Disclaimer: All Naruto characters are the copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm just borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. That's all. :) No copying of my story is allowed. That's stealing if anyone copies my story into his/her own story. Write your own story without taking others' works! (angry glare)

This is the unbeta version of Chapter 18, so one should not be surprise to see any spelling and grammar errors. Once my betareader finishes, I'll place up the betaed version up. :)

Story rating: M (R)(for adult and sexual themes)
Written: February 2009 – July 2010

Summary: Love can pop up unexpectedly with someone you least imagine to fall for. NaruTen.

Unexpected Love
Epilogue (Chapter 18) – Love Forevermore
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

As he lay on his bed, stroking his sleeping beloved's brown hair, Naruto smiled contently at the memories of the past year. It has been quite a year all right, and it all began on this particular day exactly one year ago in Kyohaku-kaasan's store.

Well, Tenten had pointed out teasingly that they had not become an official couple until they had started dating in June after their trip to Waterfall Lake. Yet even she had admitted Naruto made a point on how special today's unofficial anniversary was to them, for after all, if he had not walked into the store, it was highly possible they would not ever have become a couple.

Hearing her purr again, the blond shinobi once more felt his heart ached with love as he savored her naked form sleeping on top of his. Ever since her ordeal at the hands of Mizuyama's men a few weeks ago, he had given her emotional support when she needed it. Her psychological counselor and doctor each had deemed her fit to continue doing missions only a few days after the whole event, thus she had been doing missions ever since with the occasional break in between. It was good timing that they had managed to have today off as they awaited their individual next mission.

Slowly fluttering open, chocolate-colored feminine eyes sparkled with happiness as they took in that soft smiling male face looking at her. "Hey there," she tenderly hummed, her chin resting on his toned chest.

"Hey there yourself, Heaven," replied Naruto back in the same tone. "Have a good nap?"

"Mmmmm," Tenten moaned a response, loving the feel of his fingers combing through her brown tresses. "You obviously know by now that whenever you make love to me, I can't help but to end up being satisfy every time." Her lips curled up slyly at her lover. "So you bet I had a good nap, especially after being screwed silly like that."

Naruto couldn't help but to allow a prideful grin to grace his face. "When the lady asks for the Kage Bunshin Gangbang, I'm not going to say 'No' to her."

"Definitely not," agreed the pleased brunette prior to crawling up her beau's body just enough to raise her face just above his. "You would had likely ended up being tied up and be at my mercy."

"Should I be more worry about getting the reward or the punishment?" the golden-haired sennin asked with a teasing expression.

The Weapons Mistress chuckled as her lips slowly descended closer to his. "It doesn't matter. Either way, we both win," she finished in a whisper on his mouth before latching onto it with a soft yet firm kiss. Both moaned together, savoring the feel of skin as their emotions radiated through them from hearts and souls.

After breaking apart with a smooch, Tenten softly giggled before lying down on her side besides him and propping her head on a hand. "Were you thinking about something before I woke?"

The village's jinchuuriki gave a shrug and a slight bashful grin. "Pretty much all that had happened ever since I'd walked into your Mom's store a year ago."

"Not surprised," Tenten admitted as she lazily traced his muscled chest with her freed index finger. "We've been thinking about that all day long today." Her mouth gave an amused smirk. "Not that we've been thinking that all the time, for I doubt we would have had any fun together if that was all we've been thinking about."

Naruto gently laughed at the truth she had spoken. "Given the activities we've done, it was fun. It was far better than hanging around looking after a store, eh?"

Kyohaku's only daughter joined him in laughter. "Hai. It was definitely more fun than looking after Mom's store."

They had started the day by spending the morning training together as they had done many times in the past year. At lunchtime, the pair had stopped by Ichiraku's before resuming their workout until an hour or so before dinner. Then each had gone home to wash up and change into nice civvies to go out for dinner at a nice restaurant. From there, they spent several hours at a dance club, showing off their dancing skills. It was overall a fun day.

Yet for the loving couple, the night was not over, for they had returned to his apartment where they once again, as they done many times before, dived into the passion of lovemaking. Naruto was given two treats from his lover. One was a box of chocolates, which they'd shared. The second was seeing the return of Tenten's hot, red & black lingerie set, which included lacy bra and panties to go with the garter belt and stockings. The sexy underwear on her shapely body had once more encouraged the golden-haired male to make sure his brown-haired female experienced the pinnacle of pleasure, whether by herself or together with him. It had been a joyous couple of hours in ecstasy.

After briefly eying the digital clock on the nightstand, Tenten softly smiled at her beau. "Well, the official end of the day is not until another nine more minutes. It gives me plenty of time to say this one more time." Her freed hand reached over to gently cupped Naruto's cheek. "Happy Valentine's Day, Naruto-kun," she said warmly.

"Happy Valentine's Day to you too, Ten-chan," replied Naruto with equal affection. Being honest to himself, he did not mind hearing it one last time, for this had been the best Valentine's Day in his whole life thus far. He has no doubt there would be plenty of great Valentine's Days in the years to come.

After engaging in another loving and firm lock of lips for a minute or so, the weapons-loving kunoichi settled down besides her lover, and once her head touched the pillow, she closed her brown eyes. It did not take long for sleep to once more claim her with a contented smile on her face.

Naruto, on the other hand, stayed awake for awhile longer. He took in the sleeping form of his girlfriend, and seeing her happy made him happy as well. Her face always looked cute in sleep that he could spend an hour just gazing at her.

With a happy sigh, the Toad Sennin of Konoha closed his sapphire eyes and relaxed his mind and body to allow unconsciousness to claim him. Yet before sleep took over, he once more thought of all the good that happened in his life in the past year with Tenten. It made him wonder what the future might hold. With his beloved by his side, he knew he would face whatever that would approach in the time to come.

With good thoughts on the future, Naruto went to sleep as he looked forward to what the morning would bring.

ooooooooooooooo (Forward time-skip: 13 years later) oooooooooooooo

The door to the Hokage's office opened, admitting the assistant to the village's leader. Her green eyes saw what happened, making her sigh with a frown. With hands on her hips, the pink-haired woman gently berated the man sitting behind the large wooden desk. "Honestly, Naruto, will you ever give everyone a break?"

Giving his trademark huge grin, Konoha's kage rubbed the back of his head. "What make you say that, Sakura-chan?"

"Oh, I don't know?" the pinkette grinned lopsidedly as she approached the desk. "Maybe it is the presence of four Kage Bunshin doing paperwork and not just yourself?"

The four Naruto clones snickered as they raised their hands together in greeting. "Hi there, Sakura-chan!" they spoke in unison before returning to their work.

Sakura shook her head in amusement. Even after many years of seeing Naruto used Kage Bunshin to tackle paperwork, it was still funny at times to hear his clones talk collectively like that.

"Naruto," whined the kunoichi. "You promised to give everyone a break once in awhile. I understand you want to have the paperwork out of the way and be done, so you can have more free time, however, you know those of us, who have to file this stuff, have to work longer just to keep up with you."

"It's not like they have to file everything on the same day, Sakura-chan," said the blond Hokage as he stamped and signed all the papers his clones presented him. After all, the Kage Bunshin would not give him any forms to sign that he would not approve, for they were him anyway.

"True," Sakura admitted, "but each member of your administration staff also appreciates having a clean desk too, you know. This includes me."

The Rokudaime simply gave a slight sheepish grin at his best female friend before returning to the work at hand. It was not long until he gave a triumphant grin as he stamped and signed the last paper. "Done!" he cried out as he slapped the parchment on top of the large Outgoing pile. With that settled, the four clones dispelled, allowing their memories to be absorbed by the original Naruto.

Eying a tiny stack of papers on the right side of the desk, the blue-eyed Fire Shadow narrowed his eyes on the pile before reaching over to sweep the papers off the side into the wastebasket there. Sakura smirked upon seeing this. "Pork?" she asked, knowing the answer.

Naruto nodded. "Pork."

Crossing her arms, the 32-year-old doctor gave a satisfying grin. Under Naruto's administration, Pork Barrel spending was render obsolete. Since a huge amount of paperwork was required to run a large shinobi village, it was expected a certain percentage of wasteful projects and spending slipped through the Third and Fifth's eyes in their haste to get rid of the eyesore acuminating on the Hokage desk. Under Naruto's 'Divide & Conquer' approach to doing paperwork, not one Pork project ever had gotten pass his eyes. Unless someone came forward to explain why such a project or spending was necessary to help the village, the Sixth would not approve it. Over the years, since he became Hokage, the number of Pork projects & spending had dropped significantly. This allowed for a good balance budget with more money freed for useful projects, like the Geothermal Electrical Project, which had built several geothermal electrical plants around Konoha, providing electricity not just only for the village but also to be sold elsewhere in the country.

Emerald eyes quickly glanced at the framed photos on the desk, reminding her of something. "Your anniversary is coming up. Planning anything special?" she slyly smirked.

Training his blue eyes on the framed wedding photo of him and Tenten, Naruto grinned. "For our 10th Anniversary, we're going back to revisit our honeymoon. One week alone on a private beach on a seclude island in Wave."

"And here I thought you want to redo your vows and recreate your wedding," teased Sakura.

The blond Hokage rolled his eyes and amusedly grin. "Kami, no! Ten-chan definitely does not want to go through that again." The pinkette joined him in laughter, for she understood what her friend was referring.

Eleven years ago, after an event that cemented permanently how much he loved her, Naruto had purposed to Tenten, and she had accepted it warmly. Yet the wedding itself did not happened until a year later, for it had became a village-wide occasion with many political and important people attending from foreign lands. The wedding became royal-like, reminding everyone not only of Naruto's heritage of being the son of a Hokage but also how influential he was on the world stage. All the preparations and the grandeur of it all almost made Tenten snapped, wishing just to elope. However, Kyohaku and Tsunade had threatened them with sever death, if the young couple did elope though.

Yet despite the madness of nearly a year of preparation, the wedding had gone off smoothly and became a memorable event for all. It was after all the start of a new family/clan of a new Hokage, who took over three years later.

"That was quite a wedding," admitted Sakura. "I know we're not going to see such a royal wedding like that for a long time. Not even Kiba and Hinata's wedding was that grand."

Naruto chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I'm glad that most of my friends' weddings were simple."

Sakura couldn't agree more, recalling the chain of weddings that started with Neji's private marriage. Then came the three-way marriage between Sasuke, Karin, and herself. After that, Iruka and Ayame were hitched, followed by Shikamaru and Temari. Then arrived the big one with Naruto and Tenten's. From there, it snowballed rapidly with one marriage after another for the rest of the Konoha 12 and others. Even Kurenai had found love again, and it was with Yamato much to everyone's surprise.

The office door opened, alerting the room's two occupants, who grinned in greetings to their pineapple-haired Nara friend as he entered. As usual, as long as they knew him, Shikamaru gave a lazy greeting as he closed the door and approached the desk.

Upon noticing the large stack of paperwork in the Outbox, the Nara Heir groaned. "Will you ever give your staff a break, Naruto? As much as it gives Konoha a good rep that our Hokage is thorough with getting his paperwork done, it's troublesome for the rest of the administration to keep up."

"That's what I told him moments ago," said a frowning Sakura with crossed arms.

Once more giving a sheepish chuckle as he rubbed the back of head, the Rokudaime caved in. "Okay, I'll not bother with any Kage Bunshin for the next two days." After dropping his hand upon hearing his friends' sighs of relief, the blond eyed the folder in Shikamaru's hands. "What you got there?"

Shikamaru dropped the folder onto the desk. "My recommendations to expand and upgrade the village's defenses. With our population increasing due to new economic businesses, which in turn is expanding the village's perimeter outward, we have to modify our defenses to keep up with the changes."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Did we modify our defenses last year?"

"Those were just rearrangements of the patrols to improve our current defenses," the Nara pointed out. "Now that we're undertaking the task of expanding the perimeter wall outward, which has not been changed in over 30 years, we need to upgrade our defenses along with the expansion."

"Okay, okay," the Sixth raised a hand in a calming gesture. "I get it. I'll read this tomorrow, unless this really needed to be done now."

As he shook his head, Shikamaru gave a tiny smirk. "Given the current peace between the shinobi nations, I don't think we need to worry about an attack in the next 24 hours. All thanks to you. Who would have thought that prankster, who painted the Hokage Monument 19 years ago, would be the one to bring world peace?" Naruto chuckled at his friend's ironic joke.

Today, for the first time since the founding of the shinobi nations a century ago, there was a non-aggression pact between the five major powers. Suna and Konoha had been allies for 19 years. Once Killer Bee took over for his brother as Raikage, Kumo joined the bandwagon. Kiri had been slowly establishing relations with Konoha under Tsuande's reign, but once Naruto became Rokudaime, the Godaime Mizukage was pleased to expand relations even further. (Tenten had made sure the beautiful female Mizukage understand the limits of any 'relationships' with Naruto.) Iwa was stubborn for many years, until the cranky, old Sandaime Tsuchikage died and was replaced with a much younger Godaime, who slowly warmed to the idea of peace with Konoha. The new Tsuchikage not only understood Naruto's experience as a Jinchuuriki, given the leader's uncle was the Jinchuuriki of the Four-Tailed Monkey, she became to warm up to the Rokudaime Hokage as a friend as well. (Tenten once more had to remind yet another female kage the 'limits' regarding her husband.)

With the five major nations at peace, the smaller ones, especially those situated between the big countries, felt more at ease that peace would be more lasting this time around. Add Naruto's legendary rep with many of these small nations, including Wave, Bird, Demon, Spring, etc., the number of members added to the non-aggression pact had increased highly.

It was the beginning of the Golden Age of Peace. How long it would last, no one knew. Yet, many believed that as long as Naruto was Hokage, this peace would last a very long time.

"Anyway," Naruto began as he stood up and stretched up his arms, "I'll read your recommendations tomorrow." As he lowered his arms, he smirked at his long-time lazy friend. "Oh, are you ready to take over as Hokage for a week, while I'm gone with Ten-chan on our second honeymoon?"

Shikamaru immediately frowned. "How troublesome. Not only will I being doing your work, but also it's bad timing my two brother-in-laws and three sister-in-laws will be visiting with their kids. It'll be crowded at my place for a while. Least Temari will be happy to see her family, and our kids will have their cousins to play during the week." He sighed and placed his hands in his pockets. "Even after all these years, I still can't believe Gaara married two girls."

Naruto smiled at that. "Yeah, who would have imagined that, eh?"

Some time after Naruto and Tenten were formally engaged, Gaara had started officially dating another woman other than Matsuri. It had caught everyone by surprise, especially his siblings. Temari and Kakarou were expecting Matsuri to be the only girl for Gaara, but not only did their younger brother take his former student, but also another fangirl, Sari. A year after Naruto and Tenten were married, Gaara took the plunge with his two women in a private ceremony with just family and friends. The Godaime Kazekage had not been keen in having a huge, public wedding after seeing the chaos his best friend went through.

"Well, I'll see you guys later," the Sixth Hokage announced as he headed toward the exit. He left the office, leaving behind his two friends.

Sakura sighed with hands on her hips. "More free time for him, but more work for us."

"Yeah," Shikamaru concurred, "but least he's not lazy in doing the work though." He frowned as he pointed to the stack of papers. "You're going to ask me anyway to help, so I'll take half the stack."

The pinkette grinned teasingly. "Why you're too kind, Nara-san." She snickered upon seeing him rolled his eyes. "Maybe Naruto should make you Hokage permanently."

The Nara Heir once more rolled his eyes but added a tiny smirk to his expression. "As you already know, I don't want the job. Naruto can keep it. I'm glad he least made it apparent that his successor will be Konohamaru, in case anything should happen to him."

Giving a chuckle, Sakura picked up half the stack, while Shikamaru took the other half. Together, they left the Hokage office to file the documents.

As the two walked toward their nearby destination in the Hokage Tower, Sakura mentally smiled slightly as she reminisced how much she and her friends had matured in the past 20 years as well as the physical changes that went with that maturity. Shikamaru looked so much like his father with a goatee, being one of Naruto's trusted advisors. She herself had her hair up in an upward ponytail, much like Anko had done. Naruto was even more like his father, the Yondaime, than he was 14 years ago. Not to mention the rest of the Konoha 12 had undergone change as they all took over leadership roles in the village as well as responsibilities of raising families.

The thought of the children made Mrs. Uchiha smiled warmly, especially regarding her own three kids and the five Karin had. It was hard to believe that they were all now parents, but the proof laid in the little boys and girls who were calling them 'Mom' and 'Dad'.

Sakura inwardly sighed happily. Her own family was large enough, but the overall size of the current Konoha 12 Family was enormous. Yet despite all the chaos that had happened over the years from dates, engagements, marriages, etc., the pinkette would not change anything that had led them to this point. She was quite certainly all her friends would feel the same way, especially a particular blond Rokudaime and his brunette, weapons-loving wife.

Walking casually down the somewhat busy business street, Naruto grinned in a friendly manner in greeting to everyone who respectfully acknowledged him with warm smiles and/or a greeting. It was his boyhood dream came true with the entire village now recognizing him. Yet for the Rokudaime, his present-day self knew the deep responsibilities of being Hokage, thus the thoughts of boyhood fantasies made him sheepish, knowing that reality of the position was much different than what he had thought when he was a boy.

His current attire sure reflected how much he came to recognize the importance of being Hokage. Compared to his 18-year-old jounin outfit, it has not changed much. Yet the red haori he now wore has dark orange flames around the hem with dark orange kanji lettering on the back that said, "Sixth Hokage." A golden, rope-like clasp stringed the haori's collar together, giving him a royal-like appearance. Add that he was a bit taller now, the same height as his father, the Yondaime, Naruto indeed has the image of a leader. Given their similar appearances, many thought he definitely looked like his father. Least he kept his haori red in order to not have any confusion between the father and son.

Of course, it was not just the responsibilities of being Hokage that had changed him compared to even his 15/16-year-old self. Fatherhood also had molded him over the years to become a better person. Raising children was a huge challenge and took a lot of effort, not to mention trial & error. Anyone who claimed it was easy… Well, Naruto thought the person must have a pea for a brain. Least he was at ease with children, which testified to how well he had first acted with the Konohamaru Corps and later his only genin team as a jounin-sensei. It was why Tsunade-baachan thought he was ready to become Rokudaime at 24-years-old, two years after the birth of his first son.

"Daddy!" a familiar voice reached his ears, causing him to look ahead to see a little 4-and-half-year-old girl, with whisker marks on her cheeks, racing towards him.

A smiling Naruto stopped, bent his knees to lower his torso, and opened his arms to allow the child to run into him and wrapped her small arms around his neck. "Hi there, my little Fire Blossom," he greeted as he stood upright with his daughter in arms.

The girl giggled. "I pretty as flower," she grinned with sparkling green eyes as her father adjusted to hold her with just his left arm in order for them to look at one another.

"That you are, Shina," the 31-year-old man agreed, causing his daughter to once again giggle.

Being one of two fraternal twins, the child almost closely resembled her grandmother and namesake, Kushina. Instead of fiery red, her long mane was strawberry blond but with red highlights that matched her late obaa-san. Her eyes though came from her living grandmother, Kyohaku. Only other facial features came from her parents, like chin from her mother and nose from her father, not to mention the whisker marks from being a child of a Jinchuuriki.

Yet Kushina's personality was mixed as her physical appearance, for she took after her mother regarding clothing and hairstyles but behave and acted more like her father when he was a child. Her clothing now consisted of a short-sleeved, pink, Chinese blouse, similar to what Tenten wore when she was fourteen, dark green trousers, and black open-toed ninja sandals. Despite that she had wanted her hair totally in two hair buns, her mother placed only part of her hair in two buns and kept the rest freed. Naruto agreed that it was more suited for the girl due to her colored hair. His wife may had easily pulled off the Cute look with the Panda buns when she was young because of her brown hair, but the Panda look just didn't look good on redheads.

Remembering how his child had greeted him, the Sixth Hokage gave a mild disapproving look. "Shina, you didn't run away from Mommy again, did you?"

The girl gave an 'innocent' expression. "Umm… No."

"Yes, she did," a female voice answered, making father and daughter quickly look in front of them to the brunette woman holding a bag of groceries in one hand and the hand of a blond, whisker-marked 4-and-half-year-old boy in the other.

Naruto smiled warmly at his beloved wife, the Matriarch of the Uzumaki-Namikaze Clan. Well… By official means, they were a clan according to the old law Naruto had found 13 years ago. Yet, he and Tenten had decided to not even bother with actually making a clan and just stick with having a regular family, whose family name had been decided after much discussion before the wedding. Naruto had not wanted to ditch the Uzumaki name, given he was used to it. However, Tenten had pointed out that since everyone knew he was the Yondaime's son, they would expect him to take the Namikaze name. So a compromise of simply combining the names had been accepted.

After taking the few steps to stand close to her husband, Tenten gave a stern chastened look at her daughter. "Kushina, you should not have had ran out of the store like that."

"But I saw Daddy!" replied the little girl.

"Regardless, you left me standing right there at the check-out line worry sick. Your father and I kept telling you to not run off by yourself like that."

The blond boy snickered. "Shina in trouble!"

"Shut up, Nato!" Kushina pointed down to her twin brother. "I saw Daddy! I went to him!" The boy simply stuck out his tongue playfully at his sister, who scrunched her face and tongued back at him with some heat. Both parents sighed and shook their heads at the display with a bit of amusement.

Looking down at his second son, Naruto saw Minato was wearing shorts, blue t-shirt with a red Uzumaki symbol on front, and open-toed sandals. His eyes were blue as his father's, and his hair was half straight and half spiky. Yet the hair color was not thoroughly blond, for it had brown in it, thus Minato was a dirty blond. What made everyone talked about the boy was how much his face looked so closely like his namesake's, his Grandfather Minato, even though his nose was obviously from his mother and his eyes were not entirely slanted like the late Yondaime's.

Personality-wise, Minato was a quiet boy compared to his twin sister. He still ran around and played like any other child, but he's not hyperactive and sticking his nose in almost everything as Kushina has the habit of doing. Teasing his sister was one of the things he loved doing, although he somewhat didn't like it when the tables were turned on him by his older brother, Tetsute. Being naturally curious, the blond found exploring the world to be an adventure, especially when it came to books. This led to his fascination with Fuinjutsu. It was too early to tell whether he would grow up to become good in the art of seals as his grandparents had been, but already the boy could point out many basic seals when he saw them.

Fixating his gaze from his son to the beautiful woman he was married for nearly 10 years now, Naruto let a warm grin came to his face. Ever since the birth of their first child, Tenten had worn her long brown hair up in a large single bun at the rear of her head with hair sticks, for the new hairstyle made her look like a matriarch and fitting for a mother. Off-duty, her wardrobe was mostly a long-sleeved Chinese dress over black trousers with high-heeled shoes, which she was wearing today with the dress being red, the same color as his haori, with gold trim and clasps. The dress also has golden floral designs with black flames at the hem, which reached close to the knees. Overall, she was a lovely image of what a Hokage's spouse should look like to maintain the royal-like appearance of the village's First Family.

Tenten smirked upon seeing that look on her husband's face. "You're staring at me, Naruto."

Shaken out of his reverie by her words, Konoha's Fire Shadow sheepishly grinned. "Sorry. You know I can't help myself at times, knowing how beautiful you are." His wife softly chuckled and shook her head at him, for she knew him well by now after 13 years of being together.

"Kissy, kissy!" cried out Kushina happily, startling her parents. "Mommy and Daddy kissy!"

"We don't kiss all the time, young lady," Mrs. Uzumaki-Namikaze gently chastened with a half frown and half grin. She and Naruto had slowly toned down the Public Displays of Affection some time after their first Valentine's Day as a couple, for it was not necessary to show the world they were a couple all the time. They had simply grown into the knowledge that given they loved and trusted each other without doubts, they did not need to advertise all the time that each was taken and should be off-limits to all the single people out there.

However, at appropriate times, a small, heartfelt smooch would not kill anyone, especially to the #1 cheerleader in their daughter. Hopefully, as Kushina grew older, the girl would phase out of this stage in loving seeing her Mommy and Daddy 'kissy, kissy' each other.

Looking into the warm smiling face of her husband and seeing he too didn't mind, Tenten leaned up while Naruto leaned his head down, allowing her red lip-glossed lips to connect with his in a short yet loving smooch. Kushina cheered as she usual did upon seeing her parents kissed, while Minato stuck his tongue out. The boy thought kissing was gross, for one would get 'cuties' from touching lips with a girl's.

After chuckling at their son's expression, the couple began strolling away with their two rug-rats in tow.

"So, got everything you need?" asked Naruto as they walked along.

Tenten nodded. "I only went out to pick up a few things for dinner tonight. When Kushina launched out of the store, I nearly panicked. Yet when I saw you picked her up, I knew I can wait and pay for the groceries before leaving." Her brown eyes narrowed at the girl in her spouse's arms. "Don't go running off again, young lady."

"Sorry, Mommy," Kushina apologized. That small grin of hers told her parents she was not entirely serious, being the little imp she was.

After chuckling upon seeing his smirking wife shook her head at their daughter, the Rokudaime gestured to the distant Academy building. "Want to stop by the Academy and pick up Tet?"

Konoha's First Lady shrugged a bit. "Might as well, since school will be over soon for the day."

"Knowing our son, he definitely wants to get back home to train," Naruto softly laughed. Tenten simply grinned in agreement.

Named after Tenten's father, 9-year-old Tetsute took most of his physical traits from his mother's side of the family. His slightly spiky hair being the only attribute from his father's side, the boy have brown hair, brown eyes, and a face that his Grandmother Kyohaku swore looked like his grandfather. His personality was that of a near workaholic with his love for combining weapons with ninjutsu or fuinjutsu. The boy just loved the challenges, much as his mother and father had when they were young and learning to become shinobi. Having two of the best ninjas in the village for parents, Tetsute was currently slightly ahead of his classmates, knowing already how to treeclimb and waterwalk. Yet his parents were making sure he did not get way ahead of himself into areas he was not ready to learn. Kami, help them, if their son painted a seal the wrong way and he ended up being blown up to smithereens.

Mentally smirking, Naruto have to admit that his eldest son sure has become a sensation with the girls around his age group. Not only was he the top student of his class, but he was also a 'cutie' from what he heard from the gossip mill. Even Tenten admitted that Tetsute would grow up to be a heartthrob.

Tapping her father's shoulder to get his attention, Kushina spoke what was on her mind. "You train niisan today, Daddy?"

"Maybe," he answered, making both parents weary of what their daughter was thinking. If it was what they think it was.

Their worst fears were verified a moment later. "Shina wants Rasengan!"

"No!" Mother and Father spoke as one.

"Shina wants Rasengan!"

"No!" again was the duel reply.

"Shina wants Rasengan! Rasengan go BOOM!"

Naruto deeply sighed, as Tenten severely frowned. "This is all your fault for showing her that technique," she grated a bit.

"How would I know she would be so obsess with it?" the blond Hokage nearly whined.

A few months ago, while training Tetsute in their home's backyard while Minato and Kushina watched, Naruto showed the kids their Grandfather Minato's shape-manipulation jutsu, the Rasengan. All three were impressed upon seeing the damage done to a large rock, but none more so than Kushina, who immediately wanted to form the technique. Never mind that she couldn't manipulate chakra or do any of the first-year Academy stuff, the girl wanted to know how to make the Rasengan. She had been annoying her father once in awhile ever since that day. Tenten had no doubt then that her daughter definitely would be following in her father and grandfather's footsteps.

The Uzumaki-Namikaze matriarch let go of her slight anger with a sigh. "Just keep your promise not to show the twins anymore high-advance jutsu, until they're old enough to understand what they can and can not do."

Giving a reassuring grin, the family patriarch nodded in understanding. "I always keep my word, Tenten. You know that's my nindo."

"I know," the 30-something brunette smiled slightly up at her husband. Naruto had always kept true to his nindo, and if he made a promise, he would keep it. It was one of his admirable traits that she loved. Being loyal as he was, the blond man stood by their relationship through even the toughest of times. It had not been an easy personal journey to get to what they were today, but it was worth the headaches, even with their careers.

Career-wise, both of them had taken different paths.

Tenten had stayed doing regular missions, which sometimes she led, and in the meantime, she kept getting stronger by adding more element jutsu to her arsenal, including those from her second element, Lightning. Her constant training with her teammates, friends, and boyfriend had sharpened her skills into an even finer edge.

Only two years before her marriage to Naruto did Tenten's career changed, when she was invited to join ANBU. Unless the shinobi population had been severely decimated, as it was the case after the Kyuubi attack, joining Konoha's elite division was by invitation only. This means of recruiting gave the unit the ability to make certain only the best were allowed to become members. Konoha's Weapons Mistress was no fool to pass up this opportunity.

Being part of ANBU was not easy. Since it required even more time away from her personal life, the brunette kunoichi sometimes felt the strain, especially on her relationship with Naruto. Yet two years had been enough to make a good record in her resume, for she had retired from the ANBU force after she found she was pregnant with Tetsute.

After giving birth to her first son, Tenten had entered a program for kunoichi mothers, who wanted to return to active duty while devoting time to raising their children. It centered around assignments to fit the children as they aged, thus in-village duties, say teaching at the Academy as an example, were given to kunoichi with just-born babies up to 4 and 5 year old children. Once children get past 6 years of age were assignments outside the village given, due that the kids could likely be okay to fend for themselves for a few days. Missions beyond Konoha's walls were given to kunoichi with much younger children, but only if they have family or friends willing to look after the tikes. This type of program was the reason why many kunoichi were still active after giving birth, including Inuzuka Tsume, Kurenai, and many others.

Luckily for Tenten, she had plenty of child support with Naruto, her mother, and many friends to watch over Tetsute while she would be away from the village for several days on a mission. The same support structure would be there 4 years later after Minato and Kushina were born 9 months after a special Valentine's Day. With so many to watch over the kids, her career had not stagnated much at all.

As for Naruto, it had come to no surprise to Tenten, when shortly after her 20th birthday, Tsunade had offered the blond jounin to become a jounin-sensei of a genin team out of the upcoming graduation class. The proposal had taken everyone else though by surprise, since Naruto had been a jounin for only six months. Yet Naruto declined, wanting to gain more experience first as a jounin before taking charge of the training and welfare of a rookie genin team.

So for two years, the Yondaime Hokage's son had done a variety of missions from solo operations to leading teams of experienced genin and/or chuunin. He even had become one of Tsunade's personal guards whenever she has to leave the village for meetings with the other kages. She had thought it would teach her successor how to handle being a Hokage when it came to politics, even though Naruto had found most of these meetings quite boring.

In the meantime during these two years, Naruto did not waver when it came to increasing his skills and strength through hard training, much like his girlfriend. He had learned his father's greatest technique, the Hirashin, after receiving his heritance consisting of all his parent's stuff, which included their jutsu scrolls and his folks' large ranch home with plenty of land. It had become apparent to the entire village that the Fourth's son was no doubt surpassing his father to become an even bigger legend.

It was after a major event following Tenten's 22nd birthday that not only had Naruto asking for her hand in marriage but also thinking it was time for him to become a jounin-sensei. This was why he had declined the offer to join ANBU alongside Tenten. Since he had to wait until the next graduation class early the following year, it had become perfect timing that the blond would start leading a genin team a few months before his marriage. Let's just say his team eagerly took part of the wedding with the two boys being ushers and the lone kunoichi, a flower girl.

The next major change of Naruto's career did not happen until nearly 3 years later, when Tsunade officially handed over the title of Hokage to him. By then, his three students were all experienced chuunin with one boy on the verge of becoming a jounin, thus his 'little chicks' were ready to leave 'the nest' in order for him to focus on being the Rokudaime.

The rest, as they always said, was history.

A small hand tugging her slacks broke Mrs. Uzumaki-Namikaze out of her reverie to gaze down at her youngest son. "I getting tire, Mom," Minato said, referring to the walking tuckering him out. The family momentarily stopped to allow the matriarch to bend down and scooped up her child with her right arm to settle him on her hip before commencing with their journey.

Glancing at her handsome husband out of the corners of her eyes, Tenten gave a tiny grin before breaking the silence. "Naruto?" She saw him looking at her, while their twin rugrats were gazing around out of curiosity as they strolled pass stores, buildings, etc. "I so am looking forward to our second honeymoon. A week alone with you definitely is what I need."

Naruto produced a knowing, sly smirk. "Feeling the need for some stress relief, Mrs. Uzumaki-Namikaze?"

"Absolutely, Mr. Uzumaki-Namikaze," responded Tenten just as slyly, feeling her cheeks tinted a little pink on the thoughts regarding 13 years of intimacy with this wonderful man.

As the love for each other had grown stronger, so did their love life. Each knew it was not just the pleasure & lust that made their intimate sessions so passionate. Yet they could not deny that the sex was quite addicting, especially when it came to the ecstasy of driving each other toward the ultimate high.

However, like most couples, Naruto and Tenten had to put their efforts to keep the excitement alive in their love life. Over time, things started to gradually felt routine, and when a man and woman felt sex was becoming routine, it would likely lead to celibacy and become the crack that could slowly drive them apart. Yet, being honest to one another to talk over issues, the young couple was able to discuss what each thought regarding sex, their love life, and what would make things hot for one another. They had even had considered the idea of swapping with other couples, whom they fully trusted.

Because of their openness, their love life had not withered to nothingness, especially after their marriage. Oh, it had waned occasionally due to being busy with their careers and later to raising the kids, but least, after 13 years, they have yet to encounter a sever drought. With the upcoming second honeymoon, Naruto and Tenten definitely knew they were going to ignite the flames of passion, which was certain to keep the reservoir of love full.

As the family continued to walk along, the brunette matriarch mentally smirked regarding that long ago discussion whether her spouse and she should consider swapping. She had teased him that if he had actually accepted the Clan Restoration Act, he would have several wives to enjoy thus making celibacy perhaps not ever likely to happen. He took the joke in stride and just simply restated why he had not ever bother due to not wanting to marry complete strangers to fulfill creating a clan. If the women he trusted explicitly, say Ino, Temari, Sakura, and Hinata, had been available and didn't mind sharing him, Naruto had admitted he wouldn't have mind accepting the C.R.A. Heck, even some of the older women, like Anko, Shizune, and even Ayame, he would have accepted. Yet, Naruto was not the type to rip his female friends from their men, thus he had remain committed to only Tenten. Besides, he had joked that having just her and their small family felt better than the idea of a large brood, like Sasuke has.

Feeling her heart filled with warmth, Tenten looked up at her husband, and unable to help it, she felt it was right to lean up and plant a kiss on his cheek, shocking him at her bold move but immediately smiled warmly back at her. The kiss did not go unnoticed though.

Kushina screeched in joy, startling her parents. "Kissy, kissy! Mommy kiss Daddy! Kissy, kissy!"

Both father and mother slightly shook their heads as they chuckled, but it was Naruto, who grinned mischievously and started tickling his daughter. Childish laughter filled the air.

"How about we take to the roofs and surprise your brother?" Naruto suggested to his little girl. Before she or anyone could say anything, the tall blond Hokage leaped to the roofs, much to Kushina's delight and Tenten's dismay.

"Be careful!" the 30-something kunoichi shouted out after her life partner. She sighed with an expression that was half frowning and half amusement. "He's 31 years old, turning 32 this year, and he still acts at times like a hyperactive little boy," she muttered with a shake of her head.

Yet, Tenten would not have the man she loved any other way. His childish nature was part of who he was as a person. He had matured greatly, since his 12-year-old self had painted the Hokage Monument. Just he had allowed that inner child to emerge when appropriate, thus why he connected so well with children, his own and others.

After hefting her son to adjust herself, the Uzumaki-Namikaze matriarch continued the journey toward the Academy. Her brown eyes noticed Minato looking at her, before he pointed to the rooftops. "Want to go up," he said.

"No," his mother replied and nearly giggled upon seeing his pout. The twins looked so cute frowning like that. She just hoped as they aged, such displays wouldn't be so cute, or else if they discovered the power of pouting like a puppy dog, they could manage to manipulate people to get what they wanted.

Upon seeing the top of the Academy in the distance over the rooftops and trees, Tenten once more reflected on the past 14 years, which began on Valentine's Day. It was kind of ironic that everything started on a day that represented love.

Love was powerful yet at the same time fragile. It could be confusing at times yet heartwarming. One could presume he or she had found his or her idea mate, however, realized that one's mate might not be suited for you at all. Yet, out of ironic twist, a person, you least expected out of everyone you know to fall in love, was the one you ended up giving your heart fully for the rest of your life.

Uzumaki-Namikaze Tenten sighed warmly at what her life had taken with Naruto and what her life would be with him and their family years from now. It had been an unexpected turn on her path, but it was most certainly not an unwelcome one.

As she drew nearer to the Academy, her ears made out the excited voices of the Academy students in the school's courtyard upon the presence of their Hokage. She was not surprise to hear her husband greeted the youngsters with good cheer. It was like this every time he stopped by, and even though he had not ever shown or said it, she wondered if Tetsute was embarrassed every time his father appeared out of the blue like this.

Chuckling upon imagining her eldest son's chagrin, Tenten approached the entrance to the Academy's courtyard to join the rest of her family waiting inside. The future was bright, and she would not have it any other way.

As the citizens of Konohagakure no Sato and the rest of the world moved on with their daily lives in a new era of peace, once in awhile, they were reminded how much love could change everything.

Love could show the way to someone special.

Love could prevail in the darkest of times and emerge more powerful than ever before.

Love was forevermore…. Eternal… And unexpected.

The End

Last A/Ns:

1) For those who have not figured it out, the bedroom scene at the beginning of this chapter ties back to the very start of Chapter 1. They're both the same scene, where Naruto was thinking of all the events that had happened during the past year. You can even say that all the chapters in between were like flashbacks.

And yes, this bedroom scene and the scene where Naruto entered Kyohaku's store and received his twin kodachi both happened on Valentine's Day. It's why I had written that it was exactly one year to the day that started the path for Naruto and Tenten to get together as a couple. :)

2) If anyone is confused regarding the ages mentioned, it's pretty simple. Tenten is a year and seven months older than Naruto, thus why he is 31 while Tenten is 33. He would turn 32 later on in the year.

The twins also are born in the lateral part of the year, thus they are 4 ½ but will turn 5. Tetsute was born in the early part of the year, as Tenten had. Thus he is 9. :)

3) Some of you are probably asking, "Why did you give Gaara two women?" I say, "Why not?" Since I read plenty of Naruto Harem fics and seen art of Naruto with many women, I say that Gaara also should have a lot of loving as well. Not to mention, this is the best way IMO to resolve the entire Matsuri/Sari war. Just give both of them to him. This way Gaara can get all the loving he deserves. XD

4) Any of you remember the poll I had started way back in late 2009 where I asked that if Naruto ever gets married, which family name would he take, now that he knows he is the son of Fourth Hokage? Well, I'd closed that poll in June 2010, and the majority had voted that he would merge the family names and become Uzumaki-Namikaze. These were the poll results…

Combined: Uzumaki-Namikaze – 170

Stay with Uzumaki – 83

Change to Namikaze – 38

Not really sure – 7

So since the majority voted for him to combine the family names, that is what I went as anyone was able to see in this chapter, where Naruto and Tenten have children and together they're the Uzumaki-Namikaze Clan/Family. :)

5) For any of you wondering why I had Naruto's twin children having their father's whisker marks but not his first son, the reasons came from manga chapter 500. (I don't want to give away spoilers, so if you have not read Chapter 500, skip this A/N now and go read A/N #6!)

Chapter 500 revealed that Kushina was the second Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and when she gave birth to Naruto, he was sporting the whisker marks. So the whisker marks came from being the child of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and not from being a Jinchuuriki, which Naruto would become. So, logically, if Kushina being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki gave Naruto whisker marks, I presume the same would be for any children Naruto would sire. Whether or not Naruto's grandchildren will sport whisker marks, I'll just leave that out in the open. The marks could be genetic that started with Naruto, so his children and future descendents might sport the marks.

Yet again, in the same chapter, it was hinted that Mito Uzumaki, the First Hokage's wife, gave birth after she became the first Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. However, Tsunade does not sport whisker marks or her brother or anyone mentioned to be the descendent of the First Hokage.

So in conclusion, I figured the whisker marks pretty much must be genetic and can be passed on. However, like all genetic traits, it's left by chance whether a child would bare those traits. It might explain why Tsuande and her brother do not sport whisker marks, being the grandchildren of Mito Uzumaki, while Naruto did have the marks, which I passed down in "UL" to Naruto's twin children.

(Wipes brow) Whew! Least this theory of mine would not mean me going back to rewrite "Whatever It Takes II" regarding Naruto's son in that story. XD

6) For everyone's information, 'Tetsute' means 'Iron Hand' in Japanese. I figured it was a well-suited name for Tenten's father, given he was a blacksmith. :)

7) As of this chapter's posting, I can safely say that "UL" has become the longest running Naruto story I have ever written and completed. More than 190K words, 290 reviews, more than 140K hits, 459 favs, 401 watches, and 27 C2s have this story in their archive. And I know these numbers will grow some more after this chapter is posted. :)

Not bad for a fic that I'd originally intended to be just a one-shot to be posted on Valentine's Day, 2009. It was suppose to have Naruto have brief flashbacks of the past year, but then I'd changed my mind to try to have each month of the year be written as a single chapter. That didn't gone as planned due to the 'Arranged Marriage' arc needed more chapters to be told. So, instead of 12 chapters, I ended up with 18.

So, overall, this had been quite a run for me as a writer. I certainly enjoyed the journey in telling of Naruto and Tenten's relationship. :)

8) To be honest, I had finished typing up Chapter 18 back at the end of July 2010. The reason why I had not posted the chapter until now is that I was waiting for a special gift I wanted to share with everyone who had supported this fic for so long.

Over at DeviantArt, I had commissioned DKSTUDIOS05 to draw an art of the Uzumaki-Namikaze family. That's right, if you want to actually see what the family looks like, including all three children, you can see the art over at my DA page. Either copy-and-paste the following URL and remove the spaces or check out the link in my Author Profile…

Jupmod . deviantart art / UL-Uzumaki-Namikaze-Family-178421360

Also, I want to say that while DK and I were working over the art, any changes made to the art I immediately make certain it fits the fic. So it helped improved what I written about the characters.

So I hope everyone enjoys this gift! It's great to see a NaruTen family snapshot from UL, eh? ;)

9) To be honest, this is not the end of ideas for this particular series. I'm thinking of sequels that dive into the chaos of the preparation for Naruto and Tenten's wedding, their honeymoon, and other things.

So I leave you all with a scene from one possible story idea I have in mind that takes place a year after "UL" but before Naruto and Tenten's marriage. Let's just say that what happened to Naruto would test Tenten to be there for her beloved, not to mention their friends helping him get back to normal. Let me know if any of you approve of this story idea and I might consider giving it a go. :)

(Scene from "UL" story idea)

Blue eyes groggily opened. At first, he barely could see anything due to the blurriness. Yet after his eyelids blinked a few times, the vision cleared, allowing him to make out his surroundings.

Naruto realized he was in a forest. He was not sure where he was though, given most forests looked the same, so he knew he would have to explore further in order to determine his exact location. If he was going to get back to Konoha, the blond knew he better find out exactly where he was.

Konoha's Toad Sennin had been on his way back home from Suna. Baa-chan had wanted him to deliver a few scrolls regarding the trading of certain goods between the villages, and after spending a couple of days at the hospitality of Gaara and his siblings, he had started the journey back to Konoha. He had rested briefly at a village in River Country to get something to eat before presuming the long trek back.

It was after the rest stop did 19-and-half-year-old had realized something was wrong with him. His head had been spinning, and it had occurred him right there that his food, he bought from a restaurant in the River Country village, must have been dosed with a sleep drug. It was why he had immediately dropped to the forest floor, leaned against a tree, and fell asleep.

Now that he was awake, Naruto knew someone was behind lacing his food with the sleep drug. He had been to that restaurant many times before during many journeys to Suna, and the family, who ran the joint, was kind and peaceful. He knew that the family was not behind this.

Furthermore, the blond was absolutely certain he had fell asleep against the trunk of a tree. Yet he had awoken lying on his stomach. It was clear that someone had moved him, and whoever was behind spiking his food had to be the one who moved him.

Just the question on the top of his mind was why? He was alive, so it appeared to be not a case of revenge. His body felt kind of odd but fine. Who was behind this, and why targeted him?

"I'll find no answers here," Naruto mentally groaned. "I better get back home and tell what had happened to me."

However, as the Leaf jounin attempted to get up as he pushed up on his hands, he fell flat on his face as he lost balance. "What's going on here?" he shouted in his mind before looking at his hands. What he saw froze him.

Laying flat on the ground were black furry paws, the same paws he saw on the Inuzuka dogs. The black fur ended up the arms where sunny blond fur started, and following the golden fur, Naruto was able to look back on his body, which has golden fur on the back and white fur below on the stomach. His body ended with a blond tail with a white tip.

"This can't be! I'm not what I think I am seeing!" shouted Naruto in his head. Yet when he tried to verbally say something, all he heard and felt were yips and yaps as his mouth moved. Crossing his eyes, the young shinobi saw the long muzzle ending with a black nose.

Even though he felt like panicking, Naruto knew he needed a good visual confirmation, and upon seeing a small pool of water nearby, he shakily rose up on all four feet and did his best to walk over to the pool, immediately learning how to walk on four legs instead of two. Once he reached the water, he gazed down at the reflection of a slit-blue-eyed canine creature with a blond furry face, white furred chin, and two blond pointed ears sticking out on the top of his head.

"I… I… I'M A FOX!"

A loud cry of a shock yowl was heard in the forest. The blond Konoha ninja, who made that fox cry, wondered what he was going to do now.

Maybe coming to a computer screen, perhaps soon. A JPMod Fanfic production…

"Unexpected Love: Arise of the Golden Kitsune"

If you read this far, congrats! You made it to end! :)

Just another reminder that the lemons of this fic have been moved to AdultFanFiction Org. Link to the lemon version of this fic is in my Author Profile.