He had been watching her for nearly a month now, as per his orders. The woman in the house below had once been a kunoichi of Konoha, that was almost thirteen years ago. After that, the woman left Konoha, she officially retired from active service. The Sandaime eventually allowed it on the condition that the woman would never again act as a kunoichi in any situation other than defending her life.

Earlier today, the woman was finally outed as having broken that condition. She was hiring herself out as a mercenary, doing odd jobs here and there. Specifically, she was donning shinobi attire and using her Konoha-trained skills to perform these jobs. This was unacceptable. He had his orders.

He had waited for her to go to town that evening, as she always did. No sooner had she left did the young ANBU drop down and enter the modest-sized house. The woman's husband, an average-looking blacksmith, didn't even sense his presence before the operative knocked him unconscious. The young child, a boy of perhaps four years of age, succumbed to a genjutsu easily enough. He tied the two males together, back to back, and used ninja-wire to suspend them from the ceiling. It would be the first sight the woman would see when she returned. He had then waited.

She returned in the same amount of time she always had, exactly fifteen minutes after leaving. The woman walked into the house, announcing her return as usual, and when no response came she finally looked up and gasped at seeing her spouse and child hanging in the middle of the room. So distraught and caught off-guard was she that the operative was instantly behind her and a knife-edged chop to the back of the neck blackened the world of the former Konoha kunoichi, without so much as a struggle.

He shook his head. He had his orders.

Groggily, she opened her eyes and began to struggle in her binds when the attempt to raise a hand to her head failed, bringing her memory back online. A slight cough gained her attention and she snapped her head towards the noise. Her eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in fury at the sight of the Konoha ANBU.

"What are you doing here!? Why have you attacked my family!?" She demanded to know.

"I believe the appropriate question is, 'Why have you broken the condition placed upon you by Sandaime Hokage-sama?'" The operative replied bringing Kushina up short. She cursed when she realized what this was, though the heaviness of the situation hadn't yet dawned on her.

"It was just for some extra money! My husband hasn't been getting a lot of jobs lately, we have to provide for our son!" She quickly tried to explain; much to her chagrin the operative didn't seem to be moved at all by her family's plight.

"Your husband?' He finally spoke, looking towards the man and boy who were still unconscious. 'I was to understand that your husband was dead. As was your child." The words that brought back the memories of her first family were like ice-water to Kushina. Her head lowered in rememberance and she remained silent before speaking again.

"My first husband died, for Konoha. You know the story of the Yondaime so I wont repeat it. My...first son, he...he died too. I moved on." Her voice was barely above a whisper but it still echoed through-out the room.

The operative turned towards a nearby counter top and reached up and took hold of his mask. The woman watched in curiousity as the ANBU removed his mask and then shook out his hair. Her eyes widened a bit at the sight of it, the golden, spiky hair that had only ever belonged to one person.

"Hokage-sama gave me permission to reveal myself before completing my mission. Uzumaki Kushina-san. He said I might gain some closure." At this, the man turned around and Kushina gasped.

"Minato-koi!" She exclaimed but frowned soon after when the man shook his head and chuckled lowly.

"No. I am not my father, though it's surprising you even remember his name, given how quickly you moved on after his death." The operative simply stared down at the bound redhead and watched as a dozen emotions flew through her eyes.

"Na-Naruto?...Sochi-kun?" She finally stuttered out.

"Son? You actually call me that? Thirteen years, ten of which you knew about me and had every opportunity to return to Konoha and be there for me, but you can still call me son? Imagine that." Naruto reached over his left shoulder and withdrew his ninja-to, he eyed the blade carefully as he gave it a few test swings.

"I was told you were dead!" Kushina screamed at him, rousing her husband from his unconsciousness. Upon opening his eyes and seeing the situation for what it was, he quickly began yelling at the blonde man in his home. Naruto paid no attention.

"I understand that for the first two years, you believed me to be dead. However, Hokage-sama found you. He told you I was still alive, and that I was all alone in Konoha. You didn't believe him." Naruto spoke over Kushina's husband's yelling and outrage.

"I...I couldn't take the chance that he was just trying to get me back to the village. That it was just a trick to make me come back so I could be a kunoichi again." She tried.
Naruto appeared to not believe it, as he shook his head.

"Whether it was a trick or not. He's your Kage. His orders are yours to follow. But you knew how he is, you know he wouldn't have tried such an underhanded tactic to get you to return. He would've bluntly told you to return and that would've been that. No. Instead you hid away. Then you found this man and moved on. Replaced my father with some common civilian. Replaced me with a new son." Naruto laid the short-sword on the counter and opened up his supply pouch and began pulling out a few items that he laid out on the counter as well.

Kushina was shaking her head in denial while her husband had grown quiet after hearing the teen's words. Naruto remained aloof as he spoke again.

"You know, before Hokage-sama took me in for training, I use to live on the street. Oh sure, I lived in the orphanage for a time, but the matron couldn't stand having the little demon-boy living under her roof. So she kicked me out. Imagine that, if you will, a three year old boy living on the streets of Konoha. Rummaging through trash-cans for food; stealing what I could to sell for money; having to deal with the belligerent drunks here and there. Heh, caught a beating every now and then from this gang of academy kids whenever I ran across them."

Naruto pulled out some more ninja-wire and began attaching an end to the ring of one of his kunai. Kushina was openly weeping now at the play-by-play of Naruto's life. Her husband had finally had enough of listening and decided to get his own answers.

"Just who are you kid?! What the hell does all this have to do with Kasumi-chan!? Why have you attacked my family!?" He yelled out, to both his and Kushina's dismay, the young boy woke and once he realized he was tied up began screaming in fear. Naruto had moved so fast that Kushina's eyes couldn't keep up. She was able to see him when he reappeared right in front of her son and her eyes widened in horror as she screamed out "NO!" when Naruto's fist lashed out and slammed into the boy's face. The tell-tale sound of broken bone filled the air and the boy's screaming had been forcibly dulled down to muffled whimpering.

"There now!' The blonde exclaimed cheerfully. 'Now what was this about a Kasumi-chan? Surely my mother told you the truth?" Naruto questioned, stepping in front of the blacksmith and talking as if he hadn't just broken the man's son's jaw. Naruto then pointed at the pale-faced redhead.

"That there, is Uzumaki Kushina. My birth mother. Before that, she was a kunoichi of Konoha. She was also the second jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Naruto revealed; the last part had caught even Kushina by surprise.

"Didn't think I wouldn't be told about that Kushina-san?" Naruto shook his head as he moved towards the counter and picked up the kunai and ninja-wire. He faced Kushina's husband and began to twirl the kunai with the wire, soon enough it was just a blurred arc at his side. Suddenly he launched the kunai forward and both Kushina and her husband flinched though they both breathed a sigh of relief when the kunai had narrowly missed the man's right ear.

"So, Kushina-san. Why the big secret? Why not tell your civvie-husband that there was someone else before him? That your first love gave his life to save his village, that your first son was alive and well and you basically abandoned him?" Naruto asked, the kunai once again spinning.

Kushina cried as her first-born son launched the kunai again, and once again missed her husband. Why was all this happening? Why now?

"Why are you doing this!? Why are you acting this way?! Even if you hated me for leaving you in Konoha, why would you put us through this?!" This caught Naruto's attention and the kunai faltered and fell to the ground. The blonde quirked a brow at her before moving towards her husband. Kushina wasn't even able to get a word out when Naruto reached up with both hands, grabbed a hold of her husband's head, and with a sharp jerk, broke the man's neck. Kushina screamed out her lover's name and was once again trying to get out of her bonds.

"Why? Well, for one, I was trained to eliminate all of my emotions. However, for this mission, Hokage-sama allowed me to act as I wanted. To let it all out, so to speak. As for why I'm doing this? Well I already told you. You broke the condition, Hokage-sama told you what would happen if you should ever do that." With that, Naruto spun the two bound males around until he was facing Kushina's second son, Naruto's own half-brother.

Kushina's eyes widened in realization and she began shaking her head back and forth.

"Please, no! No, don't do this! Not him! Not my son!" Naruto, who had the kunai back in his hand turned towards her.

"Pick, then."

"Wha...what?"

"Pick. Who will it be. Your first born son, whom you abandoned? Or the second born son, whom you've lied through omission to since his birth? Who lives, who dies?"

Kushina couldn't believe what she was hearing. Naruto wanted her to pick which one of her sons was to die. Her jaw dropped when Naruto placed a second kunai to his own neck while placing the first to her second born.

"It's quite easy Kushina. All you have to do is say a name, and that son will die. Did you know I've been watching you this past month? I've seen you play with my little half-brother here. Laughing with him, tickling him, teaching him things, tucking him in at night and reading him bedtime stories. I've watched you with your husband. Laughing, hugging, walking around through the forest, making love." Kushina flushed in embarassment.

"How...how could you watch your own mother do that kind of thing! It's not right! Have you no shame?" She tried to sound disgusted but the shaking of her voice didn't help.

"What? It's not as if I see you as my mother. You were never there for me after all, you are simply the woman who brought me into this world. Though, to put you at ease, I derived no satisfaction in seeing you perform such carnal acts. Anyhow, you have a decision to make. Your oldest, or your youngest."

Kushina lowered her head, and closed her eyes. She knew she had to make a decision, and she could only take slight comfort in the fact that Naruto had made it easier on her. Giving a silent prayer, she opened her mouth and gave her reply.

"I choose..." "Too late!" The Uzumaki woman's head jerked up and she could only watch in horror as her youngest son's neck was sliced open. She then screamed as the blood gushed out, her youngest was gasping for air that would not come, and soon the gasping slowed to a stop and then all was quiet except for Kushina's own sorrowful voice.

"And then, there was one." Kushina didn't have the strength to even oppose him any more, she simply sat there staring at her youngest son's cooling corpse. She didn't so much as make a sound as her head was jerked up by the hand that had taken a fistful of her hair.

"I'll let you know a little something, before you die. Kushina-san." Her soon-to-be executioner murmured next to her ear.

"Uzumaki Naruto died two years ago, when the Sandaime finally told him the truth about his mother.' Kushina's eyes widened at that and she slowly craned her neck to look at the blonde holding her captive. 'His good heart finally gave in to the darkness and that's where I took over. All the harshness of his life that he endured, all the pain and suffering. Finding out he had the Kyuubi sealed inside him. Everything and anything, he always just suppressed it and put on a big old fake smile, pretending nothing bothered him. But then you...hehehe."

The blonde slammed Kushina's head forward, her face smashed against the floor. She was the yanked back to a kneeling position and he was once again speaking in her ear.

"He couldn't take it anymore. He tried to kill himself. He just wanted the pain to end, so I told him that I would do him a favor. I would take his place, and he would die. He didn't even ask what the catch was. He just agreed." Kushina's face was suddenly introduced to a fist and then a knee before the voice came back.

"You were so quick to abandon him. So quick to move on. So quick to judge him when he finally appeared to get his revenge. Just know, that this is all because of you. Minato died because of you. Kyuubi was sealed inside your first-born because of you. Naruto lived through hell because of you. Naruto died because of you. Your new husband and second-born died because of you. And now, you die...because of you."

The young ANBU operative stood atop the highest tree branch and watched as the house below was enveloped in flames. After a moment, he pulled out a small notepad and opened it to the first page. There, written in fine black ink, was a list of names. Three of the names were already crossed out.

"Uzumaki. Kushina. Check. Now, I guess I better get some light gear, Kiri is kinda humid this time of year. Don't worry though Auntie Mei. Your nephew is coming for a visit."

This...is a bit more than dark. At first it was just a response to the many fics out there where Kushina is alive and she leaves Naruto behind for whatever reason.

The one thing I hate is how those kind of fics seldom get to the inevitable confrontation between mother and son. Either they are abandoned or they just delay it forever.