Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Note: these chapter are made as a companion piece to another fanfic that I'll soon start posting. But as they are made as one-shots there's no real need to publish them in order. Hence why chapter seven comes after the 3 and so on. Please enjoy! (And review if there's something you really liked).

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The decisions a person makes in difficult situations are very important, both to the situation as a whole and the growth of that person. But they do not describe the character of that special someone. Who is a hero, who sacrificed his life for others? Who is a mother, who died while giving birth? It's just a snapshot in time, not an analysis or guide to their character. It is very easy to throw around speculations when they are not around to tell you differently…

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"Who's a sweeht boy? Who's gonna grow all strong and brave?"

"Kushina, I pretty sure he can't actually hear you--"

"Of course he can! Who's mommy's smart little boy?"

"Kushina, he's not even born yet…"

At this the, now annoyed, woman finish her intimate conversation with her large, pregnant belly to looked up at her blonde husband, who is sitting at the table in the kitchen where she is making them dinner. Said man only release a sigh before continuing to "doodle" (as Kushina would like to call it) on a scroll, seemingly not caring for his unborn son's feelings at all. This provoked his hormonal wife who spit out defensibly spit out;

"Don't insult him! He's started to respond to my voice at times."

As she goes back to caressing her belly she finishes her sentence somewhat distracted;

"It's almost as if you're not excited at all…"

"Of course I'm excited! But you'd never allow me to follow you around all day just so I could bond with my son. You'd maim me!"

"Now who's being ridiculous? Just wait until we've eaten and you can bond as much as you'd like."

As he regards the image of the motherly Kushina standing only two meters away from him wearing a serene and thoughtful look while cooking their breakfast makes him mutter under his breath;

"I think you'll make a great mom."

"Really?"

"Sure, what kid would not like an adventurous, but still somewhat nurturing mom like you?"

"Heh, God know he'll need me. You're going to be of little help, being the nerd that you are!"

"I'm not a nerd!"

"Please! Whenever I clean you won't let me- no, not even touch your precious scrolls" Kushina replied happily "you ARE such a nerd". She finishes fondly.

The young man let the tension in his shoulders disappear has he defeated hang his head over the scrolls. A small smile finds its way on his face as he murmurs lowly:

"You never clean anyway…" then a little louder "I'll have you know that most of the techniques I come up with have protected many, even you on…eeeh…some…occasions" the young man finish lamely as he feels his wife glare at him when he mentions protecting her. She has never really appreciated feeling needy or people reminding her of those moments. Additionally her hormones were not to be trifled with due to her current, pregnant condition.

"Oh? And what great technique are you working on now Sir Nerd?" his wife half mockingly, half curiously retorts. "What does it have that the rasengan, hirashin etc etc blahblah techniques does not have? It can't be light shows or dramatic wind effects 'cuz you already have that.." she finish teasingly.

"A sealing technique." Minato replies proudly, ignoring the last part of Kushina's sentence in favor of picking up the scroll and showing it to her "it's going to be useful if for some reason our enemies won't go down the simple way."

"…like the dust bunnies underneath our bed? They keep coming back…" the ever impressed wife of his teases.

"No, like, immortal beings!" the grandeur gesturing of his arms hinted towards some great unknown force that Minato expected himself to face some day.

"…Why on earth would an immortal being go after you, or Konoha for that matter? I'm pretty sure an immortal wouldn't go about randomly wrecking villages for no reason at all."

"….Kushina, honey? It's better to safer than sorry, right? Especially now when we're going to have a baby?" Minato replies lightly with a huge smile, hoping that Kushina would drop the subject and she did, after one more insult:

"Yeah right, you just want to touch your beloved scrolls without anyone bothering you. But sure, I'll leave you alone…"

"Thank you." Minato happily mouths, and then against his better judgment he continues, thinking that Kushina deserves a compliment, since she actually dropped the subject, "You look wonderful this beautiful morning by the way!"

"Oh, so you noticed then?"

At this Minato froze. Then he looked took a quick peek at Kushina's appearance. There was nothing new to comment upon! She looked exactly the same as always. Well, except the large, pregnant stomach. But other than that, there was no change! Minato struggled for some moments to find a quick and easy escape from having to answer that question. He was a master at spying and noticing details for heavens sake, and if he couldn't see any change, then what was it?? Okay, better find a distraction and escape as quickly as possible.

"Um, of course, well I have to go now, just remembered that I'm supposed to meet Jiraya now"

"But he's on a mission..."

Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap………. The words echoes cruelly inside Minato's head…Must escape…LIE!

"Um, yeah, but you see, I'm going to see Tsunande…who has some info about Jiraya…that I need… Yes."

"…Jiraya and Tsunande haven't talked to each other since she found him spying on her while she was taking a bath…Minato…what are you doing?"

"Nothing?" the word emerges half strangled as he slowly moves towards the door.

"….are you seeing someone?"

"WHAT? NO!"

"I knew it. It's because I'm unattractive as a pregnant woman, right?" the red haired woman by the oven begins in a quiet, wavering voice, face unreadable due to her scarlet bangs casting shadows over it.

"Wha- , no! Who gave you that idea!" Minato exclaims as he start to move towards his wife instead of the door. "You mean everything to me, and YOU are beautiful. You're pregnant with my son and I love every piece of you." as Minato starts to raise his arms in preparation of a hug. But instead of the moved-to-tears-and-loving-him-even-more-for-his-speech-wife Minato got the highly-emotional-pregnant-woman a la Kushina. The violent wife that is.

"YOU BETTER! Do you know what it's like carrying this around? I can't do any missions, I can't even tie my own shoelaces. And whose fault is that, hm? Yes, YOURS! If you ever even think of cheating on me with someone else I'll –" as the list of unpleasant things that would happen to Minato if he ever failed to be completely faithful to Kushina went on, the man himself backed away from his wife whilst thinking:

I should have known, I should have known, I should have known….

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"Ouch! What did you do that for?!" The whiny voice of a tiny blonde boy broke through the colorful and noisy crowd of genins. They had all gathered outside the dark forest in the middle of nowhere and were anxiously waiting for the second part of the exams to start.

"I was just making sure you're not a ghost!" the girl gleefully stated.

The blonde boy stared stupidly at the short, troll-looking redhead in front of him.

"Pardon me?"

"Pale face, white clothes, yellow hair and pale blue eyes. Have you ever been in a hospital room and been scared of disappearing into the wall 'cos you're so white?"

"Excuse me?" the surprised boy now angered screeched.

"I bet you have had one of those exii-dental crises when you thought about it"

"You mean existential?"

"AHA! So you've had it!"

"…what are we talki- why did you HIT me?!" the boy now angry exclaims.

"To make you stand out in a crowd. SEE! Now you'll be the only pint-sized blonde with a black eye made by ME! Uzumaki Kushina!"

The taller girl grinned even wider after this statement, seemingly very pleased with herself (not knowing how lame this statement really was). The pale boy however (who had never met any person as rude as this one) tried to come up with his own insult (because he was certain that he had just been insulted).

"…yay……"

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"I'm hungry"

"Well if-"

"I mean like really hungry. You know the stomach-is-eating-me-up kind of hungry. "

"But-"

"It's painful you know? Like a spear through your stomach or nails or acid or –"

"NOTED! But-"

Why won't she ever listen to me?

"Imagine yourself starving to death. No wait! I don't have to imagine – I AM starving to death! I'M DYING!"

The teenage girl promptly closed her eyes and started melodramatically slide down the couch unto the floor, leaving the twitching man alone on said furniture.

Two seconds later, the blonde male in the same age as her (which could not really be seen with the naked eye as he had quite a small statue) released a frustrated sigh. Head downcast he replies through clenched teeth:

"Patience Kushina, I know that your inner drama queen likes to blow things out of proportion. But seriously-"

He lifted his head up and met her colorful eyes-

"- it is only three minutes, the instant ramen will soon be done. Until then – can we focus on what I said?"

"……."

Did she just miss my whole confession?!

"What were you saying again?" the young woman replies looking like the definition of "lost" itself.

Figures

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"Where is it?! Where, where, where is it?!" screams the young man desperately as he practically digs a hole in the wardrobe to find his desired item, much to the exasperation of his wife. She had just organized that wardrobe to be the definition of neatness. And now this room looked like a scene out of the movie The revenge of the Dust-bunnies II: the horrible continuation. Alas, as a good wife she will do anything in her awesome power to find what her husband is so passionately looking for.

"Where is what?"

"My scroll!" the young man wailed pathetically before diving under the bed to look for it there. Kushina represses a shudder but makes no motion to help him (because although she's a dedicated housewife, she is not THAT dedicated – besides, she values her life and the things under that bed is NOT anything less than lethal let her assure you) and as Minato goes still she contemplates if it would be worth the sacrifice to pull him out again and call the ambulance. But just to be on the safe side -

"Which one of the 1000 that you have are you looking for?" Pleaseeeeee-please answer me!!

"The pale-yellow-cream and red string one!"

"…you're on your own"

Insane nerd.

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He loves this time of the day. Sitting quietly, talking to his wife, living in a world where everything is as it should be. Living with someone that loves you for being you is simply wonderful.

"I love you" the young serenely smiling man whispers in his wife's ear as he passes the stove where she is doing their breakfast.

He loves to hear her say that she loves him too because she is his most beloved person and hearing her say that is better than anything else in the whole world.

"I know"

Huh?!

"…you uuuh, don't feel the same way?"

"Sure. I'm pregnant with your child remember?"

"…would you not love me if you were not pregnant?"

"Well…who knows – I've always liked you" the woman of his dreams replies in an airy tone.

"…uh?" the slightly crushed Minato pushes out from his suddenly dry lips.

"Yeah – I mean - you're a really smart and good looking guy, great genes. Like vitamins for the kid."

"….vi-i-i-tamins?" suddenly it's hard to breathe and he feels as if he should remember something but don't and-

"Yeah, and let's not forget the pros of all of your money. I mean, wow, I'm never going to have to work again y'know?"

"…..mmm" the sound had a torn edge to it, as if the speaker was holding back tears.

"And let's face it – it was great sex – when you got the hang of it I mean. Man, remember the first time? Gah!"

"…" it was not as much silence as an absence of sound that replied Kushina.

"Yeah, I'll have great kid!" the woman proclaimed after some moments alone in her head – her inner persona had obviously agreed to the red-head's prior statements - as she turnes away from the stove to look at her husband only to halt in her movements before shouting indignantly:

"But for heaven's sake Minato! It was just a joke! Do you really think I'd be able to stand your odd quirks if I didn't love you? I'm the one who's supposed to be emotional, NOT YOU!" the pregnant woman shook her head as she walked up to her seemingly crushed husband to give him a hug. She did however shiftily release him in order to glare at said man angrily as he muttered:

"I'm the one who have to put up with MY partners sadistic quirks"

"Well Minato, know this: I love you. And that's the only reason why you'll just be without dinner this evening and not seven feet under in our backyard for that comment."

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"You know Mianto, I've been accused of many things; theft, lying, murder, espionage and keeping secrets when I shouldn't –"

The blonde man blinked innocently during the woman's rant, fearing that interruption would only make her madder (and he had no wish to see if one of those accusations actually were true).

"-but God help me Minato, I will not have a boyfriend works to the extent that he forgets to shower!"

The man can't help but blush when hearing that statement - that's true….

"- so you'll have to go and shower before you get any of this "the woman paused to gesture towards her own body before exclaiming:

"Now go!"

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"Ow! What was that for?!"

"It's for the "rescuing" you will do on this mission. I have trouble hitting guys that can't stand up on their own."

"I have no intention of going back to Konoha as a liability. I can not watch you back when I'm lying down on mine, now can I?"

Later…

"I swear Minato, some day I will hit you for interfering with my fights. Could you just tell all those voices in your head that urge you to always take the exciting part for yourself to go to hell?" she screeches as she stops to look at him before continuing.

"Jerk! Nerd! Bookworm! Know-it-all-moron!" the frustrated, worry-filled words are of course heard by the man.

But the battered face of the blonde 20-year old only whispers:

"Will you follow me to the hospital so that you can get that wound checked?"

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"You have really cute toes you know."

"Mmm?" the woman that was at the moment given a foot rub by her oh-so-wonderful husband is brought back to reality by the odd compliment.

"They are just perfect." He sits back and seemingly admires the swollen ankles and blushing toes.

"Focus a bit more on my face or something Minato" a now annoyed and slightly embarrassed pregnant woman replies.

"Why? "

"Because you're scaring me…"

Why can't he ever have any normal interests?

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"-and then by producing a high concentration of chakra in the foramen magnum you'll be able to cause a momentum-"

He really is a nerd. Glowing like a sun when he gets to talk about his discoveries and developed jutsus. No normal person would ever get what he's talking about. And to tell the truth, neither do I. But he looks so happy. And who am I to disturb him?

"- one has to be careful with the surface though as it has some influence on the results but with good control of the low energy flow it can be – "

Besides; he's very handsome.

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"You know, you are a very thoughtful, funny, likable person. But you're also a nerd and workaholic person that tends to forget the most basic of things."

"…your point?"

"…No point really. I was just wondering if you could figure out how I fell in love with you- because I sure as hell can't."