was a clattering noise – the caller seemed to have dropped the phone on their end.
"Ah, I'm sorry, uh, this..."
"Naruto?"
He blinked in surprise; how did Naruto know his home phone number? They didn't give it out at the hospital and he had never given it to her. What did she want? Was Tamamo sick again? Why didn't she just call him at the hospital?
"Uh, Yeah, that's me... I'm sorry to be a bother Dr. Namikaze, but would it be possible to meet up sometime this week? There's something that I... I need to discuss with you... its not a medical thing but, it's important..."
Normally accepting such an invitation from one of his patients would have been unwise, but something about the well hidden desperation in her voice threw suspicion out of the window. Naruto had been a child herself (in the eyes of the law) after giving birth, so she had been under his watch during her recovery. He knew her a lot better than most patients, and if she was being this serious about something, it had to be important.
"Why not? I could use a jostle in my day for once. I have a few hours free tomorrow afternoon, would that be suitable?" he asked, failing to keep the grin from crossing his face.
"Tomorrow? I mean, uh, Yes as long as it doesn't get in the way of-"
"It's fine Naruto, can you come by my office about one?" he ventured.
"Uh, one is good... Uh, Thank you so much! Really, thank you! Um, Goodbye!"
There was a clatter as the nerve-racked owner of the voice replaced her phone on its holder, ending the phone call. He stared at the phone for a few moments before replacing it himself. Things had suddenly become a lot more interesting.
When Sasuke returned from putting down the smallest member of his red-haired family, it was to see Naruto stood in the middle of the room staring dumbly at the phone; she hadn't even bothered to turn off the game show that had replaced the fox documentary.
That raised an eyebrow given she hated them with a passion. she seemed to have finally got the damn phone call out of the way, but he wasn't sure if her reaction was a good one or a bad one; she wasn't making enough of an expression or showing any of her nervous ticks to make an informed decision.
He poked her in the shoulder a couple of times and she still retained her glazed expression; it wasn't exactly a blank look, it looked more like the distant one she got playing her sax or sketching...
After a moment pondering the inevitable violence that would follow his actions he pulled her towards him and kissed her. She was so dazed, his hand was wriggling under her shirt and she was nibbling on his lip before she came to her senses.
She whacked him on the shoulder several times and hissed about stupid horny perverts (she somehow managed to restrict the yelling once Tamamo had been put down for the night) before she calmed down.
"What was that for, all out of the blue like that?" she huffed, crossing her arms defensively.
"You don't have to sound so disgusted you know" he grumbled rolling his eyes and dragging her down onto the sofa again.
"Answer the question perv" she persisted, though seemingly less objectionable; she didn't object to his hands running her sides at any rate.
"I poked you three times and you still didn't answer - how'd the call go?" he asked, stopping his hands; given he more serious nature of the matter it didn't seem appropriate for the moment.
Naruto ignored the question, instead attempting to continue what she had been violently objecting to moments earlier - she had to go for his neck too, that was always a weak spot damn it! He didn't really see why he was objecting...
Well, he didn't object to the attention, but dodging the issue was what had set them back almost two years in the first place. Placing a hand either side of her shoulder, her forced her to look him in the eye and gave her the 'spit-it-out' glare. Her face contorted a little before she flopped down and mumbled something into his chest.
"Naruto, I can't hear you when you talk to my t-shirt" he complained.
Naruto pulled her head up and repeated the answer.
"I'm meeting him at the hospital tomorrow" she blurted, almost too fast for him to hear.
Sasuke wished he'd just let her do the neck thing when he had the chance.
Naruto stared at the huge building in front of her; the main entrance of Konoha General Hospital had never looked so big and imposing before. It seemed to occupy even her peripheral vision, like it was following her. She felt sick at the sight of it. She'd been feeling sick all day at the thought of meeting her daughter's doctor as her... father.
She had called Minato last night at the number Kakashi had given her (apparently a home number). He had been very surprised to get a call from her at his home rather the hospital, but he seemed to take it in his stride, and had agreed to meet her during his lunch break.
She hadn't mentioned where she got his number, or why she wanted to talk. It was a stupid way of discussing what she wanted to ask him; a phone could be slammed onto a receiver in cowardice all too easily. No, face to face was the only way she would be able to say anything to him, ask him anything.
But what was she supposed to say? 'Hi, did you have fling with your teacher, cuz if you did, you might be my dad'? Oh yes, that would go down swimmingly.
Taking a deep breath she pushed open the door and headed for the lifts; she didn't know if it was luck or a curse that one had just arrived. The floors seemed to speed by in a slow, dreamy pace, but the paediatric floor arrived all too quickly. One of he nurses waved at her – it was the green haired intern who had been at Tamamo's birth.
Should she go see Tsunade too, or was it better to let Minato tell her in his own time? She had been close to Tsunade though, so it might be an insult not to tell her herself... Gods of Fire, she hadn't even spoken to Minato yet. Finding his office was easy, and she sat down on one of the hall chairs.
He had said to wait there for him, but she didn't know if it was any comfort. She couldn't get her thoughts together at all. How on earth did you tell someone they were your father? Should she even be telling him this in the middle of the day? He had suggested the tiume, but this wasn't the sort of thing a doctor needed in the middle of the day was it?
God, why was she here? He'd probably be happier not knowing anything about her more than he already did! It'd save her from setting herself up for a fall – he might take it badly after all. Did she want to risk that? He was already a sort of friend, and his brother was Sasuke's boss!
What if it got weird for him because of all this? Shit, that made him her uncle didn't it? Oh for the love of fire, who next? Was Gaara going to turn out her second cousin thrice removed? She was half considering getting up and high tailing it out of the hospital when a familiar voice echoed through the hallway, calling her name.
She turned her head in the direction and was greeted with Tsunade.
"It's nice to see you again, but what are you doing here? I don't see Tamamo anywhere... Is Minato seeing her?" the blonde midwife asked, looking around curiously.
"I..."
Naruto's tongue froze; she didn't know what she was supposed to say. Was she supposed to just come out and say it? She hadn't spoken to Minato yet! She didn't know what to tell Tsunade! The woman must have noticed her discomfort because she sat down on the chair next to her.
"Naruto? Did something happen to her again? Where's Sasuke?"
Again? What was she talking about? Oh, right, the intervention when Tamamo got pneumonia. Tsunade had helped her out a lot there; she really did owe her for that. If she hadn't said all she had, things wouldn't have turned out so well at all. What had she said? Half of it was a blur now...
She remembered that she had been pretty insistent on the age thing – that had been kind of odd. Still, it was thanks to Tsunade that she was still together with Sasuke, that they were standing on their own two feet now. She at least owed her the truth about all this didn't she? Tsunade had helped her out so much, even if she chickened out of telling Minato, she owed it to Tsunade.
"It's not that. It's more... It's a personal thing I guess." she replied, finally finding her voice.
"Personal?" the blonde asked, a frown marring her features.
Naruto nodded silently.
"Kakashi... He came by last night with some stuff on my mother... He said that Dr. Namikaze... That he knew her..."
"D-Did he tell you her name?" Tsunade asked.
"Kushina Uzumaki; he said she used to be a...
She started explaining, maintaining eye contact, but as Tsunade's face began to loosen into disbelief, something began to snap into place.
Tsunade had always been there hadn't she? She sometimes looked at her with a strange expression when she thought she wasn't looking. She had asked Minato to take care of Tamamo himself... She had done far more for her than the average midwife or obstetrician.
"Naruto, you've only just passed your seventeenth birthday by a few months. I'm not saying you aren't a good parent, because you're doing a lot better than some women just by being here...You simply haven't matured enough to deal with that kind of responsibility by yourself yet."
She had been very insistent on the age thing too. Concentrating, she could remember her saying just as much. Very insistent actually, thinking back it was almost like she was talking from personal experience, but she knew that Tsunade hadn't had her kids at the same age...
"Can't say where she came from – very tight lipped on that sort of thing she was, but she seemed the posh type. Blonde, looked like she was from one of those well-bred families. As for her job, I think she worked in a hospital. Always had a nurses outfit on when she came back for the night at any rate..."
Blonde. A nurses outfit. Tsunade wasn't a nurse, she was a midwife, but there wasn't much difference between the two uniforms was there? This... Naruto stared at Tsunade for a few moments, before rising from the chair as anger began to tremble through her.
"You knew... You knew all this time didn't you? It was you who left me there wasn't it...? You left me at the orphanage!"
The lack of denials or consternation was enough of an answer for her; Tsunade just sat there calmly, though apparently she had the decency to look guilty. That didn't make up for it though! She had left her, and then she'd had the nerve to walk around under her nose knowing everything all this time!
"Why the hell... You just... What, were you doing, trying to make up for dumping me there? You think walking around under my nose like that would make up for it? No! You just... You don't get off like that!"
"Naruto, I know you're mad but just let me explain, please. I know it was a horrible thing to do, but I had my reas-"
"No! Don't you dare try say anything to me! You dumped me, and then you lied right to my face! You knew I was looking for my family! You could have told me any time you wanted! You don't get off from this!" Naruto snapped loudly.
Very loudly; several people in the hall way had paused to stare at the two women in the middle of a very serious argument, one of them a top employee of the hospital no less. Tsunade was just as oblivious as she was, and began to take several steps towards her, hands in a calming gesture.
"Naruto, please! I know how this must feel but-"
Naruto punched her square in the jaw before she could say anything. She had no right to even think that sentence!
"NO! You can't just abandon someone and then think hanging around in front of them like bait is going to make it right! You knew I was looking for... " she yelled, feeling tears spilling from her eyes.
She knew what it felt like? She had no clue! She had no fucking clue what this felt like. She'd spent years hating her parents, more recently her mother, and now Tsunade, someone she had trusted, turned out to be the source of all her grief? She liked Tsunade! She had liked her before she turned out to be her grandmother! But this...
"You don't have a clue Tsunade! You don't know anything! You dumped me on a fucking doorstep! You don't have any idea how it fee-"
"What the heck is going on here?"
Naruto froze as the voice of, there was no doubt about it now, her father. Oh god, he had to turn up now didn't he? This wasn't fair! Turning to look behind her, she could easily see to flummoxed expression on his face. His eyes flickered from Naruto's fists, both of which were still tightly clenched, her fingers digging into her palms to try keep her rage under control. Then they moved to the red mark on Tsunade's jaw and widened.
"Minato... What are you doing here?" Tsunade asked, suddenly very anxious.
"I'm asking the questions! What the hell is going on?"
She didn't answer him, refusing to meet his piercing gaze; his eyes seemed so unfriendly now. The bright quality that he shared with her own was gone, reflecting like a hard glint instead. Naruto had never seen him mad before, and if she hadn't be so utterly incensed herself, she would probably felt a tiny shiver.
He turned towards Naruto.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to share what's going on?" he asked.
Naruto probably should have held her tongue, tried to keep herself calm, but she couldn't be anywhere near either of them now. Not after that realisation.
"She dumped her own granddaughter off at a fucking orphanage is what's going on!" she spat.
Naruto glared once at Tsunade, before disappearing down the hallway, give only a moments glance to the stunned expression on her father's face.
Sasuke watched as Tamamo fumbled around in the sandpit with a boy about five years old.
Naruto had been gone well past an hour, and he hoped that was a good thing; so many dead ends wasn't exactly a morale boost. He wanted her to find her parents, he did, but there was always the possibility her parents wouldn't be welcoming. Naruto said she only wanted to know where she came from, but that was a two faced lie if ever he saw one; she wanted their acceptance, should she find either of them, or at the very least a good explanation.
Exhaling a breath of air he slumped back on the bench and kept his gaze on the little girl; she really was like a clone of Naruto, right down to her knack of getting into trouble. Like now; he wasn't sure what she planning to do with that sand in her tiny fists, but he knew it wouldn't be a good thing. He was right - she was approaching the pale eyed five year old from behind hands held high.
"Tamamo..." he growled in a warning tone.
The girl turned to look at him; she hadn't quite managed to achieve the blameless look her mother had perfected, but she was close. She immediately dropped the sand behind her back and pulled a cheesy grin on her small face. Sasuke maintained the strict face, though he wouldn't deny the tugging on his heartstrings a little (he dreaded the day when Naruto taught her the puppy-dog eyes). She ran up on sturdy little legs and tugged his trouser leg, hopping up and down impatiently.
"Jooce pease"
"Milk" Sasuke informed her.
The last time he'd given her juice she'd not fallen asleep till ten pm; the sad thing was it wasn't even full of additives - his mother had been testing out a new juicer with some oranges. Whoever said only sugar made kids hyper was lying through their teeth. Milk wasn't much better really, but the girl wouldn't drink anything else – she hated water.
Pulling out one of the mini, multi-pack bottles from his rucksack her handed it to the disgruntled two year old. After unscrewing the top and taking several gulps she looked up at him again.
"Where's Mama?"
Sasuke stumbled over the answer for a few moments; he didn't know how to explain the situation that her two year old mind would understand. if he said she was meeting someone, she would ask why, and he couldn't exactly answer that if he didn't really know himself.
"Mama went to... fight a big scary monster"
"Like the Cupboard Monster? With big teeth?"
Sasuke was alarmed when instead of growing terrified her eyes lit up; was that a good thing? He knew Naruto liked horror films, but for a two year old to like the Cupboard Monster was not usual was it? Weren't they usually terrified of it? He'd certainly been petrified of them when he was a kid, embarrasingly so. He knew letting her watch all those nature documentaries was a bad idea...
"Loads of teeth; lots and lots of... teeth... Why don't you go back and play in the sandbox hell spawn?"
Sasuke really wished he hadn't said that even if it was somewhat true; he didn't like this sudden fascination of his daughter's with teeth. Thankfully, the miniature redhead immediately found the sandbox more interesting than her mother's monster battles.
As she turned away, he caught sight of an older couple giving her that look; he hated those narrow minded bigots. he could understand the looks when they were directed at him, he didn't like them when they were directed at Naruto but he couldn't deny he did understand them.
He failed to understand why a two-year-old should receive such a disgusted look though. A glance towards the sandpit once again and he almost choked when the scene in front of him was translated to his brain; Tamamo was persuading the five-year-old boy with the scarf to eat the sand, non-voluntairily.
"Tamamo Chidori Uzumaki, stop that right now!"
It wasn't the sound of Naruto's voice that startled him, but the tone. He hadn't heard her that angry since... The last time he had heard her that angry was when they broke up for the first time. Even when She had yelled at him during his father's intervention, she hadn't been that angry, and she had certainly never used the tone with Tamamo. In fact, Sasuke had never heard her use the girl's middle name like that before...
Tamamo, for her part, looked like a bomb had dropped on her; she had never seen Naruto on full warpath before, even if she had been scolded for some of the pranks that were a little too dangerous for her mother's comfort. The sand in her hands had drained from her fingers in utter shock at the tone in Naruto's voice.
As he spotted Naruto's face, he quickly decided that the best place to be was in between the two of them. Naruto was incensed enough to lash out at someone right now. Maybe not physically, and certainly not at Tamamo, but the shouting would definitely make an appearance if he left her to herself.
Quickly he caught her arm and dragged her over to the bench he had been sitting on as she approached the sandpit; he felt his skin turn a shade paler at the expression on her face. What on earth had happened?
Naruto glared at him for a moment, but after a glance at her stunned, anxious, two year old, she seemed to get her anger back under control, and forced her face into a mildly irritated expression instead of the utter fury that had been there before.
"What happened?" he asked quietly.
Naruto grinned at Tamamo until the shock seemed to leave her face and she turned back to the sand, albeit with much more reserve than she had before. Naruto watched for a few moments before slumping over onto his shoulder. The alarm grew when he felt a tell-tale patch of damp material growing on his shirt sleeve.
"Naruto?"
Naruto didn't reply. She didn't say anything else for the rest of the day.
Minato wasn't sure if he should be fuming or confused as he opened the door to his parent's house; His mother had finished earlier than he had, so he'd had a nightmare of an afternoon processing what seemed to have happened.
Naruto was his daughter. Naruto. The little red head he had almost mistaken for Kushina when he first saw her in the hospital. She was his daughter? And his mother knew? He was veering towards being utterly incensed with fury, but he needed to keep his head on his shoulders for a little while longer.
Naruto had obviously found out before he arrived, and she clearly hadn't taken it well. He wondered if that was why she had wanted to meet up, to tell him the news herself. He knew she had a PI digging up anything on her mother, but that was as much as he had bothered to ask. Maybe he should have...
"Kid? What are you doing here?" his father asked as he stomped into the living room of his childhood home – he couldn't help it, keeping a cool head right now was much harder than it looked.
"Where's Mother?" he asked, trying to keep the bite out of his voice.
His fathers eyes widened in surprise at the tone in his voice; it wasn't often he got so angry that it could be heard in verbal undertones, and even less frequently with his parents or brother (though he did loose it with Yahiko a little more often).
"What's got you so wound up?" Jiraiya asked, completely lowering his notepad and pen in intrigue.
"I wish I knew – wheres is she?"
"I'm right here Minato..."
He whirled round to face the blonde woman standing in the kitchen doorway. Everything about her expression, the way she slumped against the door frame, was a tell tale sign that he was not going to like the answer to his questions.
"What the hell is going on? How is it that you seem to know all about a daughter I didn't even know existed?" he snapped.
Keeping calm really was more difficult than it looked; his father really did drop the pad and pen in shock, and Minato tried to concentrate on his stunned expression. It was something else to think about instead of yelling. Yelling would be useless right now.
"I can give you an answer Minato but I can't tell you everything. I don't know what Kushina was thinking then so..."
"Just tell me!" he yelled, loosing a little of his self-control.
His mother glanced at him nervously for the first time since appearing in the doorway, before entering the room and seating herself wearily on one of the sofas. He caught the hint that the explanation was going to be a long one, and copied the action with a stony face.
"Tsunade, can you go check on the woman in room thirteen? Poor thing's all by herself, and time isn't going quickly for her"
After nodding to her fellow midwife, Tsunade started down the hall for room thirteen. She couldn't get her usual enthusiasm into her work recently, and the axe hovering over the head of the hospital wasn't helping matters.
Minato had been acting completely... He had turned into a zombie these past months. Ever since that teacher of his had disappeared from the school without a word of explanation. Well, Kushina wasn't exactly a teacher for him. They certainly didn't scream it out to the open, but Tsunade knew her two boys, and she knew love when she saw it.
That had been obvious on his face last year, but now, he acted like something had died inside him. She didn't know what she could say to him to get the life back into him. She wasn't supposed to know about his relationship with Kushina after all, and for all she knew she could just be making matters worse.
Sighing in frustration, she opened the door to greet the woman inside. Her jaw dropped as the face of Kushina Uzumaki stared back at her own in surprised horror.
"K-Kushina? What are you-? You-"
Her eyes moved slowly to the distended stomach that could only mean pregnancy and the cogs behind the woman's disappearance bean to click and whir into place. Oh dear hell on earth... No wonder she had jumped of the face of Fire Country. Minato may have been tall for his age, but he had only just turned sixteen a few months ago...
"M-Mrs. Namikaze? What are you... Do you work here?" Kushina asked, her flushed face paling in panic.
"I'm your midwife..."
Oh dear god. She didn't know what she was suppose to do in this situation. On the one hand she had a job to do, but on the other, the job was her son's teacher-turned-lover who was brimming over with... her grandkid. Dear god, she was a grandmother, and she was only thirty seven! No, that wasn't the issue...
She quickly closed the door behind her and began checking the baby's heart rate, Kushina's heart rate, her bloods... those were both a little off, though nothing dangerous. They bugged her for some reason, but she couldn't remember where she had seen the same thing before.
She settled awkwardly into one of the chairs next to her bed. She's have to wait until she could time the contractions, and the waiting gave her more time to let this sudden revelation sink in.
Her son, her sixteen-year-old, was a father; did Minato know? She'd guess not, but he was acting incredibly depressed. Maybe he did know after all, and had been hit by two nasty meteors these past few months.
"Does he know?" she asked, rubbing her temples, trying to banish the problem with the power of thought.
Kushina blinked in confusion, then her eyes widened.
"You knew?" she asked, voice hardly more than a whisper.
"I suspected, but it wasn't my buisness to ask or assume... Does he know Kushina?"
The red-haired woman shook her head looking away again; guilt was sprawled across her face as she flopped back in the bed. Tsunade had no idea what she was supposed to say to the woman now; was she supposed to be mad or glad that Minato knew absolutely nothing of this? There was fault and gain on either side of the coin.
What was Kushina going to do? Was she going to tell Minato in the future or keep this under the rug for the rest of her life? This was so confusing, and she didn't have any idea what she was supposed to do to handle this situation. Kushina was going to give birth to her grandkid in the next few hours at the earliest, to her youngest son's baby...
This certainly wasn't something they prepared you for at medical school; the air was filled with the unease and nervousness from both occupants of the room, and it was suffocating. Tsunade found herself praying to the gods of fire country to do something, anything for a distraction.
Apparently they listened, because a fierce contraction ripped through the woman on the bed; Tsunade's internal timer had already taken note of the time for the technical details as she stood from her seat and reseated herself on the edge of the bed as Kushina curled forward from the pain.
It seemed... too strong for such an early contraction; people had different pain thresholds, but this was different. Major worries aside though, the woman shouldn't have come in by herself. She needed someone for moral support, especially given the situation she was in, and Tsunade could give her at least that much.
Perched beside the woman, she pulled her into a calming embrace. The reaction was immediate, and Tsunade wondered how long the woman had gone on without contact from anyone she even remotely knew.
"Do you know the gender?" Tsunade asked.
The contraction had passed some time ago, and there was an awkward atmosphere set heavily in the room once again. Kushina perked up a little at the question, and smiled for the first time since the blonde had entered the room.
"No, but a have a name for both. It works either way, so I don't have to worry about picking one, or getting hung up on a boy or a girl. It let's me have that surprise..." Kushina replied, staring out of the hospital window.
Tsunade nodded one, the frown on her face unseen by the redhead; something about her words had set off her gambling radar; it felt exactly like when she won a bet. Kushina sounded so final about the whole thing that it mad the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
What was Kushina planning to do? Why had she hidden this? She could understand why she had left her job, but why didn't she tell Minato? The situation was far from ideal, but there would have been a way to manage. Of course, it was really Kushina's decision as to what she did, but even if she didn't want to involve Minato, didn't he at least have some right to know about this?
"Is he alright?"
Tsunade jerked from her musings in surprise, not expecting the question, before wondering what she was supposed to say in reply. She could hardly tell her that he had turned into a zombie since she had left – even Jiraiya was having problems getting through to him, and Minato usually told him everything, far more than he did her. She couldn't really say he was a barrel of laughs though.
"He's... dealing" she replied, being deliberately vague with her answer.
Kushina gave her a considering glance – more than likely picking up on the thinly veiled truth – before curling up in response to another contraction. It gave Tsunade a chance to wonder what she was going to tell Jiraiya when she got home, never mind Minato. It didn't take a genius to realise that Kushina didn't want this news spread around, but that baby was still part of their family too.
Should she tell Jiraiya, Minato? Or should she just keep her mouth shut about the whole thing?
"Mrs. Namikaze, I realise that... I know I'm not the only one who has a say in what happens to this baby, but... I don't want him to know about this – it really is better if he doesn't know... He wouldn't be able to handle it, not now. I don't really know you all that well, so I can't ask like a friend would, but for now, I'm your patient so... please don't mention this to anyone, don't tell anyone you even saw me."
Tsundae's jaws dropped open a little at the request; damn the woman was a sneak, throwing her hippocratic oath in her face like that. She had completely forgotten about it, too shocked by the situation she had found herself in to remember the legalities of it.
Kushina didn't have to ask her to keep silent about this, she didn't have a choice.
Kushina went into labour three hours later. Tsunade had never heard someone scream so much, though her husband may have contested that notion (beyond her hearing of course). It didn't have any complications, though some things struck her as off, but Kushina seemed reluctant to respond the rapid increase in contractions for some time.
Respond she did though, and after nine hours Tsunade found herself with her arms full of her granddaughter; she had the same fiery hair as her mother, but her eyes stuck out the most. She knew that colour wasn't going to fade the moment she caught sight of those eyes. Kushina had taken hold of the girl only for a few moments, but it had been long enough for her to hear the girl's name being whispered from her lips.
Naruto; Naruto Mito Uzumaki. A fishcake and a maelstrom. Tsunade couldn't help but notice that it suited both sides of her genes - she recognised her own mother's name too. She had taken the girl for her postnatal checks then, and now she was staring at the tiny baby in the incubator in front of her – the girl was over a month early.
She should have been born in late October, but it was the 5th of September. She was bigger than most early newborns of the same age, and had a right set of lungs, but letting her leave the hospital just yet wouldn't be a good idea. Sighing to herself, she released the breaks on the portable incubator and started wheeling it back towards the room where Kushina lay recovering.
She still didn't know what she was going to do regarding Minato or the rest of her family; part of her was screaming that Kushina had been an idiot for hiding this, but another part knew just how right she was about her son not being capable of handling a baby. He had his head in the clouds most of the day, he was utterly oblivious to the hardships of parenting, and much as she hated to admit it, he wasn't going to change that any time soon.
She wasn't really planning on leaving the job to himself, but even with help from she and Jiraiya, it would still be more than he was mentally prepared for. He was a mature kid, but he was still a complete and utter dreamer. But still, the idea of keeping this from him... was not a pleasant one. It was much unpleasant actually. This girl was family, and you didn't abandon family, no matter what the circumstances.
She pushed open the door to the hospital room, and stepped inside with the incubator. It was only when she caught sight of the rumpled sheets and note on the pillow that she realised there was no one occupying it. She snatched the note from the pillow, unfolding it and quickly scanning the neat handwriting.
Mrs. Namikaze,
I know that this is absolutely despicable, but I'm asking you one more favour as a patient; please find a place for her. I can't do it, I can't raise her. I want to, but I can't – I'm a coward. I trust you, so please make sure she's somewhere safe... and Please, please, don't let him find out about her. In the future, maybe it would be better to tell him, but not yet.
I'm sorry for all the problems I've caused you in the past few hours.
Kushina.
The hotel was a clean, well kept building, and the couple who ran it seemed nice. That was why she chose it; it was almost midnight, but the light in the reception were still on, and she had booked the room. Now she was sitting on the edge of a bed, phone in one hand as she came up with a crackpot excuse for her husband as to why she wouldn't be home for a while.
"Two weeks? Tsunade why don't you just come back home? Sarutobi's isn't that far away!" her husband complained when she informed him of just how long she would be absent.
In truth she would probably be gone more than two weeks; the two weeks were going to be enough for Naruto to get up to a weight and size that would be better for her health in the long run at the hospital, but after that she didn't know what she was going to do. Her best bet would be to find a care home of some kind, but some of them were dodgy.
"That's a lie and you know it! The districts couldn't be further apart – it's easier just to stay at a hotel while I help out here with the new interns."
Jiraiya sighed in irritation on the other end of the phone, and she couldn't help but wish he would get off the phone so she could let out one of her own. What on earth was Kushina thinking? She had expected some reservations about this whole mess, but just abandoning her daughter like that? Tsunade didn't claim to know Kushina very well – she had only met the woman at Minato and Yahiko's parents' evenings and in passing – but she was pretty sure she wasn't the type who would enjoy doing something like this!
"Tsunade, Minato's not doing great and you know it – ever since that Kushina woman left he's been like the grey in the rocks. He completely snapped tonight! I knew they were close but... I assume you already know about this?"
Oh how she hated the irony of it all. Here she was holed up in a hotel on the other side of the huge bustling city of Konoha, stewing over what she was supposed to do with the granddaughter that had been rather abruptly placed in her hands, and her son had picked the time to finally have his emotional breakdown about the mother of the daughter he didn't even know he had.
"I had an inkling... Was it that bad?"
"I think he's broken his guitar. I heard the string snapping before I intervened, and he's definitely going to need a new desk chair. I forced some sake down his throat and he's been out like a dead log ever since. Sarutobi's picked a fine time to take on extra interns..."
The guitar? He wouldn't even let Jiraiya touch that thing! It had been the only reason he had applied for his first job, and had taken him months to save up for! It was his...
Tsunade stopped that thought immediately. Minato loved that guitar more than his own arm – it must have taken a great deal of anger for him to break that.
"Is it really going to take that long? This sort of things needs a softer hand, and I don't have that..."
"I'm sorry Jiraiya, but I can't. The hospital is completely swamped, and we need the extra pay after the plumbing burst anyway..."
Jiraiya grumbled for a few minuets, but buy the time he hung up, Tsunade knew the wool was thickly covering his eyes. Now all she had to do was find a way to deal with this situation; she couldn't tell Minato at Kushina's non-requisitional request (stupid oath), but she couldn't completely abandon her own granddaughter.
But that was the decision she was faced with wasn't it? Find a nice care home for Naruto and do her best to look out for her with the inheritance from her grandparents, or take her home whilst Minato was having an emotional breakdown and hope it would all work out.
Her eyes skimmed back to the note Kushina had left her with and she buried her head in her hands; what was that woman thinking? what on earth made her think she couldn't look after her daughter? seeing Minato in her? Bullshit! she could tell that was an absolute lie!
Kushina had another reason for leaving Naruto with her, but she couldn't even begin to imagine what that reason could be.
Tsunade pulled her car up a street away from the orphanage and sat there for a long time before exiting it; she dint want to do this. she did not want to leave her granddaughter in the hands of strangers, in the care of the government, but Kushina had asked her, and her own maternal senses were screaming that the woman had the right idea.
Besides, it wasn't like it would be permanent would it? she'd tell Minato when he was older, more responsible, capable of looking after a child; he would be mad at her, she knew that, but she didn't mind that so much as she wanted both her son and her granddaughter to have as normal an upbringing as possible.
It was 4am, and it was a freezing October 10th morning, but she had made sure there was something for the girl. There was the hotel receipt with her name on, and her own family heirloom in the box with her, and she had set up an account for the girl with some of the money from her overtime and family savings.
That would see for future expenses and making sure she had enough money to afford the healthcare at Konoha General instead of Sarutobi's. That left her breathing a little easier.
She didn't dare leave the girl's real birth certificate, but she couldn't get rid of it either; it wasn't like this was going to be forever though, so she just had to keep it out of the way until Minato was older. She knew how to hide things from her husband better than he knew how to hide his porn magazines after all.
She still didn't like this though; she didn't want to leave the tiny girl in the care of complete strangers when she and Jirayia, if not her son, were both perfectly capable of raising her themselves.
But... Kushina had sworn her in on keeping the existence of her granddaughter a secret, and there wasn't much she could do to argue that – it was her oath! In the light of that – and the obvious truth to Kushina's thoughts on Minato's reaction – this was the best she could do.
She stared at the lightly snoring month old baby in the box on the passenger seat beside her for a few moments before unbuckling her seatbelt; she had done what she could to make sure Naruto was going to grow up in a decent place, and had given her the most support she could with the time she had managed to get.
Besides, it wasn't going to be permanent; that thought plagued her mind as she carefully placed the old ramen box on the doorstep of the care home and headed back to her car.
Took me a while to write this chapter. I kept changing what to put in it and the order of events. I kept having brainwaives for later plot development, and I had to rearrange things so the timings were all right. I'm a stickler for timings, even if no-one else picks them out and sends me messages goi 'err... how does that work to that? Isn't that sudden?'.
I put the timing in as very subtle mentions, so I get quite a few of those... I can't write them in obviously though, or there's no surprises! It's an eternal paradox! Or is it an oxymoron? I can't remember the exact word – here I passed higher english and I still can't tell the difference between a paradox and an oxymoron. I'm ashamed... T_T;
I don't know if anyone's noticed the change in character name on the info section, but there is an actual character for FemNaru now! A Nauruko Uzumaki section! Someone told me in a revied for Blurred Sound, and I actually squealed and danced after I checked to make sure!
I'm not going to change the character name in these since I don't want to loose the essence of Naruto's charecter, nor the connotations of the name, but I've moved all my FemNaru stories under this category now.
There were only a few Indonesian ones before, so fellow Naruko writers, I pass on the message; add your stories to this category!
Okie dokey. I'm done.
The quote is 'Secrets'by One Republic.
Hope you all liked the chapter.
Nat.
xxx