Disclaimer: See chapter 1, and actually Read Fox children to see any differences. And reviews are Always nice.
Time Skip Five Years minus a month and two weeks:
A dark room slowly fills with people. The dim candles on the walls flicker enough to illuminate the pale eyes of the Hyuga Council and the headbands of the Cloud ninja. "What are you proposing?" a cloud ninja inquires thoughtfully.
A Hyuga Council Member says slyly, "We stop hostilities, and we will give you the location of a Hyuga child that was expelled from the clan that we were unable to put the cage bird seal on. She was once the Heiress of the Hyuga clan."
"Are you sure she will be unguarded?" another cloud ninja interjects suspiciously.
The Hyuga glare back, "She is not at our compound and we want to see her dead. She is being raised by a few former ninja, but they should be no problem for you. Even if they do wake up, which they shouldn't if you do your job right, then they will be too tired and dazed to defend themselves."
"What do you want in return?" a cloud Jonin asks them.
A Hyuga member smiles, "Just your assurances that she will die along with her siblings."
"Very well. We will make the negotiations official and send in our top Jonin squad to kidnap her. Now, hand over the information," the Cloud ninja states firmly. The Hyuga council pushes a thick envelope across the table. They examine its contents of money and blueprints. "It has been nice doing business with you, Hyuga scum."
"Likewise, Cloud trash," a Hyuga replies conversationally.
At the Uzumaki Compound:
"Mommy Kushi!" screeches a loud voice.
Kushina rubs her temples and walks to the playroom, "What is it, Ino?"
"Sasuke won't share with me!" Ino pouts.
Naruto pounces on Sasuke from behind and yells, "Grab it, Ino!" Sakura rolls between Ino and the toy with ease and grabs it before sprinting down the hall laughing. Shino watches the situation curiously while assembling a multicolored block tower with Choji.
Sasuke pins Naruto down, growling and bearing his sharp canines, while Ino runs after Sakura. "Hey, get back here with the toys!" she calls. Naruto grabs his brother's dark hair and they start wrestling. Kushino sighs and chases after her daughters.
Yoshino sits on a couch across the room with Hinata on her lap, reading her a story about how the knight saved the princess from the dragon. Hinata listens to the story as she messes with Shikimaru's hair as he sleeps next to them. Her blood red, pupil-less eyes take in everything around her. Kiba rushes into the room with a white puppy that ran away from the Inuzuka compound that keeps following him around. "Let's get'em, boy!" Kiba yells as he tackles the two wrestling boys. The puppy attacks them and pulls on their pants legs with his teeth. Naruto and Sasuke exchange glances and turn on Kiba and his pet. Kiba claws at their arms and the wrestling match intensifies into a minor brawl.
"Shino, why do they love fighting?" Choji asks while sliding another block onto the tower and eating a handful of potato chips. Shino shrugs and slides another block into the side into the tower. Half inch long chakra-eating red army ants crawl over the boy's face, arms, and into holes in his skin. "That's creepy, Shino," Choji states bluntly. Shino ignores him and places another block near the top of the tower.
Kushina catches up with her daughters and pulls them apart. "Settle down! I know I taught you to share!" she says with a glare to both of them.
Ino and Sakura grin sheepishly. "But, mom," whines Ino. "She stole the toy first!"
Sakura holds up the toy, "And she tried to steal it back first!"
"Both of you stop fighting. Maybe we can go check on your flower garden?" Kushina suggests. Ino and Sakura nod happily and hurry to the garden. Kushina hands her daughters water pots to go around and water the plants. She sits down on a nearby bench to watch. She begins to daydream about Minato when Ino says loudly, "Mommy Kushi, what's sex?"
Kushina sputters, "What brought that up?"
"You were just talking about it," Ino says matter-of-factly. Kushina frowns and thinks, "Can you hear me now?" Ino nods quickly and Sakura looks confused.
Kushina says out loud, "Well, sex is…" and she begins her birds and the bees speech. Sakura and Ino look disgusted. Kushina laughs when she sees the expressions on her face. Sakura's pointed ears perk up and she tilts her head, "Mommy, boys are gross! How can anyone want to do that with a boy?"
Kushina smiles, "You'll change your mind eventually, dear." Ino rolls her eyes and waters her favorite white roses.
Ino thinks, "Kumiho, how much longer until I can tell my mommies about talking to you?"
The Three Tails curls up around her feet in her mindscape and growls, "As soon as my Mother talks to Naruto."
"Why my idiot brother?" Ino asks mentally.
Kumiho, the three tailed fox, sighs loudly, "Personally, I think it's the Shinigami having a warped sense of humor, but that's just a guess." Ino shrugs and continues watering the plants and chatting with her pink haired sister. "Hey, Father, how much longer do we have to wait? My vessel already is ready to begin improvements."
Inner Sakura shouts, "Chaa! Make me stronger!" "No," growls the Eight Tails. "Not until I am sure that you can handle it." Sakura listens to the exchange idly, watering more flowers. Inner Sakura pouts, "Than make me able to handle it!" Sakura thinks, "Do I have any say in this?" "No!/Yes," the fox and inner personality say simultaneously before glaring at each other. Inner Sakura gets into a staring match with the eight tailed demon and declares, "I will never blink!" She blinks. "Darn!" Outer Sakura sighs, "Just let me know when you think we're ready, Lord Koan." "I like that one," purrs Eight Tails. "Loud mouth, why can't you be like the outer personality?" Inner Sakura glares at him and looks away, "Hmph!"
The two girls continue watering the plants. Meanwhile, inside the house, the three boys' eyes flash red as they wrestle with each other, none of them noticing it. Akamaru backs away and whimpers quietly. Kiba is thrown out of the fight, resulting in Sasuke and Naruto to start punching and grabbing at each other, neither wanting to admit defeat. Kiba picks up the puppy and puts him up on his head and says, "Don't worry, boy, we'll prank'em tonight." The puppy barks in agreement and they walk away to find something to eat.
Naruto and Sasuke hear the word "prank" and instantly stop wrestling. They whisper secretively to each other on how to counter prank their feral brother. Yoshino does her best to listen to their whispering while reading the story. She finishes reading the story and says to Shikamaru, "I know you're awake, my lazy son, but can you hear them?" Shikamaru opens one eye and looks at his mother. "Okay then, do you have any ideas on when they'll start the prank war?"
"Tonight, after they think you are asleep," Shikamaru mutters.
Hinata tilts her head curiously and says without looking away from the storybook, "Why're you telling on them, brother?"
"'Cause, Hinata," Shikamaru explains with a bored tone, "We'll get caught in the crossfire once the pranks begin."
Hinata nods and smiles, "Good point." Yoshino laughs and places the book on the table next to the couch. She picks up another book and begins reading again; Shikamaru goes back to sleep. Yoshino thinks, 'I should probably warn Minato when he gets back from the office…but he might join in!'
Later That Night:
Three Cloud Jonin dressed in black sneak onto the Uzumaki compound. A small seal glows beside Yoshino's pillow. She whispers to Minato who is sleeping between the two women, "The perimeter seal went off." Kushina grabs the sword beside her bed and slides on her night robe.
Minato climbs out of bed behind her, grabbing his kunai. "This had better be good," he grumbles sleepily.
In the children's room, Kiba is rigging paint bombs on the edges of Sasuke and Naruto's blankets, ready to go off when the blankets are moved. He turns to creep back to bed when three dark figures pass past the moonlit window. The puppy sits beside his master and growls. Kiba ducks behind Naruto's bed. He narrows his eyes, examining the figures from across the room.
"Kit, wake up!" roars a voice, snapping Naruto's eyes open. He throws off his blankets, the paint splattering in mid air. The ninja get covered in bright paint. "Intruders!" Naruto shouts, reaching for the kunai under his pillow. All the children wake up at his shouting, instantly reaching for the kunai under their pillows.
Sakura shouts, "Lights activate!" Seals glow on the ceiling, lighting up the room, making make shift light bulbs. Everyone throws the kunai at the three intruders, catching them off guard.
They deflect most of the kunai, one or two getting by and hitting their arms. Yoshino ducks in the doorway and makes a hand sign, "Shadow possession jutsu!" She uses her children's shadows to reach farther and capture them. "Kushina, now!" The sword mistress of the Uzumaki house hold leaps over the Nara woman and speeds towards them. The Cloud ninja have time to blink before the shadows retract as the sword decapitates two of them. Minato appears in a flash of light and sends the assassin flying through the wall with a kunai through his heart.
"More assassins?" Sasuke asks.
Ino says loudly, "They never learn! Attacking us is stupid, especially when daddy is home!" Kushina wipes off her blade on her red night robe's sash and smiles at her children.
"It's safe. Go back to sleep," she says reassuringly. The children all retrieve their kunai and go back to bed, Shikamaru needing Ino to retrieve the kunai for him since he is too lazy to get out of bed. The two mothers methodically search through the dead ninjas' pockets, pulling out weapons and papers. "Hinata, read this for us?" Yoshino requests, tossing a sealed letter to her.
Hinata examines the envelope and replies, "This doesn't have any kind of trap on it." She opens it and skims over it. "The Hyuga clan sent them. My Byakugan and money in exchange for my death. Nothing new, really. It seems that they failed to mention who daddy is."
"This is something new," Kushina frowns. She pulls off the masks to reveal Cloud symbols on the headbands. "Cloud assassins."
Sasuke smirks, "Cool, we're getting more popular."
Naruto nods in agreement. He notices the paint covering the ninjas and turns to Kiba. The blonde yells, "Hey! What are you doing hooking up paint bombs on my blankets?"
Kiba and the puppy smile innocently, "I don't know what you're talking about! I was up to go to the bathroom and those stupid ninja attacked!" Sasuke holds up his blanket, which looks like it has just been tye dyed.
"And what do you call this?" Sasuke says with a raised eyebrow.
"Um…" Kiba responds slowly, "Poorly placed paint bombs?"
Minato stands and yells, "Kiba Uzumaki, get in bed now and we will talk about this tomorrow!" Kiba rushes into his bed and hides under the blanket, the puppy jumping in after him. He sighs, "There we go. Now, go to sleep! It's your birthdays tomorrow and you need to be rested up!" Kushina seals the bodies into a scroll and tosses it to Yoshino who slips on her jacket. She and Minato leave the house while Kushina is left behind to tuck the children into bed and disable any more traps set up by Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba. As she is about to leave the room, Kushina says, "Lights, seal." The light vanishes and the seals become faint drawings on the ceiling again.
Yoshino walks to the Hokage tower and Minato unlocks the door. He opens the door and takes her to his office. She holds out the papers that Hinata looked over and the scroll.
He opens the scroll on his desk and the three bodies topple out. He takes one look at the headbands and frowns, "Cloud ninja. These three are the envoy sent for peace negotiations. I didn't get a clear look at them when we took them out."
"Some peace, eh?" giggles Yoshino.
Minato raises an eyebrow, "Certainly no peace for me once the council gets wind of this. This is a load of paperwork just waiting to happen!"
"Love, why do you tell the council everything? You're the Hokage, aren't you? I never understood that even when I wasn't your wife," Yoshino points out.
The Fourth Hokage frowns, "I may be a leader, but the council makes up an important part of our government."
Yoshino snorts, "And what part would that be? Getting their backsides wiped by the general populace and having power struggles and political vendettas at a whim? How is that important to the village? They're a bunch of old windbags who should be replaced by people who haven't gone senile."
Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Minato leans back in his chair and replies, "They are in office for a reason. Just go back home and take care of our children please. I'll deal with this."
Yoshino walks to the doorway and glances over her shoulder. She says thoughtfully, "The bags under your eyes are big enough to hold Choji."
Minato chuckles as she walks out the door, "No thanks to your and Kushina's stamina." Yoshino laughs and heads back home. "Now for the unpleasant task of waking up the council and informing the Cloud village," grumbles Minato. "We Uzumaki never were ones for subtlety. Were we?" He laughs a little at himself.
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