Disclaimer: Nope don't own Naruto, and I never will. I'm only saying this because I'm at gunpoint. I do own Naruto…I mean I don't!
Story: Fem!Naru Minato tells Kushina to flee to Suna, if something were to go wrong in Konoha after his death. Because of this, somehow Naruto is raised in the Sand.
Set as an AU.
Spoilers: …Probably?
Warnings: The usual stuff? I mean, most people who read my stuff are repeated readers, so they should know…otherwise…eh…
Pairings: Yondy!Kazekage/Fem!Naru

Suna no Hoshi
Chapter Seventeen: I'm a Visionary, Baby!

This…was his last chance.

No, seriously. After that night, Naruto's pretty ears and tail were going bye bye. And he still hadn't pet them.

That was going to be corrected right then, he decided. It was a once and a lifetime opportunity. Naruto will most likely never have those appendages ever again, and it was like a limited edition Icha Icha Paradise selling out fast kind of situation for the perverts of the world.

He didn't care how perverted this sounded –this was Naruto's fox tail and ears, and they were cute and looked so soft.

"Do you know how crazy and weird this looks? Makes you look?" Ryuujin butted in.

"I won't say anything if you wanted to cuddle her tail."

"Deal."

And there were no more obstacles to his path.

Before long, he'd stealthily made it over to where Naruto slept, and quietly sat down next to her sleeping body. He paused and took a moment to think that over, shaking his head at himself before staring at her fox ears and deciding that this wasn't the time to falter and think he was a moronic idiot when her adorable ears were there and might not be there for very long after. Hands shaking, he reached out (just as Ryuujin traveled from his head and jumped onto her stomach from Rasa's knee) and lightly touched her fox ears.

He practically melted pathetically.

But they really were so soft.

"So soft," both he and Ryuujin sighed happily.

Suddenly, Rasa felt a presence and both he and his draconic companion looked up and saw Gamabunta, Fukasaku, and Shima staring weirdly at them.

"What?" Ryuujin snapped haughtily. "They're absolutely divinely soft. You wouldn't understand."

Rasa full-heartedly agreed with his Summon.

"They'll be gone soon," Rasa moped. "I don't even have a camera to take a picture to remember them by."

Silently, Shima handed him a picture of Naruto with her fox appendages and he brightened up immediately, pleased that he had a picture of a cute Naruto with them.

They just didn't tell him they also took pictures of him petting her right then.

Hearing a rumble coming from the girl, Rasa and everyone else looked at her. He continued petting her ears, and the sound became louder.

"Is she purring?" Gamabunta gaped.

Rasa pet a little more firmer than he'd had before and got a particularly loud purr out of her because of that.

"She is!" Ryuujin sounded oddly delighted about it.

"Ohhh, pet her some more!" all three toads began urging him, ultimately changing their minds about the weirdness of the whole thing, when Naruto was being adorable even in sleep.

Ryuujin and Rasa traded smug looks. They knew those toads would see it their way.

And when Naruto's ears and tail were gone in the morning, no one said a thing about that moment to her. And if Rasa was strangely moping for some reason (as he kept sending her glances), no one enlightened the confused and worried Naruto about why.

Naruto decided to forget about it (and consequently remember to get it out of Rasa later).

"I want to be a chuunin already," Naruto sighed instead. "It's not like I can do too much as a genin."

Rasa snorted. "Oh? You already have a bridge named after you. Most chuunin never amount to much, much less getting structures named after them." Still, he hesitated. Sighing, he decided to bring up the Exams. "Not too long from now, the Chuunin Exam is coming," he revealed resignedly. "It will be in Konoha."

She was practically vibrating with excitement, so she hadn't caught on to his reservations. If she had been less excited, she would already know why he wasn't too sure or happy about sending her there for the Exam.

"Naruto, it is going to be in Konoha," he reiterated as he emphasized the place.

She looked slightly confused and her excited smile wavered.

"You are the daughter of their Yondaime and of Uzumaki Kushina, two of their most beloved heroes. You are also their jinchuuriki –"

"Not theirs anymore," she interrupted vehemently. "I'm your jinchuuriki now."

A warmth grew in his chest at her announcement as being his, just as a bit of possessiveness started to grow too.

"Yes, well…you are also a dead ringer for Minato. You are definitely, without doubt, going to be recognized. And with all that you are, they won't want to let you go."

Her face turned red in anger, but she looked so adorable that his lips couldn't help twitching up. She surprised him by grabbing tightly onto him.

"Well…well…Who cares!" she burst out indignantly. "They suck! They'll have to pry me off of you!"

Rasa couldn't help staring at her dumbfounded, but then he ended up giving her a rather silly grin, completely and utterly in bliss. He didn't remove his arm (of course not), but he did shift a bit so that Naruto would be leaning against him. That made him even happier and he couldn't help subtly leaning back into her.

"So when's the Chuunin Exam?" she asked quietly.

"There are still a few months. It's in July, I think," he answered, content with their position together.

"Aa, I see," she hmmed. "That's like after your birthday, right?"

He froze, happy mood crashing.

"W-what?"

"Your birthday?" she turned to look at him with a wide grin. "Isn't it somewhere before July? Like…March…March something…"

"How do you know that?" he didn't want her to know his birthday! Or remember how old he was! Or know his birthday and know what age he's turning into and start to think he's old –

He needed to stop rambling. He needed to stop panicking.

Naruto blinked at him. "Why wouldn't I know when's your birthday? You're the Kazekage. You know how much you are im…portant to me, even back then. I tried to learn everything I could about you."

Again, he felt all flustered, remembering her strange attentiveness to him in the years passed, back before they'd known each other personally. And he felt idiotically giddy about it too now, what with his feelings for her and all.

"You're turning 30...30…35, right?" she was trying to remember.

"34!" he said quickly, looking uncomfortable. "I'm not that old yet."

Naruto looked at him funny. "Old? Wherever did you get that idea? You're nowhere near old, silly Rasa!" she rolled her eyes at him, but he was infinitely grateful that she didn't see him as old, at least.

Still –he'd wanted to avoid any mention of his birthday around her, and making her remember how old he really was. Even if it seemed she didn't really care right then…

"So, um, training seems to be doing good for you," he said instead, changing the subject.

Before she could answer, her face all excited and she eager to talk about it, their conversation was cut off and Naruto was being called back to training once more.

Sweat dripped off of her brow, but she was grinning in success.

"I did it," she said in awe.

Rasa was looking awestruck at her too. "Yeah, you did," he murmured.

Naruto had managed to master Sage Mode. She was able to fully utilize Sage Mode finally, and only in one month. She'd also learned Frog Kata and mastered the basics, and was looking forward to advancing the more she practiced.

"We'll have to spar together, and see how Frog Kata does against another style," Rasa said warmly, making Naruto's cheeks heat up.

"Oh? I would have thought Gaara got his non-taijutsu skills from you," she ended up teasing him a bit. "Gathering your similar styles…I would have to guess you'd suck at taijutsu."

Rasa huffed and playfully glared at her. "I'll have you know, I'm more than adequate at taijutsu. I am a kage, you know. I should hope to have the skills to match my station."

She snickered at him, but they were being ushered to bathe soon after and then to bed. Only, Naruto didn't go to sleep. She couldn't really.

She was feeling a bit melancholy. Thoughts of being snatched up by Konoha plagued her. Naruto was happy in Suna. She was happy being in Team BAMF. She was happy with…Rasa.

"Naruto, you still up?" Rasa's sleepy voice greeted her from behind, having been asleep for a bit before stirring awake and realizing Naruto had not yet gone to bed.

"Un," she was glad it was dark, because she was blushing and she really didn't want him to see it. Her blush darkened as he sleepily plopped down next to her and slung an arm around her shoulders. It worsened even more when he pulled her closer to him, until she was being held tightly against his side. From how close she was to him, she could smell the usual cinnamon and spices smell off of him.

The truth was she didn't want to remember what she felt. She very well did remember the fact she'd been close to admitting she liked the Kazekage, after having been confronted with it by Inari shoving it into her face that time. At first, she thought she'd been having separate feelings for two different people, when she thought Tenoh and the Kazekage were two different men. But now that she knew they were one and the same, it became worse and she'd shoved those feelings to the back of her mind. After all, she couldn't have feelings for her Kazekage! That's just…dumb. There's just no way. How dumb could she be?

And yet, when Rasa unthinkingly kissed the top of her head, she inwardly grumbled. Oh, who was she kidding?

"Rasa," she murmured. "You're really, really…important to me," she confessed quietly. "You're the most important person to me."

Rasa's eyes snapped wide open and suddenly he wasn't so sleepy any more. His breath lightened and he'd stilled, but he tried not to mistakenly seem put off. Actually, he was pretty fucking ecstatic right then.

"Naruto, you know, I really like you," he pulled back a bit, and smiled slightly at her. He tilted her head and kissed her forehead gently. "You're really important to me too," he whispered.

Naruto knew her heart was beating rapidly, while her face was burning bright red. But she felt really happy and even giddy about the whole moment, and she'll just stick her tongue out and blow a raspberry at anyone who'd laugh at her reaction.

Like she'd care. Rasa was being extra sweet and kind to her right then.

A mental chibi version of herself popped a champagne bottle and let it fizz about as she jumped around in celebration.

Gaara's eyes twitched as the old geezer kept going on. Letting out a low growl, he flung a hand out and a wave of sand grabbed hold of the Council member and tossed him out of the office and through the open door that an Anbu had opened (they were used to getting it open in time by now). Gaara grumbled as he walked to his father's desk and plopped down onto the chair. He glared at the mountain of paperwork on the desk, and used his sand to grab a bunch on top and stuff it into a hole some of his other sand had dug. Then he covered it in even more sand.

Just then, Baki burst through the door all agitated.

"Appointment?" Gaara asked in boredom, not even looking at his sensei.

"Don't 'appointment' me, you little brat!" his eye twitched badly. "You can't keep throwing out Council members!"

Gaara blinked. "Why not? They're annoying. If Dad did it, he'd be so less stressed out."

Baki blew air out in exasperation. "That's not the point! Your dad gets the job done. Do the job seriously! And what's with all this sand?!" He touched a counter, before pausing. "What in the…" he wiped the sand off and gaped. "Is this…is this where the paperwork is disappearing off to?!"

Gaara gained shifty eyes, subtly smoothing over the sand covering the hole that hid the large stack of paperwork he had just hid in there.

Baki threw up his hands. "I give up!" he stormed out and Gaara huffed.

He crossed his arms across his chest, and scowled when the sleeves of the kage robe got in the way. Huffing again, he took off the robe and hat.

"Anbu!" A few of them came out of hiding and Gaara shoved the clothing into one of the Anbu's hands.

"Can you get this altered to my size?"

The Anbu paused and tilted his head, staring at his temporary Kazekage. He then shrugged and left, thinking to hell with it.

Gaara nodded in satisfaction.

Although, his dad might be more than a little irritated at the fact his office was covered in sand. Not like sand from the outside coming in (beside there being Seals to prevent that), but more like…everything was practically covered in a sheen of sand. And there were literally mounds of it in certain places.

And various paperwork was hidden around the office, hidden underneath more sand.

Okay, so maybe his father would definitely be more than a little mad.

The door opened and another Council member was preparing to go inside. Gaara flicked his hand lazily and the sand near the door reached up and shut it in the Council member's face. Gaara didn't even look over, instead staring down grumpily at the paperwork. He used some sand to lift it up and put it aside, and then let the sand fall over it and hid it.

There –done.

"Ah, Rasa, look at this!" Naruto brought over a small, nondescript bottle. "Gamabunta-san gave it to me! It smells really sweet."

Rasa gently took the bottle from her and sniffed, eyes widening when he realized what the drink was.

"Naruto, this is saké," he informed her duly. It did smell good though, probably one of the better made saké out there.

Naruto blinked, staring at him with wide blue eyes. "Really? I didn't know. I was going to ask you to try it with me, but…" she looked at him tentatively. "And I don't want to drink it in front of you either."

He gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Naruto. I don't mind you drinking, and I'm not all that bothered by alcohol in the first place. I only get odd occasions, when I feel extremely upset –but I have you, ne? I don't need to be so sad anymore," he winked at her, causing her face to heat up again.

"Then…" she glanced furtively at him. "Um…try it with me?" she was practically mumbling.

"Maybe in a bit. Why don't you try it first?" Rasa suggested. "So I can use your reaction to see if I want to try it or not," he ended mischievously, causing her to pout.

"Fine," she huffed, but poured some into a little saucer cup she had with her. "I'll be your guinea pig."

She took a swig and drank the saucer cup down, before blinking rapidly.

"Ish awesome!" Naruto screamed a moment later and already slurring.

Rasa blinked in surprise. "She just had one saucer cup full of saké. Why is she already drunk?" he asked Gamabunta warily, who had ambled towards them as she drunk it.

Gamabunta chortled loudly. "That's Mt. Myoboku saké for you!"

Rasa was still rather skeptical, so he poured some into Naruto's cup. Indirect Kisses. He chuckled quietly to himself and drank the saké in one go. He suddenly felt lightheaded and felt his face warming up already.

"Woah. That's…strong." But he kept going until the bottle was finished, but at least it was a small bottle.

Then again, it was Mt. Myoboku saké, and he was much too inebriated already, from one single bottle –no matter how tiny it was. Especially because it was so tiny.

"I'M TARZAN!" Naruto strangely was yelling, balancing on one of the trees.

"I'm not Jane," Rasa grumbled, blinking a bit to focus his out-of-focus sight.

"JANE!" Naruto glomped onto Rasa, suddenly next to him when she'd been some ways away on top of a tree.

Rasa stared. "Oh, Taarrzzan," he was slurring now too. "Holze me and Imma damsel in deztressss~" he glomped her back and rubbed his head happily against her bosom. "My Taaarrzaaan."

Fuck it, he'll be Jane if he got to hold onto her tightly like this.

Gaara hummed under his breath as he strode along the streets of the sandy village, all decked out in his outfitted custom kage gear. If he was preening and strutting around in them, he wasn't going to acknowledge and say anything about it.

"Good evening, Kazek –" the lady selling bread stopped and stared.

Gaara smiled slightly and waved.

"Er…Gaara-sama, I mean," she continued, confused and not understanding. "Uh, there's fresh bread here, if you're interested."

Gaara decided that it would be good to do some grocery shopping. Naruto did all the cooking –it was only fair for the rest of them to do the other chores, such as shopping for things that Naruto may need to cook meals.

And if he bought extra gizzard for her to cook, he wouldn't admit to spoiling and indulging himself.

When he returned home, he packed away the groceries and ignored Kankuro, who was munching on some of the Valentine's chocolate that many girls in the village had given to Gaara.

"Why don't you eat your own chocolate, Kankuro-baka?" Temari snarked as she reheated leftovers of food Naruto had made before her disappearance.

They were starting to have to ration the food now.

Kankuro glared. "I have some! I just…don't want to eat it all at once. And Gaara has so many –you don't mind sharing, right Gaara?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes," Temari smirked.

"I'll take that as a no," Kankruo stuck his tongue out at her. He popped another chocolate into his mouth and chewed obnoxiously at her.

She scrunched up her nose. "Ew. Gross, Kankuro."

He repeated the action smugly, causing her to narrow her eyes and steal the bag of chocolates he'd been eating out of.

"Besides, you're just upset that you didn't get all that many chocolates. Or that Gaara got more than you," she teased him, although she started eating some chocolate out of the bag herself.

Gaara cleared his throat, interrupting them from their bickering.

"Whose are these?' the red head sweatdropped at the "small" pile of chocolates amassed onto their kitchen table, and was even bigger than his own.

"Oh that? That's Dad's. Women were delivering them left and right," Temari rolled her eyes as she remembered that.

Gaara was rather relieved. For some reason, he had the wild thought that maybe they had been for Naruto, which couldn't be right since Valentine's was when females gave chocolate to men, and White Day was when the males were supposed to reciprocate. He chuckled quietly as he reiterated that thought to his siblings, but his small smile slipped off his face as he noticed them silenced and fidgeting.

"Er…Naruto's load of chocolate is in her room. There was…no room to keep with Dad's or anywhere else in the house without scattering or something," Kankuro scratched the back of his head.

Gaara blinked and slowly walked over to Naruto's room, peeking his head inside. He gaped unabashedly.

There was literally a mountain of chocolate gifts on top of her bed, with stacks all over her desk, chair, dresser. There was also…

"Is that –"

"A life-sized chocolate model of Naruto, complete with prince outfit and holding a chocolate rose dashingly?" Temari laughed anxiously.

"Yep," Kankuro added in deadpan. "She also received an expensive limited edition chocolate kunai and shuriken set from Shinoda-sensei."

"Huh," Temari frowned thoughtfully. "I thought Shinoda-sensei had a crush on Ouji-sama. Guess I was right…"

Gaara inwardly rolled his eyes fondly. "It would be just like Naruto to receive chocolates, even though she's female. I suppose it'll be even worse on White Day?"

They all thought on that before shaking their heads.

"Poor Dad," the three said in unison.

"Uh need help," Rasa yelled as much as he could, as he leaned against the top of the top of the tree. "Come safff meeee, my princess!"

Naruto made a valiant pose. "I'm coming, Sleeping Beauty! Princess Charming is coming to your rescue!"

Rasa was a bit miffed she was already slurring less, while he'd gone on to slurring more. It really wasn't fair…

But then he almost lurched off the tree and that thought was completely replaced by focusing on staying on until his makeshift princess came to "rescue" him. Ryuujin better be glad he'd finally left Nagi's side –he would have made his Summon suffer playing the "evil dragon" he needed saving from.

"I'm coming, Sleeping Beauty. GLITTER ATTACK NO JUTSU!" she threw out her hands and glitter exploded from them at invisible enemies. "Take that! And that!" she kept throwing more glitter around.

Rasa sweatdropped.

He should also admit that he was rather horrified that at least her subconscious remembered the whole Sleeping Beauty/Princess Charming Glitter episode enough to bring the whole scenario (and amplified magnificently) to the forefront and to be played out while she was drunk.

He prayed that no glitter got on him again, or at least no one would catch him covered in glitter like Tsunade had. He refused to have a repeat of that.

Suddenly hearing no sounds, Rasa tuned back to the present and looked for Naruto, seeing her frowning and standing still. Frowning himself, he jumped from his spot on the tree and landed awkwardly on the ground. World tilting, he tried to make himself focus and pushed away the drunken haze enough to stumble towards Naruto.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" he enunciated clearly, to get rid of the slurs and focus on her and her concerns.

"S'Valentine's Day today," she murmured, still frowning. "I didn't get to get you chocolate for today."

His cheeks warmed up and he was most probably grinning goofily. But who the fuck cares? She had been planning to get him chocolate for Valentine's. He could only hope they would have been special honmei chocolates…

"Okay!" Naruto nodded surely. "I got it! Happy Valentine's Day, Rasa!"

And she leaned up, towards him, and kissed him sweetly on his lips.

Rasa's mind completely blanked out and he practically stopped breathing.

Started 1/16/14 – Completed 2/21/14

A/n: I don't even know. Anyway, next chapter should be White Day, Rasa's birthday, and I will finally bring up Yashamaru again! How many of y'all forgot about him, eh? And yes, I finally have an omake! back. Please leave behind a review!

To Ski: Sorry for being awhile, but I updated!

To Kisa: Mwaha! Gaara thinks it's so easy. He'll get the hang of the job eventually.

To Russian Lady: Thank you! I'm glad you can enjoy them all the way there. As for the song, I love it! Do you mind telling me what the name of the full song is? I'd like to look it up. And I wouldn't be mad at all –I'm happy to have any input from others :)

To Rat-Man: Glad you find it really funny! I try to make things funny, though I know my humor's odd.

Omake! (The Genjutsu Tales Remixed!: Kushina Style)

Minato stared in horror at his girlfriend. Currently, Uzumaki Kushina was chasing Orochimaru around, drooling and screaming about ramen.

Ramen. Of all things! And what did that have to do with Orochimaru?

"Oh Kami-sama, what happened to Kushina-chan?" the blond gaped at the spectacle.

Uchiha Mikoto coughed politely beside him, blushing slightly.

"Um…that might be my husband's fault," she sounded apologetically. "Apparently Kushina insulted Fugaku about something, and he retaliated –rather childishly, I might add –by putting Kushina under a random genjutsu."

Minato blinked. "…Oh."

"RAMEN, MY LOVE!"

"GET OFF ME, WOMAN!"

Somewhere close by, Uchiha Fugaku cackled under his breath as he watched the whole thing.

"Take that, Kushina! Making fun of my hair and comparing it to Hyuuga-teme!"

His hair was not getting that long.

And it won't ever! Even if Mikoto thought it would look pretty.

Started 3/3/14 – Completed 3/3/14