Rating: M (for swearing)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 6

Meeting problems / "He loves me more!"

"Yes...yes I know. I understand." Minato sighed on the telephone. Kushina looked up from doing dishes and with a confused look stared at her husband. It was around nine-thirty that night and Naruto had been sent to bed while Kyuubi worked with Jiriaya on homework upstairs.

"Very well...I'l try to get there tomorrow. Good-bye" Minato hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Kushina asked.

"My secretary." He said. "I have to go back to Kohona city, I can't stay here anymore. I'm needed back for a meeting that can't be held any longer." Minato said.

"You're leaving tonight?!" Kushina scoffed.

"No. I'm leaving around five this morning, I'll be there at seven my usual time-"

"Minato! You can't just go back and forth to Kohona City every day!" Kushina protested. How could her husband leave everyday and if he did that would be a lot of bills to pay out.

"You'd have to drive back and fourth everyday, do you know the cost of gas right now?! And what about Naruto and Kyuubi? They're gonna' wonder when you'll be home and-"

"Kushina." Minato said, stopping Kushina from her rambling. Kushina stopped and took one long look at her husband.

"I understand the costs it's going to take...and I believe that the best situation right now...would be for me to stay a short while in Kohona City, while you stay here with the boys." Minato said. Kushina's eyes widened and she stopped breathing for a second. She was frozen in time, absolutly stunned by what her husband just said.

"W-what?" She asked. "Minato..."

"I'm needed in The City. I can't keep my job if I'm up here. No job, means no money, no money means not care for Naruto."

"...I told you not to take the job!" Kushina hissed. Minato raised one eye brow, confused as to what Kushina was referring to.

"Sixteen years ago, when I was pregnant with Kyuubi you ran for mayor. What was wrong with your job at the bank?!" Kushina nearly bawled. "When you won that election, you were never home! You missed out on so much! Kyuubi's first words, his first steps, his first day of school-the same goes with Naruto! And now, when your son needs you the most, you won't be there for him!"

"Do you think I want to be away from my family?!-"

"I'm not saying that you want to or not, I'm just saying you better think about your stupid job and see what it's doing to our family!"

"You don't think I know what I've missed!" Minato yelled back.

Kyuubi, who had left his room to grab somthing his crazy god-father left downstairs stood silently on the steps taking in everything his parents said to one-another.

"Don't remind me of what I've missed out on! I'm only doing this job, because I love my family and I want to support them!" Minato was on a rage rampage now.

Kushina slammed her dish towel on the ground.

"We would have been FINE if you would have kept your old job-!"

"We would have been living in that dingy old, run down apartment with Naruto possibly dying in his bed because we couldn't afford the health care! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?!"

Kushina had tears rolling down her face. "I just don't want Naruto...getting used to the fact that you're gone all the time." She sniffed. "Kyuubi's already used to it, he told me himself!"

Minato's face softened.

"What...?

"See? You've already missed out!" Kushina snapped. "you know what?...just go..." She turned away, picking up her towel but Minato grabbed her by the waist, wrapping his arms around her. She let tears fall as Minato rested his head on her shoulder. He didn't want to go...He didn't want to be Mayor anymore. He wanted to stay with his family.

"Give me two weeks, Kushina. I'll work for two weeks and quit, by then I should get my paycheck for whatever is needed...please...trust me..." Minato tried not to sob. Kushina held onto his arms.

"Call me. Every night and talk to the children too..." She said.

"I will..."

"And-and...when you get back I want you to never go a day without seeing Kyuubi and Naruto!" That sounded like a demand, but Minato didn't care.

"I know...I will. I'll do anything to gain everything I've lost back...and I won't be missing out on anything anymore." Minato vowed. Kyuubi sighed in relief, grabbing a textbook swiftly off the livingroom table and running up the stairs.

The next morning, Minato didn't leave at four in the morning. He left right after dropping NAruto off at the hospital, standing on one-knee talking to Naruto.

"Naruto...you understand, right?" Minato said.

Naruto nodded. Not really understanding a thing. "It's my fault-"

"No, this is not your fault, and don't ever think that it is." Minato said firmly. No way will my child think it's his fault for being sick.

"When will you be back?" Naruto timidly asked.

"I'll be back in two weeks. And when I do, I'm never leaving you, Kaa-san or Kyuubi-kun ever." Minato smiled, seeing Naruto's eyes light up.

"Ever?"

The father nodded.

"But, what about your job?"

Minato sighed, he really haden't thought that one threw on how to answer to his son, but reluctantly he still smiled.

"I don't have an answer for that Naruto, but I promise, we'll make it threw." Minato smiled, hugging Naruto softly, but not tightly to harm him and Naruto hugged him back.

"Now, go inside before you get sick." Minato ordered.

"Hai, Daddy." Naruto mumbled. "I love you."

"I love you too, kiddo." Minato grinned, he hopped back into the car and waved as he drove off to the City. Kyuubi sighed, holding Naruto's hand.

"My legs hurt..." Naruto mumbled, trying not to cry.

"Here, I'll carry you." Kyuubi offered, smiling as he picked up the skinny younger brother. Kyuubi gasped, feeling how light Naruto was.

"Naruto, are you eating?" Kyuubi asked. It was meant to be a joke, but with the look on Naruto's face, Kyuubi secretly knew he had discovered somthing Naruto didn't want anyone to find out.

"N-Naruto..." Kyuubi said. "Have you...been eating?"

"Y-Yes!" Naruto claimed.

"Okay..." Kyuubi said. What a lie. I'll chew him out later.

Three Days Later...

"Urgh! I can't do it anymore!" Naruto screamed, throwing his pencil to the ground. Jiraiya sighed, he had been working with Naruto for the past four hours on math and the small blonde didn't get anything. The Godfather was seriously considering that whatever he said to Naruto was going in one ear and out the other.

"Naruto...I've been over this more than once, you take the bottom of the fraction times it by the middle number then add the top fraction. It's easy!"

"No, I get that, it's making the improper fration into a decimal, is what I don't get!" Naruto huffed. "Screw this, I'm not doing it!" He hid his face in his arms on his desk. The godfather sighed, not really wanting to deal with teenage hormones.

"Naruto...I know Math is Mental Abuse Towards Humans...ha, ha, get it? Math?" He laughed at his own joke but Naruto didn't respond. "But that doesn't mean you can throw a fit and stop doing what you're doing. I have to turn in your work to the school to prove to them that you're actually doing the homeschool requirments and not just slacking off at home."

"Don't care..." He mumbled.

"Nice attitude." The pervert groaned, "now erase your answer to do it again."

"No!" The blonde hissed.

"Naruto..." Jiraiya warned. "I don't like kids, I hated being one and I sure as hell don't like snotty-brats. Now do as I tell you to!"

"I want Tou-san!" Naruto pouted. The pervert sighed, knowing that he'd hit a soft spot for Naruto if he said somthing. Really he didn't know how to respond to what Naruto had said. Of course Kushina had explained to him that Minato would be absent for about two weeks, he'd quit his job and...and...

And what else, Kushina?

"I'm bored. I'm leaving-"

"Sit down."

The blonde retorted.

"Look, I don't care that you don't want to do your homework...but I think this has somthing to do other than you not getting fractions." His voice was calm, and slightly understanding. Jiraiya knew how Naruto felt, wanting a father that is, growing up without one made him feel lonley too. Maybe Naruto felt like that, lonley and scared.

"I...I miss Tou-san." Naruto sniffed. "I've never gone this long without him. Sure, he'd come home late and leave early, but I always knew that he was atleast under the same roof as me! I...I miss him" Naruto began to sob, he dearly missed his father and he didn't know if he was coming back. His mother said that he would, but with all the fighting his parents had done he figured they thought he was still a kid and the had a divorce. Which was not true, but Naruto still was timid for his age and still was confused.

"Naruto...your father loves you." Jiraiya smiled. "And he has faith in you..."

Naruto stopped crying and cocked an eyebrow.

"He believes you'll survive and so do I...and to prove your father right, you have to try your best at everything." The godfather picked up the pencil.

"So...will you try and prove your father right that you'll gonna' fight cancer and...fractions." Jiraiya offered. "Or...will you prove him wrong and die?"

Naruto gulped. "I'l...I'll try..."

Jiriaya smiled. "That'a boy. Now to make an improper fraction..."

Kyuubi folded his hands together, glaring out the window. It was snowing again, not that Kyuubi hated snow or anything, but he hated how his father had pretty much abandonded him, Naruto and his mother.

"I mean, what kind of chump leaves his youngest son, who's battleing cancer and his wife?!" Kyuubi ranted for about the sixth time that week, Kushina rolled her eyes.

"Kyuubi, knock it off, it's only two weeks and he'll be back."

"Oh, with what job?" Kyuubi mouthed. "He's gonna' quit being Mayor and then what? Who will pay for Naruto's needs? Who will pay for Chemos, doctor visits pay for-" Kushina growled.

"KYUUBI KITSUNE NAMIKAZI!" She shouted. "Stop bashing your father, he's doing what he thinks is best for his family!"

Kyuubi huffed, laying his head on the table to stare out the window again. Kushina and Minato had lectured him about changes that would happen to their little family when Naruto went to the Cancer Center and Kyuubi got all of that, sure he hated the move and sometimes being homeschool wasn't all it cracked up to be; when he tried to study he could hear his parents argue about costs and time it took. And at the Cancer Center all that was there was a sick and upset Naruto.

He was sick and tired of all the complaining, whining and nagging. Naruto, in his mind, was supposed to be the one who did that, not his mother and father. Insted his once loud and happy younger brother was this quiet, sickly boy he did not recgonize.

"Today...couldn't get any fuckin' worse." He muttered.

"Oh, Karin's coming over today." Kushina said.

"NANI!?" Kyuubi screamed.

"Hel-l-lo! Kyuubi!~" Karin Uzumaki smiled, Kyuubi's eyebrow twitched as he slammed the door in the younger red-head's face, walking four or five steps away the door banged open, falling to the ground and she raced up the steps.

"Get away from Naruto!" Kyuubi screamed, chasing after the younger red-head. Kushina sighed, picking up the door to fix what Karin broke. Kyuubi and Karin had this big compotition to see which family member Naruto loved more. It actually started when Naruto was a baby and he said "love you" for the first time to his brother and cousin at the smae time, but Kyuubi and Karin have been fighting over the younger blonde ever since to prove "they" were right.

And in Kyuubi's mind he was right.

"Naruto!" Karin ran into the perverted godfather, knocking him down to the blonde (Recieving a very loud: "You pre-teen bitch!" as he left the room) and when she saw him, she gasped. Naruto wasn't how she last saw him. He was pale, and thin, almost aneroxic looking. His eyes had dark circles under them and he had no hair left, insted a warm hat covered his head and ears. He was in the comforts of his own bed, but to the side she saw an IV stand where next to that was a machine that recorded his heart-beat. She stopped her compotition with Kyuubi and felt tears come to her eyes.

"N-Naruto?" She asked.

"Oh...Hi Karin" He smiled.

How can he still smile? He must be in so much pain...

"Hi...Naruto...how are you?" Karin smiled sweetly. Kyuubi huffed running to Naruto's side.

"He's my brother, bitch! and I wont-" Kyuubi stopped talking seeing Naruto yawn.

"Daddy's gone..." Naruto frowned, Kyuubi drapped a blanket over Naruto, making sure he stayed warm, flipping on the heater as well.

"He said he'd...be back...but I dunno..." He was drousy and Kyuubi could tell.

"Naruto, you just rest now. I'll watch over you." Kyuubi smiled. Turning to Karin, noticing how she was frowing. Kyuubi smiled seeing Naruto had dozed off, Kyuubi also noticed how much Naruto slept during the day. If he wasn't at the hospital, he was either taking a salt bath with the small jacuzzi attached in his parent's bathroom, or he was eating his diet foods, or sleeping. Mostly sleeping.

Karin and Kyuubi sat at the small table in his parent's attached room.

"How long...has he been like that?" She asked.

"Hm?"

"I mean, how long has he been hooked up the that IV?"

"I think my god-father just hooked him up to it, you saw the one on his arm, but if I lifted the blankets you would have seen some on his legs. Since he complains about the pain he has down there on them, he sometimes can't walk and either Dad or I have to carry him, I don't mind it at all, to be honest, but I think Naruto doesn't want to be treated like a baby anymore." Kyuubi chuckled at that last part. Karin smiled.

"Wait-his diet?"

"He's so skinny, his doctor put him on a liquid diet until he can stop throwing up solid foods." Kyuubi said. "He's craving ramen though, he hasn't had it in a week."

Karin got an idea.

"Well, I'll just make him some low fat diet ramen. He's gonna' love me more than you!" She screamed running out the door, Kyuubi following her.

"Like hell You will!"

Minato smiled, holding a picture he kept on his desk. He had various pictures of Kushina, Kyuubi and himself on his desk and he liked them all, but he took a pretty long time staring at one picture in particular. It was a picture of Naruto all wrapped and bundled in a blanket at not even the age of one, sucking on a bottle of milk while Minato held him. Minato smiled. Naruto was so tiny. He was born premature, a 4 weeks premature to be exact. Naruto was so small, Minato could hold him and he'd feel light as a feather.

"Maybe it is my fault..." He muttered, setting the picture down.

"If I were home more, then he wouldn't be so sick..." He frowned. It was his last day as Mayor. He had given the news and word spread quickly. He could care less any more about Kohona. He wanted his son, his baby boy.

He sighed, packing the pictures into the suitcase and looked around his office room. It was so empty now but this emptiness felt full, in his heart atleast. Minato had so many memories in this room. The walls have been painted to a light blue, they were white before, plus the black Sharpie marks Kyuubi had drawn when he was a naughty two-year-old. He smiled, recalling that memory. Kushina was eight monrths pregnant with Naruto and Kyuubi wanted to go to his work to see what the heck Minato did all day. Kyuubi had gotten bored and curious when he found the black Sharpie marker, important documents, walls and even other office supplies were damaged, although Kyuubi earned himself a spanking and sent to bed realy Minato always came into work smiling at the Sharpie damaged wall.

Minato shook his head, he had to leave, Naruto was expecting him.

* . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . *

"Don't worry, Naruto. Chiyo-san is only going to run a test." Kushina soothed. Naruto was still fidgety. He didn't like needles poking at his bones, grinding down and hurting him. He would always feel weak and sore after it's all said and done. Naruto, shakingly, laid on the table in a fetical position as the needle struck into his hips bone, he nearly crushed Kushina's hand but she didn't care. Kyuubi nearly lost his lunch and hunched over the wastebasket. After the Chemo tests Naruto was allowed to rest in his room and that's where our (now bald) teenager was. His eyes fluttered behind his eyelashes and Kushina sighed.

"When's Tou-san coming?" Kyuubi asked.

"He said around noon-"

"So never."

"Kyuubi!" Kushina slapped his hand. "Dont' say that!"

"It's the truth!" Kyuubi protested.

"Oh really?" A voice called. Kushina gasped, turned around and ran to her husband's side hugging the daylights out of him, trying not to cry.

"Oh, Minato!" Kushina blubbered. "You have no idea how much we missed you! Naruto missed you-"

"I quit." Minato silently said. "The job."

Kushina frowned, but she nodded. Their problems would soon start to show later, but right now all Minato wanted was a chair to sit in when he watched his son wake up from a nap.

AAAAWWW! Wasn't that sweet? Yes, Minato quit his job, but it was for family and don't worry, their money problems won't worsen. (What kind of author would I be if I let that happen?) Anywho-please review and I hope you enjoyed today's chapter ^.^

-The Un-Wanted Angel.