At some point or another, a few hours later, the family of three made their way back to the village, Naruto gabbing along the entire way. "Wait until Ichiraku Ramen is rebuilt, you won't find better ramen anywhere else!" Minato and Kushina smiled and nodded to their excited son's rambling. They didn't have the heart to tell him that Ichiraku was still there when they were alive.
Their son really turned out to be something else. They had a feeling he'd do great things but this was beyond their expectations, and he was so humble about it too. He didn't take the fame for granted, on the contrary, it actually seemed like he wished it was toned down a bit. He was so hyper and full of life but at the same time he was very complex and knew when he needed to be serious. He acted so young but when you look into his eyes you saw someone who is hundreds of years old. They couldn't have asked for a better son and they loved him with all their heart.
It was late and large tents were set up, filled with cots for the villagers to sleep on. Naruto and his parents were in the corner, exchanging stories from their past. "We ran into one of the Seven Swordsmen, Zabuza." Naruto was saying.
Sakura had volunteered to pass out blankets to everyone and as she neared Naruto she over-heard him talking. "Are you talking about our mission to the Land of Waves?" She asked, passing blankets to his parents then to him.
Naruto nodded with his usual smile as he took the blanket. "I was just getting to the part where Kakashi Sensei was about to fight Zabuza."
Sakura smirked. "That far already, huh? So I assume you told them about the part where you stabbed yourself in the hand." To her amusement, she saw Naruto's cheeks visibly redden.
"Sakura-Chan," Said Naruto embarrassed. "You didn't need to mention that part."
Naruto's parents began to laugh, as did Sakura. "Well I've got to deliver these blankets to the rest of the villagers, later." With an amused look on Sakura's face she left the small family.
Naruto finished the story, after explaining to his curious parents why he stabbed his hand of course. The overall atmosphere of the entire tent and all the people was happy. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, telling stories, jokes or just chatting about whatever came to mind. Eventually though, when it became very late, a Jounin in charge called for lights out.
All the cots were the size for one person so Kushina and Minato, likes many of the other couples, had their cots pushed together. Naruto's was beside them and before his head hit the pillow he was already asleep. The two parents smiled fondly, they knew he was exhausted. They saw the dark circles were heavy under his eyes and he kept yawning as he was talking. All in all, they were happy to alive once more.
No one was woken up the next day. They were allowed to wake up on their own accord. Minato had woken up first out of the family of three, Kushina woke up just minutes after him. "It's still so weird to be alive again, ya know?" Kushina whispered. "Especially seeing Naruto all grown up like this." Minato nodded in agreement and the two parents looked at their sleeping child. Instead of seeing him sleeping peacefully, Naruto was fussing in his sleep. His bangs clung to his head in a cold sweat and he had a disgruntled look on his face. They waited a few beats in hopes that he'd wake up. He did. Naruto awoke with a small yelp and what concerned his parents was when Naruto opened his eyes, they were the Kyuubi's eyes, but a few seconds later when Naruto realized he was awake, they went back to the blue that matched his father's. The couple decided not to approach Naruto about this as he probably didn't even realize he did it.
Naruto sat up in his bed a bit dazed, he put a hand on his head. "Everything okay, Naruto?" Kushina asked.
"You were fussing in your sleep." Minato said. Naruto looked over to see his parents awake and sitting up as well, faces curious and concerned.
"I was," On a rampage. Destroying everything in sight, everyone in sight. "I forgot." He planted a large smile on his face. "Well whatever it was, it's over now. We should get ready for the day." He stood up and that was when he noticed his clothes, along with everyone else's clothes, had been recovered and returned to their respectful owner. His parents, on the other hand, had new clothes in front of their beds. "Looks like you guys can stop wearing those funeral clothes now." He pointed at the clothes in front of his parent's beds.
"Good. I'm tired of wearing these depressing things." Kushina commented. Naruto put his shoes on and grabbed a change of clothes, before leaving the tent to go to the bath house.
"Did you notice it too?" Minato asked.
"Of course I did, ya know." Kushina snapped. They both knew Naruto didn't forget the nightmare he had had, and the way he smiled was just a cover up to how he was actually feeling. The worst part was that his fake smile looked so close to his real smile that, had it not been parent's intuition, they wouldn't have noticed the difference. The two got up and grabbed clothes to head to the bath house as well.
It was well in the afternoon and everyone was awake by now, all helping to rebuild Konoha. Naruto and his parents, along with team Ten and team Gai, were apart of cutting planks of wood to rebuild their assigned section of houses. Everyone was having friendly conversation when Kakashi had approached them. All went silent as he whispered something in Minato's ear. "Got it." Minato nodded. He turned to his family, "I'll be back, there's something that needs to be taken care of." He disappeared along with Kakashi.
"They're probably going to reappoint him Hokage." Said Naruto, turning back to his work with an excited grin on his face.
Naruto was right. By the time the meeting was over, Minato was reinstated as Hokage. The terms were he would be Hokage until Tsunade woke up, if she woke up, and they would have a conversation to see who would take full control.
When the meeting took place, Minato quickly realized Danzo was someone to watch out for. Something was very off about him that he didn't like. He knew, for his safety and the safety of those he cared for, he had to watch out for the man.
When Minato arrived back to his work sight, he saw everyone was on break, eating lunch. "Oi!" Naruto called out, waving his hand when he saw his father approaching. "We saved some for you!" The food in question that was saved was a plate of pork buns. He smiled and walked over to sit with them. "So," Naruto started with an excited smile. "Did they reinstated you as Hokage?" This was information that could not be divulged yet so Minato only smirked and went to eating his pork bun.
The other two teams watched the encounter in awe. Though, yes, they have seen Naruto happy, this was a different kind of happiness and Naruto's smile, they never realized it didn't until now, reached his eyes. He was absolutely beaming and they wouldn't be surprised if he spontaneously combusted from all the excitement he was obviously holding down. This was an encounter they were happy to be a part of. But it was about to be over in a moment.
"Fine, don't tell me." Naruto said in mock pout. That is, until he felt a hand upside his head.
"Just because he's your father, doesn't mean he can tell you everything, just like he can't tell me everything either, ya know. Haven't you heard of top secret?" Kushina bellowed. She loved him but it was at this moment that she realized he had gotten her smarts, most of her personality frankly.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Of course I know the meaning of top secret. I, out of anyone, knows the true meaning of top secret!" He yelled back. Yelled? Why did he yell at his mother? He knew she yelled at him first but he knew she wasn't actually angry at him. His yelling was anger though. He shouldn't be feeling angry. "Sorry." He said, letting the scowl slip off his face.
There was a few beats of silence before Minato suggested, "I think it's a good time to get back to work."
It was later in the day, during dinner in fact, that it was announced that Minato would be reinstated as Hokage. The terms to his reinstatement were explained and though Tsunade was missed, they still cheered for Minato because those who were alive at the time of his rule knew he was a great Hokage.
After the cheering died down Minato went to go sit with his family. Naruto sat between his two parents and since the incident earlier that day, he has since cheered up. Naruto ate his dinner while conversing with Lee who was explaining the Eight Inner Gates in better detail. Naruto (being Naruto) didn't really understand any of it so he resorted to nodding at parts he thought may be important. Kushina, who was listening in while she waiting for Minato to sit back down, was doing the same thing as Naruto. Even though she didn't understand much of it, she still grasped on to more of it than her son did.
Sakura sat down the same time Minato did. She had been with Tsunade most of the day and she looked worn out. But even with dark circles that were beginning to form under her eyes, she looked at Naruto with concern. It took Naruto about a minute to realize she was staring at him. "Everything alright, Sakura-Chan?"
Sakura stared at his face for a moment longer. "Are you okay?" Earlier that day Ino had come to visit Sakura and she had told her about that out of character burst of anger Naruto had.
Naruto, on the other hand, was getting a bit unsettled by that examining look Sakura was giving him. "I'm fine," He said a bit confused why Sakura was acting like this. "Should there be something wrong with me?"
Sakura studied him for a moment longer before finally shrugging it off. "I guess not." She concluded, saying it in almost a nonchalant manner then went to filling her plate with food. Weirded out a bit by Sakura's odd behavior, Naruto eventually went back to his conversation with Lee.
Lights out was earlier that night, mostly due to the fact that people were falling asleep pretty early on their own, Naruto being one of those people. Minato and Kushina were conversing, much like the rest of the people who were still awake. "Should we be worried?" She asked. "We haven't known him for a while but judging by the reactions of his friends, the way he's acting isn't normal, ya know?"
Minato had nod in agreement. "I've noticed that too. I say we give it a few more days and see what happens, if he's still acting odd we'll confront him."
"Sounds like a plan." Kushina nodded. That was about the time the Jounin came to say the official lights out even though only about a fourth of the people were still awake.
It was late, perhaps two or three in the morning. A figure entered the tents of sleeping villagers and crept silently to the back corner where the Yellow Flash slept silently. Once he approached, he pulled a kunai out of his sleeve and held it over Minato's throat.
However before he could finish the deed, a hand grabbed onto Danzo's wrist. "Lay a finger on him or anyone else I care about and I will kill you." Naruto's voice was low and menacing. His eyes slitted and red, glowing in the darkness. Danzo ripped his arm away from the clawed hand that was digging into his skin and hurried out of the tent, leaving the demon vessel behind and Minato unscathed.