Return to Konoha Arc.
Eternal Spiral.
Chapter 12: Awkward returns, Thy name is Uzumaki Naruto!
Sasuke was half amused, half annoyed by the story his girlfriend told of their son's first word.
He should have expected it, Kiyoshi being Naruto's child was bound to be just as unpredictable; Uchiha or not. Naruto herself sat beside him on the arm of the chair he sat in – the hotel room being rather small as to not draw unwanted attention.
Her long blonde-red highlighted hair falling naturally down her back, and she wore the battle kimono she'd taken to wearing recently. Though of course she had multiple copies of it, ninja usually did since they usually chose one outfit and stuck with it for years at a time.
"Did you catch him?" he found himself asking as he smirked.
Naruto cackled momentarily (a frightening sound, though he hid it well). He got the feeling whatever she'd done to her mentor wasn't good; for him at least.
"You bet I did," she answered. "Lets just say he'll have no use for perving for a while. At least not until he can walk again."
Sasuke smirked widely.
"Good."
Naruto smiled at the raven haired boy and moved from the arm of the chair into his lap, leaned up and pressed her lips over his. The kiss was short, but intense.
Pulling back, she released a breath.
"I've missed you, teme," she muttered, and Sasuke brushed a strand of her sunshine hair behind her ear.
"It'll only be a year or two, maybe three before I can safely kill him and leave. Right now I don't stand a chance against a sannin, much less Itachi."
"I know," she said under her breath, looking towards where the twins lay asleep on the large bed a few feet away. "It's just, years ago when I pictured having a family. Hiding and so many secrets wasn't what I imagined."
He sighed at her words, and buried his face in her bright hair, breathing in the scent of rain and pomegranates. He wished he could give her the safety she craved but right now they could only be thankful for what they had. Not to mention they were Shinobi, safety sometimes didn't factor in, even for those who made it far enough to start families.
He remembered his own mother had been a retired jōnin, because she'd not wanted to take the chance of dying on a mission. His father ran the Police force, but he was still a Shinobi and took missions the Hokage assigned so there was always the chance he might not come home one day. He supposed his mother hadn't wanted to chance orphaning him and Itachi young.
Mentally he scoffed, in the end he'd been left alone anyways.
Well, alone except for Naru, he thought after a moment. No matter how much he'd withdrawn himself from her, she'd always tried to reclaim her best friend. She hadn't truly succeeded until they were put on a genin team together, and then the chūnin exams happened and... the Valley of the End.
He sighed, tracing his hand over the area he knew the only scare on her body laid. Not very far from her heart, the size of a fist. His fist, he closed his eyes, leaning his chin on the top of Naruto head, and shaking the memory from his mind. It was one of his greatest regrets.
"One day we won't have to hide," he said. "I can't promise that nothing will go wrong once we've dealt with Orochimaru and the Akatsuki – we're ninja after all – but I do promise I won't let anything happen to you or the twins."
Naruto smiled, leaning into his embrace.
"I'll do the same, I won't let anything happen to any of my precious people," she said, and Sasuke chuckled.
He knew Naruto wouldn't have allowed anyone to protect her as if she was made of blown glass, and he was much the same. Both took pride in being able to protect themselves, though both were beginning to realize sometimes everyone needed help and protection (they would protect each other).
Right now, though, the ones who needed the most protection were their children.
2 ½ YEARS LATER:
"Ero-sennin!" Naruto shouted, hands on her hips. "Stop peaking and let's go already. We're only hours from Konoha."
The white haired older man sighed, turning to look at his apprentice.
"Don't you have brats to get ready?"
Naruto smirked, shaking her head.
"Already finished. Really, you'd think you realize by now I can multitask."
Jiraiya blinked, and frowned.
"You left a few shadow clones didn't you?" he deadpanned and her face fell.
"Maybe," she said slowly, and then rolled her eyes. "If you'd come back to the hotel on time I wouldn't have had too. Now, come on already, I want to get home."
Jiraiya stood, closing his notepad and walking over to his student.
"You think you'd want to avoid this as long as possible," he said. "What with the heart attacks you're bound to give everyone."
Naruto laughed nervously, hand rubbing the back of her head.
"Yeah, well, the sooner I get this over with the better," she told him, and the two made their way back to the hotel.
Jiraiya could understand that, after all, it wasn't everyday you went away for three years and came back with children. He actually looked forward to the shock of the council and Naruto's friends. Especially the one with pink hair, it was bound to be amusing if she was as much like Tsunade as Jiraiya thought she was.
On the other hand it would probably be one of the most awkward explanations Naruto gave since he recalled the other teammate, Sakura, had a massive crush on the Uchiha boy.
Once back at the hotel room Naruto shared with the children, Jiraiya having his own room down the hall, two toddlers made their way at a run to their mother, colliding with her legs.
Both were small, but one was obviously a boy with a hair style that reminded Jiraiya of a mix of Minato's and Sasuke's. Or what Naruto's hair had resembled if she would cut her hair that short, not that she had since she was Kiyoshi's and Nariko's age.
It was raven black, and the little boy looked pretty much like a little mirror image of his father except for the whisker marks on his cheeks.
The girl beside him had the same coloring, besides for the violet-blue eyes which she'd inherited as a mix of her maternal grandmother and mother's eyes.
Her hair while as dark, was a bit bluer tinted, for some odd reason, and spikier at the sides, and tamer as it got longer.
It was barely at her shoulders currently. She did have the pale skin, and common features of a Uchiha even if her face was a bit rounder and she had the same whiskers as her brother and mother.
Both wore dark navy blue shirts with the Uchiha fan on the back – though much smaller then usual, at the collar of the shirt.
This way it didn't instantly tell everyone the two were Uchiha's, but they still got to wear their clan symbol – the fact their was a Uzumaki spiral on the front of the shirt sort of made people over look the much smaller and higher placed clan symbol on the back of the shirt.
Kiyoshi wore longer gray shorts, and Nariko wore darker gray capries. Both were toddler sized shinobi sandals, though neither had really begun training yet.
They watched Naruto train almost like hawks and were rather intelligent for their age, but she wanted to wait at least another year before she began to teach them anything. Sasuke had agreed with her, he'd seen what could happen if children where pushed to train too hard too young. Itachi was one of those prime examples.
"Mama, Menma stinks," Nariko told her, wrinkling her nose and Naruto blinked.
They both had very good pronunciation at their age, and could form rather good sentences, both complex (though not overly so) and simple, but they were still just two and half years old, their words weren't completely clear yet. She had become a bit of an expert translating what they meant though when they tried to speak bigger words.
The ones Nariko had said weren't that horribly mangled, they were rather clear, but it was the innocents behind her words that had startled her.
Leave it to her daughter to state such a honest fact so bluntly. Kiyoshi was simply nodding in agreement to his twins words.
Jiraiya laughed.
"I guess your clones refused diaper duty," he said, and then smirked. "That's what you get for not being more careful. You'd think after the first time you'd practice safer sex."
Naruto burned red with embarrassment, and grumbled under her breath.
"Whatever, Ero-sennin," she finally said, and gently pulled the twins from her legs. "I'll go change Menma, and then we'll be heading home. You two ready to leave?"
Kiyoshi and Nariko nodded, smiling and moving over to Jiraiya, who they had practically taken as their grandfather. They loved to try and climb up his long white hair, which wasn't exactly fun for him. Naruto thought it was the most amusing thing she'd seen in years.
Reaching the room where the crib was set up for her youngest son, Naruto laughed at her clones. One held Menma as if he was a disease, away from her at arms length, and another had a pair of tongs while the other had the fresh diaper.
"Boss!" the free fourth clone exclaimed, eyes bright. "Thank gods, please, please take care of this!"
Naruto sighed, rolling her eyes.
"You do realize you're me?" she asked and the clones blinked and nodded.
"So?" they chorused.
"So..." Naruto began. "Anything I do you'll inadvertently be doing... oh never mind."
Naruto took her son from the first clone and winced at the horrid smell coming from the babies soiled diaper. Why had she had another so soon again?
Oh, yeah, she went into heat (which wasn't exactly uncommon, she was sort of like a cat that way. Or fox, whatever you preferred) last year and she and Sasuke had gotten careless. She supposed that teacher she had in the academy for sex-ed hadn't been exaggerating or overly dramatic when she'd said it only took once.
She still loved her youngest son, even if he hadn't been planed (though, neither had the twins). Sasuke had actually been there for part of the pregnancy, at least when he could be. There had been times they'd gone months without seeing one another because Orochimaru was either suspicious of where Sasuke went when he left Sound, or Sasuke was busy training with the snake sannin.
When she'd told him she was pregnant last November (apparently Kyuubi was all to happy to bitch about her being careless, again! He did hate sharing after all), well, she didn't think she'd seen him so happy, after he'd gotten over his surprise, not for a long time at least.
He'd been more shocked when she'd explained the twins to him when he'd found her in wave, and happy afterward, but by the time she was expecting Menma she supposed he'd become more comfortable in the roll of being a father. She'd honestly been shocked by the show of emotion when she'd told him, but she'd been happy nonetheless.
Menma himself was what she imagined she'd look like if she had been a boy, and she had a feeling he'd hold a resemblance to her father when he was older, but with her rounder face, and some of Sasuke's features of course.
He already had the raven black hair and was a bit tanner than was the norm for a Uchiha. His eyes, on the other hand, were the same blue as hers. Very unlike Nari's light violet-blue ones. He, unlike the twins, had not inherited the whisker marks.
"You are even smellier then your older siblings were at this age," she muttered.
She placed the fresh diaper on him – having tossed the dirty one when she'd been lost in thought. Of course, Menma was too young to do more then make baby sounds. He had been born on April 20th, and it was now late May, so he was only a month a few days old.
Picking up Menma, Naruto held him securely and left the room, knowing she had everything sealed away in one of the four hip pouches she wore at her waist. It was easier then using a baby bag or lugging things around while they traveled around.
"Time to go home," Naruto muttered to herself, and smiled as she left the room.
Three and a half years. Sakura had a hard time believing it had really been that long, back then she'd been young and rather naive, a genin of barely a year when Sasuke had left, a traitor to the village, and Naruto had gone to train with Jiraiya on a three year training trip.
She was what remained of team seven in Konoha, besides for Kakashi-sensei at least. She herself hadn't changed much in the years since then. She was older now, eighteen years old, but she still looked herself. She'd kept her hair short after the Chūnin Exams, but it was still pink.
She supposed she had grown more womanly, but to her great annoyance she still lacked in the bust area, unlike Ino and Hinata. She was only thankful she wasn't near as flat as she'd been as a genin. Another thing that had changed was she was a jōnin, and had been for half a year now.
She'd hung up her old dress for a red sleeveless top. Black boots, black shorts, short pink apron skirt, and pink elbow protectors. Her hita-ate was in place in her hair, though the cloth had been replaced with a red cloth. She wondered how Naruto had changed over the years, and... Sasuke as well.
She sighed as she thought of her former teammate. Even to this day she had conflicting emotions in concern to Sasuke. Part of her blamed him for taring Team Seven apart when he left, another part of her still held hope he'd come back. That she and Naruto would bring him back.
She sighed, and moved to the side as a group of genin nearly ran into her.
"Konohamaru!" Sakura called, and the trio stopped to look back at her.
"Oh, sorry Sakura, didn't see you there," the boy said, rubbing the back of his head in a way that reminded her of Naruto.
She wasn't surprised, Konohamaru reminded her a little of her friend, just male. He'd been a genin for about a year now, and was no twelve (thirteen in December).
"Why are running anyway?" she asked.
Moegi answered, "We're trying to capture Tora."
Sakura flinched at the reminder of the cat, the bane of all D-rank missions and Genin.
"Right, good luck," she said, waving as the threw ran off and heading back in the direction she'd been walking.
For the last week she'd been checking the front gate for any news on if Kotetsu or his partner had seen Naruto and Jiraiya returning yet. Being the apprentice of Tsunade she was usually told when Jiraiya sent in a report about how training was going with Naruto. The last one her Shishou received was about their return in a week or two.
Sakura was only feet away from the entrance when she noticed figures coming from the distance. One was smaller, one much taller and there seemed to be two more much smaller figures walking on either side of what Sakura realized was female the closer it got.
At first she wasn't sure it was Naruto, but as she got to the front gate, and the figures got closer she realized with a smile it was. The orange (even if it was a darker orange) the figure was wearing and bright blonde hair giving her away.
"Sakura?" Naruto said, almost as if asking once she was within feet of the entrance.
Sakura smiled in greeting, noticing her friend had grown, maybe more than she had in the last few years. She looked older, obviously, and her blonde hair was longer, brushing centimeters past her calfs.
Instead of being down as she more commonly wore it when they were genin it was in a tight braid down her back, but she still had bangs framing her face, one side pulled back with two black hair-clips. Her face had lost baby fat, and was a little sharper.
She didn't wear quite as much orange as she once did, much to Sakura's surprise. She wore a dark blue, sleeveless, high-collar top that stopped a few inches below her breast, about the area of her ribcage. To Sakura's envy Naruto bust size was larger then hers, a large C-cup she estimated.
She also had black mesh armor, with elbow length sleeves, under the top which stopped just above her belly button, leaving a part of her midriff completely bare. The only orange she wore, besides a pair of dark orange fingerless gloves, was the open-front apron-skirt with slits up the sides as well.
It was dark orange, like her gloves, and under the skirt were short black shorts. She wore black shinobi boots, like the ones Sakura herself wore, but Naruto's were shin high, instead of knee high.
"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, smiling, but that smile turned to a confused frown when she noticed the movement behind her.
Two small figures behind her legs, hiding like shy or scared children, and she noticed a baby sling (she'd seen her fair share of them, but the dark blue color of it blended in well with her crop top. Eyes wide, Sakura realized there was a baby that greatly resembled her friend in the sling, though at the angle she'd been before she hadn't noticed. The biggest differences being the black hair on the babies head, and barely paler skin.
"Na-Naruto-chan... are they – " Sakura couldn't even get the full question out and Naruto chuckled.
"Um, yeah. These are my kids, Sakura," Naruto said.
"Kids?" Sakura echoed, "You've only been gone three and half years Naru! Who..."
Sakura stopped short when the two toddlers stepped further out from behind her legs and she got a closer look at them. Pale skin, raven hair (though the little girls had a obvious blue tint the other did not), whisker marks. The boy had black eyes, so black it made the pupil seem as if it didn't exist, and the girl had light violet colored eyes.
It was the boy that made her realize exactly who the father had to be. While the girl looked like her brother, she also looked like her mother as her features were a little rounder compared to her twin. The boy on the other hand looked like a mirror image of his father. He even had a duck-butt hair style, even if his hair was spikier overall, and Sakura's jaw dropped momentarily.
"Sasuke..." she gasped out and Naruto flushed slightly and looked down as she sighed.
"We should see Tsunade-baachan, I really don't want to have to explain this a thousand times," Naruto said, and Sakura had a a thousand and one questions to throw at her friend but nodded.
She realized the sunset haired girl was right.
"Fine," Sakura said, "Come on."
Naruto gave a smile in greeting to the chūnin watching the gate, both having stayed silent and where looking as surprised as Sakura. If it was the fact she'd returned with three children, or the fact they'd caught on to the fact Sasuke was the children's father, she wasn't sure.
"Can you run that by me again, Naruto, I think I misheard you," Tsunade said dryly.
Naruto smiled, and shook her head. If reminded her a little of when she was pregnant with Kiyoshi and Nariko and had first told Ero-sennin the news. When she'd told him she was pregnant with Menma, well, he'd almost seemed unsurprised if the eye rolling, and sighing he'd done meant anything. She remembered he'd nearly glared a hole in Sasuke's skull the next time he'd seen him, and pretty much beat the knowledge of how to keep the seal in check during the birth.
Sakura was standing beside Tsunade, and looking at the three young children, and being the curious kids they were, Kiyoshi and Nariko had no problem staring back at her. Sometimes Kiyoshi or Nariko would venture over to circle around her as if she were some alien specimen.
It was adorable, but also sort of annoying for the pink haired young woman.
"I think you heard her the first time, Lady Hokage," a familiar voice said from the window.
Naruto smiled as she turned to see her sensei jump from the window ledge into the room. He hadn't changed at all, she realized, and she saw him stop short upon seeing the the baby held to her chest in the baby sling.
She saw his lone eye go back towards the twins who had turned to stare at the new comer, tilting their head at the odd coloring (yet familiar as Ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei had similar hair colors). He then turned back to her and Menma.
"Meh, Naruto-chan, I'm pretty sure twins only come in two's and they age at the same rate," Kakashi said, and Naruto nodded.
"Yes, this is my youngest son," she explained. "He was born last month."
Kakashi seemed to smirk under his mask.
"My, my, you and Sasuke have been busy," he said and she flushed red.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura shouted. "You knew about this?"
"Well," Kakashi began, scratching the side of his head nervously. "You remember that mission to Wave nearly three years ago?"
Sakura nodded slowly.
"Yes, you went to see Tzuna's family... you don't mean..."
"Naruto was there, along with Jiraiya, I promised I wouldn't tell anyone until she was ready. With her enemies I felt it was a good idea, for her safety and the twins as well. Congratulations, by the way. I take it Sasuke now knows he's a father?"
Naruto nodded.
"Yes. We've been in contact since about a month after Kiyo and Nari were born," Naruto said, motioning to the twins who smiled lightly at the attention that fell on them. "Last year I got pregnant with Menma, and like I said I had him last month."
"Yet the Uchiha boy still remains gone?" Tsunade scoffed, shaking her head.
Naruto frowned.
"It's not like that, Baa-chan," she began. "We talked about that, he wants to return, but it's not safe right now. He can't just leave sound without Orochimaru coming after him, and he wasn't strong enough then to kill him. We didn't want him finding out about the kids, you know how obsessed he is with the Sharingan."
Tsunade frowned but nodded, she did understand. It made more sense, and made her grow some respect for the Uchiha boy, though she was by no means fond of him after what he'd done to Naruto at the Valley of the End. She'd had to heal the remainder of the wound after all, and she could tell how fatal it would have been had Naruto not been an Uzumaki or a Jinchūriki.
Sakura, while still having mixed feelings over the fact her two teammates were together and had children, had caught onto the fact Sasuke had plans to come home.
"Wasn't, does that mean he's going to return to konoha?" Sakura asked, and Naruto smiled.
"Daddy is coming home soon, Mama?" Kiyoshi asked, eyes bright at the idea.
"I don't know exactly when, but the last time we talked he was confident he could take care of Orochimaru. It's almost time for Orochimaru to switch bodies, so he hasn't much choice anymore."
She said this last part knowing the twins wouldn't really understand what she meant. They knew their father was away training, and that he teacher was dangerous but that was about it.
"It's been nearly three years," Sakura said under her breath.
"Naruto, you do realize I will have to tell the council this eventually. I can try and keep your kids father secret until then, but eventually it'll come out," Tsunade said. "Especially seeing as they resemble their father so much."
Naruto nodded.
"I know, I've known for a while. I also really don't trust the council, though I do trust the Shinobi Council more then the elders and civilians. But, I do have some tricks up my sleeves..."
"You don't have sleeves," Sakura said and Naruto shrugged.
"The point is I've learned of my heritage while I was gone. You've probably gotten some sort of idea of the construction on Uzu no Kuni?"
Tsunade nodded.
"Kind of hard to hide the large bridge connecting Nami no Kuni to Uzu no Kuni," she said, and then her eyes widened. "You."
"I've set it up. I've talked to the Fire Daimyo, and I'm seventeen, and ninja are considered adults so I'm of age. I'm basically the Daimyo of Uzu no Kuni," Naruto said and reached into one of her hip pouches and pulled out a storage scroll, unsealed it and handed the content to Tsunade.
Tsunade looked through it. Alliances between Uzu no Kuni and the land of Waves, and the Fire Daimyo had acknowledged Naruto as the Uzumaki-Namikaze heiress, and Whirlpool Daimyo. She even had a passport which gave her the rights of a sannin (over all this did explain the whirlpool forehead protector around her neck).
There was also a small slip, a license, and certificate. On it was a few signatures. Most notable being Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Naruto. A marriage certificate.
"You're married?" she asked.
Sakura and Kakashi's eyes widened, and there heads snapped over to Naruto.
Naruto chuckled and nodded, pulling a chain from under her top. A silver necklace, delicate looking with a Uchiha fan and rings on it. One was an engagement ring, with black and white diamonds, though not overly flashy. The other was the wedding ring, a band which matched the other ring with black and white diamonds. Both bands were white gold.
"It was a small ceremony, kept very quiet and private. We don't wear the rings in plain sight as you can see," Naruto said, smiling fondly. "Sasuke sort of insisted after I became pregnant with Menma... after a few months I finally agreed."
"I see," Tsunade said. "I want to make copies of some of these things, I'll get you the original copies back in a day or two if that's alright."
"It's fine."
"Menma," Kakashi asked, suddenly. "That's his name?"
Naruto looked at the baby she held and nodded.
"Yes," she began, hitting herself mentally for not introducing them properly earlier. "This is Uchiha Kiyoshi, and his twin sister, Uchiha Nariko. This here, is Uchiha Menma..."
"I bet it took some convincing to get Sasuke to allow that name. It's a ramen topping isn't it?" Kakashi-sensei asked, laughing.
Naruto blew out a breath of annoyance, rolling her eyes.
"Don't start on that, it's a good name. Actually, Sasuke didn't put up much of a fight. I think he was more awed that he had another son to be honest. Doesn't matter, I'm the one who had to push him out so I'll name him whatever I want."
"Mama," Nariko spoke up, "Can we get ramen?"
There were some chuckles at this, and Sakura smiled.
"later, Nari-chan," Naruto told two and half year old.
"Anyways, give me about a week before you break it to the council. I'll be prepared by then, right now I want to get settled in. Ero-sennin said my parents home is still sealed so he'll show me there. The apartment I lived in is too old and run down, not to mention small."
"Alright," Tsunade said. "Tomorrow I want to see you though, to test your skills after being gone so long. The same goes for you Sakura. Also, about your parents identities..."
"That can be revealed to the council and village at the same time. I'm seventeen, eighteen in October. I can handle myself, and it'll come out sooner or later."
Tsunade nodded, and Naruto gave a wave to everyone and left the room, making sure the twins were walking with her. She had always kept a close eye on them, she would admit she was a tiny bit paranoid when they traveled over the years, but with enemies like the Akatsuki after her she had a right to be.
"Jiraiya," Tsunade said before her teammate left.
"Yeah, Hime?" he asked, cringing at the glare the blonde shot him.
"You really need to pay closer attention to your students," she said. "If I find any sort of reference to Naruto and that Uchiha boy in your books... you'll loose something important."
Jiraiya grimaced, but then snickered.
"Is that an admission that you read my books, Hime?" he asked, smirking and Tsunade grabbed the paperweight on her desk and chucked it at his head.
He ducked out the door, closing it and he heard the weight hit the door with a loud crash. Snickering to himself he walked after his apprentice and led her to the once abandoned Namikaze compound – which compared to other clan compounds wasn't quite as large, but it wasn't small either.
AN: Sakura didn't really have much of a reaction this chapter, but she'll get more of a reaction once it's sunk in. Anyways, the next chapter will be out as soon as I can finish it.