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 Nineteen: Proceed to Party

Passing out aside, it had gone pretty smooth after. She'd woken up and after an awkward stare off (lacking the staring, and more averting their eyes), they'd finished their dinner. She wasn't quite sure what to do then, since he pretty much confessed how he felt and hadn't asked for an answer. However, she really wanted to give him one, and considering her own thoughts on the matter, she couldn't think of any other answer than the one she was about to give.

"Rasa," she called out hesitantly, breaking the weirdness between them.

He looked up sharply at that, watching her intensely, and she almost forgot to breathe again. But she centered herself and gave him a small smile.

"The thing is," she started quietly. "I've probably been in love with you for a long time. And it's got to be pretty damn obvious if even a kid like Inari knew before me," she muttered that last part.

He caught it, but he was much too happy with what she said to tease her as per usual. He stayed quiet though, allowing her time to gather her thoughts and continue what she'd wanted to say to him.

She rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "I'm not really too good with this kind of thing. And I don't think I've ever been in love before, since usually I was too busy focusing on training and you. Er, the you before I knew you," she tried to make sense of what she was saying. "I mean, the window-you. The you in my window? Okay, I'm just confusing myself, so I'm going to move on…"

She mentally face palmed, but Rasa was chuckling lightly. It was the usual Naruto, and seeing that made Rasa hope that things wouldn't change too much between them.

"What I'm just going to say is I love you back," she boldly declared. "I've probably loved you for like the longest time. Probably even before you, but you figured it out before me because I'm really dense."

Rasa's lips twitched and he was reminded of how much he did love this silly girl. She was that light in his world, even when back then when she was just an 'idea' and he was still searching for her.

But her returning his feelings was just icing on the cake.

So, without further encouragement, he went to her side and scooped her into his arms. Her blush had him grinning internally, and he promptly laid a kiss on her lips.

Well, Kushina and Minato were sure to kill him now (re-kill him, that is) once he died and went to the afterlife. That was okay though, because for even for a short bit, he was going to get to have Naruto. And that was worth everything.

"We're not telling your kids though," Naruto interrupted sourly. "Who knows what they'd get up to, if they found out."

Of course. Those three. He grimaced. It wasn't even a question of 'if', but when they'd find out. And they'll be annoying and absolutely maddening. They'd be beyond exasperating and there would be no peace for him and Naruto. In fact, the two of them would never be able to have time alone and spend time being personal…intimate…whatever…

He immediately diverted his thoughts to something else.

In any case, they'll be insufferable. Merciless teasing all the time, stupid and inappropriate innuendoes, sniggering around every corner, perverted comments and lewd encouragements…

Dear Kami, what the hell was wrong with his kids? They were not normal.

"Yeah…they'll eventually find out, but they can find out on their own. I'm not telling those brats anything," he twitched.

The two of them shared resigned looks.

The two began to "date" in earnest. Well, as much dating (and as normal as it could be) between the Kazekage of the village and a crazed up, jinchuuriki power-house of a genin. But together they were, even if there was a lack of places for them to actually be able to be affectionate with each other. Well, to be honest, the only place they really could was Rasa's office.

They'd had to let his secretary and Anbu in on the secret for that.

He hadn't told Naruto yet, but his Anbu was unapologetically snickering at him every time she wasn't in his office, while his secretary made deadpan inappropriate comments out of nowhere and when he least expected.

In the meanwhile, when all that was happening, Kankuro had gotten a bright idea earlier on when they were in the Summoning World, and now he was implementing it. He was freaking ecstatic about it too, because it would put Suna on the map and it would be his idea that helped. Maybe they'll even rename the village after him!

After all, Suna was going to be the village known for all of its ninja being able to summon.

Kankuro spread the word, telling everyone about how he and his team (and his dad, the Kazekage, 'cause yeah that better add some cred) got transported into the Summoning planes and ended up getting their own Summons (well, technically Gaara didn't, but no one didn't need to know and sooner or later he'll get his shit together and make up with Shukaku or something).

At first, no one seemed to believe him. And he got it; it wasn't very likely and seemed really far-fetched. But when they started getting curious…Kankuro knew they would try it, and it'll work, and it'll spread to every shinobi in the village, and then they were all going to start doing it.

He knew he'd had success when Baki himself walked into their house, looking dazed. His teacher saw him and looked at him strangely, before gaping.

"It worked. It really, really worked!"

Kankuro inwardly rolled his eyes. "Duh. How could you not believe us?"

"I didn't say I didn't believe you guys. I witnessed you all disappear after all. I'm just saying…It's one thing to hear you guys say what happened, and then another to experience it," Baki practically lectured. "At the time, I was too busy panicking about your disappearances and the Kazekage being gone, and still being gone even when you and Gaara came back, to really think too much on it either."

After all, Baki had been there when first Naruto, then his two other students, and then Rasa had used the Summoning Jutsu and had then disappeared from right in front of his face. He knew they had to have gone somewhere.

"Well, great. What's your Summons?" Kankuro asked in curiosity.

Baki grinned widely, kind of scaring the crap out of Kankuro.

"Leopards," Baki crowed eagerly. "I got freakin' leopards."

Kankuro gave him the stink eye. "Really? Why does everyone else get to have cool Summons?" he grumbled. "Ah well, now you can help me out at least."

Baki straightened up, back to his usual self and normal behavior. "And what's that?" he asked suspiciously.

Kankuro grinned this time, holding out a stack of papers. Baki cringed when he saw the top paper.

"You can help me post all of these in the village! It's payback for Naru-kaa," Kankuro huffed, but pleased with his work.

He was holding flyers with pictures of Naruto on it, altered to have fox ears. The particular picture was one of those times Naruto was upset about the lack of ramen, and therefore had an extremely cute but very sad face on. The teary eyes helped emphasized the pictures.

"What the heck are these?" Baki frowned. "They look like those stupid 'help these poor dogs and cats' commercials broadcasted from Kumo. I'm surprised those soft Konohans don't do it."

"Right?" Kankuro agreed. "They're supposed to be, but it's a prank on Naruto."

Baki gave him an odd look. "Why would you prank her?"

Kankuro answered cheerily. "It's an initiation into the family!"

Since his teacher still looked confused, Kankuro elaborated. "'Cause Dad's gonna marry Naruto."

Baki sputtered and stared at him.

Honestly, Rasa had not been looking forward to his birthday. But come it did, and after a village-wide celebration (he really wished that hadn't happened, but Naruto –backed and egged on by his traitorous secretary –had completely insisted on it), Rasa ended up with a quiet, more family-oriented celebration at home.

"Turn that off!" he yelled, eye twitching as he watched his kids.

Blasting music, throwing those party glitter (why glitter? It was becoming the bane of his existence), and hollering loudly to the music. That was how his children were choosing to celebrate his birthday, when he was just hoping for a nice, quiet dinner or something.

A flash went off and he gave a wry look to Naruto, who sat at the table, watching everything in amusement and taking pictures.

"Indulge them," she suggested. "They're having fun and they're happy for you. Just enjoy yourself, grumpy pants," her blue eyes twinkled as she smiled widely at him. "Besides, it's your first birthday we're celebrating together."

He gave a slight grimace and took a seat next to her. "Other than I don't want to remember my age again or how much older I am to you? They're loud and insane."

"But they're your loud and insane kids," she teased him.

"Ah, well, true," he agreed, smiling a bit, watching the others have fun. Although…"Baki's still staring oddly at us though. Do you have any idea what's wrong with him?"

"Not a clue," Naruto raised her eyebrows. "I'm almost tempted to go over there and ask him straight out, if it weren't for the fact he looks like his mind could break at any moment."

It made the both of them even more curious as to what was wrong with the jounin, and if it had anything to do with them, considering it was their direction Baki was focused on.

"What a party! I like it. How come I didn't get an invitation?" a rowdy voice said loudly from behind them.

The party came to a screeching halt, with Gaara shutting off the music, Kankuro snatching up the cake and ready to use it as a weapon, and Temari being the only one of the three siblings to be actually ready to fight with a weapon (Gaara's sand was a cheat; it was always attached and around him anyway). Baki, strangely, still seemed broken.

Rasa had taken Naruto and jumped farther away from the culprit, though he was chagrined when she immediately pushed forward and put him behind her, grasping a few kitchen knives to use as weapons.

"What do you want with Kazekage-sama?" she growled, glaring at the new person with suspicion.

And Rasa finally looked at the man and recognized him instantly (it was hard not to, with the man's usual getup). He really couldn't understand how he didn't recognize his voice, but it had been some years since he'd seen the other…

But he grew uneasy and moved his face into a neutral and unrevealing look, despite Naruto was standing right there, in clear view and with her looks so obvious. Rasa clearly had been caught red-handed, so no amount of a good poker face would let him be able to lie through this one.

"Rasa-kun!" Jiraiya of the Sannin greeted him cheerfully, much too cheerful to be real. "Happy birthday, brat! I'm sure we've got a lot of things to talk and catch up about."

Rasa smiled coolly. "I'm sure we do."

"Rasa, why didn't you tell me you were going to marry Naruto?" Baki interrupted in a daze, and Rasa had the urge to slap his palm against his face or strangle Baki.

Maybe he'd face palm first and then strangle Baki.

"What?" Jiraiya sounded deadly serious, and Rasa winced.

This was not how he wanted his relationship to Naruto to be broadcasted, and especially to the likes of Jiraiya (actually, he would have preferred to have kept it from him forever). He didn't even know how Baki knew, though Kankuro's suspicious 'cough' clearly pointed fingers.

"We're not getting married," Rasa snapped at Baki. "Focus, man! And get out of your head. What's wrong with you?"

"But you're marrying my student!" Baki hissed indignantly, turning to Rasa with a glare as he snapped out of his daze. Then he caught sight of Jiraiya and stopped short. "Oh."

"Yes, oh," Rasa growled. "And I said I wasn't marrying Naruto," though he turned to her and tried to communicate with his eyes the 'yet' part he dearly wanted to say. She gave him a reassuring smile, as she continued to monitor this curious situation.

"You're not denying a relationship though," Gaara pointed out, and he was tempted to now strangle his youngest.

"No, I didn't," Rasa gritted his teeth. "So yes –Naruto and I are together."

Temari squealed. "I knew it! I so knew it. We knew like probably from the beginning, but you guys wouldn't say anything so we didn't say anything –but oh! That means Ouji-sama is off the market," she turned dejected at the end.

Damn it all, why did he have such difficult children?

"Update. Now. Please," Jiraiya was now completely opposite of his usual goofy self, making Rasa inwardly cringe.

"Everyone out," he gave a stern look to his kids, and even Baki.

Naruto, however, gave him a look and he mentally sighed, nodding to her. While everyone filed out quickly, Naruto took a closer stand next to him, and gave a steady and assessing look. She was in one of her more serious moods, making Rasa compare her to Jiraiya again. Both had the sense of being completely serious and ready, when time called for it.

"Naruto," Rasa put a hand on her shoulder gently, and she looked up at him. "Jiraiya is not an enemy…per se," looking at Jiraiya right then, he wasn't quite sure though. "At least not towards Suna or yourself," he amended.

That caused her to look confused, but heard the implication right as she shifted closer to him and continued to give Jiraiya a wary look.

Jiraiya held up his hands. "Your Kazekage and I have matters to settle, including the fact he's in a relationship with you," Jiraiya tossed a glare towards Rasa at that.

Naruto scowled. "What does that have anything to do with you? It's not your business whether or not Rasa and I are together," which put a whole new warmth in Rasa, and made him much more ready to face Jiraiya and tell the truth about Naruto's whereabouts (and current status, relationship-wise included).

"I'm your godfather," Jiraiya blurted out. "And he hasn't been truthful about whether or not you've been alive all these years."

Naruto suddenly looked sheepish. "Ah –I actually forgot about that part," she gave a small laugh and looked at Rasa, who gave her an exasperated but tender look. "In any case, Rasa only found out not too long before anyway, that I was 'alive.' It was, uh, my genin exam results."

Jiraiya looked confused, so Rasa reluctantly elaborated. "Kushina said before her death, that Naruto was a boy. I've assumed through the years that I'd had to look for a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy, instead of Naruto here."

"I'm completely female," Naruto waved, grinning as she added that unnecessarily.

Rasa rolled his eyes. "And to which I then received her genin results, saw her name and picture, and realized I'd finally found her and that she was actually a girl."

"Okay," Jiraiya grumbled. "I'll concede on how Rasa hadn't known long, but there's still been time since then where you could have said something. And didn't you recently have to meet with Sarutobi-sensei?"

Rasa wondered how he'd be able to get out of that one.

"Oh, he was too busy pretending to be a nameless jounin and getting to know me," Naruto interjected carelessly, and Rasa didn't know if she was making it worse or better. "Then when he told me who he really was, there was a sandstorm and then some other stuff came up, and really way too much happening."

Jiraiya and Rasa gave her a strange look at her blasé explanation.

"Needless to say, there was too much happening, as she said," Rasa decided to go along with it. "And at the time of the meeting with Hiruzen, she hadn't known exactly who I was. So I wasn't exactly prepared to just tell anyone that she was alive and safe, when she wasn't even aware of the fact that I was the Kazekage and her mother had tasked me to take care of her and protect her. Even against Konoha," he emphasized, giving a pointed look to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya frowned. "So Kushina did run from Konoha and to Suna…to you. I suppose she didn't want Naruto having anything to do with Konoha, you mean?"

"If she ran from Konoha and begged me to her dying breath to protect Naruto, something about Konoha was a reason why she ran and therefore I couldn't let Naruto or Kushina's body go back to that village. And you and I both know why Kushina really ran and why she took Naruto from there," Rasa's eyes glinted.

Jiraiya nodded slowly. "Alright, I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. Kushina's dying wish and all; I heard your reasoning to Sarutobi-sensei about why you keep refusing to send Kushina's body back to them. Why give her back to the village she was running from? And further, extend that to her daughter. Gah, fine. I would have liked to have known my goddaughter was still alive, instead of finding out because of some weird clue over some bridge over in Wave."

Rasa groaned. "I knew I should have told them not to name that bridge after her…"

Naruto squealed. "Ohhh, I'm already getting famous. Awesome! Just wait until I claim a village or two!"

"Oho, now I'm interested in the whole story," Jiraiya started slipping into his usual silly self.

Rasa almost hoped he'd forgotten about the fact he was dating said goddaughter.

"Although, you and I need to talk about this whole dating business, Rasa," Jiraiya's silly grin had an edge to it.

Rasa sighed. He should've known better and had thought too early.

Jiraiya couldn't believe his goddaughter (and wasn't that a trip! Naruto was a girl. He, Kushina, and Minato had always thought Naruto would be a boy) was alive. She was here in front of him, safe and sound. She was healthy and happy and living a normal life.

She had been in Suna all this time.

He would have preferred not thinking that she'd been dead all these years, but he definitely wasn't sure what to make of her having been in the sandy village. She was firmly entrenched in another village, content with her standing as a kunoichi of Sunagakure. She was definitely loyal to it, especially if it was true and with no mistakes that she was dating the Kazekage of the village (and he really would prefer not to dwell on that aspect any time soon).

Which means she would be loyal to Rasa and to him as the Kazekage.

There would be no way to convince her over to join the Leaf village, and with the implications of what was going on, he wasn't so sure that he wanted her to be there. But it was his village, it was Minato's village, and once upon a time it had been Kushina's. Whether or not she still considered it her village upon her death was contested however.

Konohagakure was in Naruto's blood.

What he wasn't sure who or what she got from was her charm. In all things holy, neither Kushina nor Minato were as charming as his goddaughter!

He was beyond amused and wholly ready to worship his goddaughter, watching her flit around the village as they got to know each other, and every resident being utterly charmed and won over by her. All she needed to do was say a few words, smile a little, do that stupid genjutsu (it had to be one –and one that rivaled the likes of Gai's solo one and the one with his clone Lee).

People just gushed over her. She was like Kami Incarnate to these people. She even had a freakin' fanclub! It was worse than the Uchiha brat back in Konoha. They called her the Desert Prince, for goodness' sakes.

He needed to learn from her.

"You must teach me your ways, Naruto," Jiraiya said solemnly. "I wish to learn how to win over the female kind with your ease and allure. I want your charisma!"

Naruto blinked.

"Magnetize me, my goddaughter! Show me how to be as magnetic and as irresistible as you!"

Well…her godfather was certainly a character.

Rasa braced himself. He'd had to prepare himself for this meeting for a long while, not knowing how to react to the news that he of all people had known something so important and kept it to himself.

That damn bastard Yashamaru…

After all these years...Rasa had been caught off guard by the truth of Yashamaru's feelings. He'd always assumed and believed that Yashamaru had hated him for Karura's death, and blamed him for it all. To know that he had actually placed all this blame and hate on his youngest son instead…

No, it was him. It was Rasa who deserved all of those ill feelings.

He had thought he and Yashamaru had agreed on that point –that Rasa was to blame and that it was all his fault that Karura had died. Apparently, they weren't on the same page, because Yashamaru had been harboring these feelings for Gaara all this time.

So he'd cut off contact with the blond man after that insane 'mission', who didn't mind and had in fact welcomed being isolated from his sister's children and Rasa. Instead, as Rasa had threatened before, he made sure to reassign Yashamaru to the 'acting' division, teaching at the Academy how to act in certain situations and certain roles.

But to know that Yashamaru had known Naruto was alive and had been his student, and then withheld it from Rasa, despite knowing how desperate he'd been to find her…

It was why he now stood in front of Yashamaru's classroom, ready to confront the embittered man.

Started 10/30/14 – Completed 11/30/14

A/n: Urrrgh! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update this. I still love this fic, but I've been on a huge Pokémon binge and current Naruto stuff (fanworks and canon combined) are sucking right now. In any case, I'm back! Hopefully, more often. I hope everyone's still reading and into this, and I would really love it if everyone dropped a review! I was rereading some past ones and I got terribly giddy and giggly :D

1. Name Change: Apparently, Kishimoto finally gave the Fourth Kazekage a name. Officially, it's Rasa. Therefore, I have 18 past chapters for this fic alone where I have to change his blasted name. Ugh. Forgive me if I take a long time and you guys are like WTF with the name switching.

2. Konoha: It's coooming! Yes, you will be seeing a lot of Konoha pretty soon. There'll be some other stuff before the Chuunin Exam, but Konoha, here we come!