Well, reviews have been cool. I would never complain about getting more, but I also won't complain if I just keep getting what I've gotten so far. It almost has 10 reviews per chapter – my second highest after my Avatar story which got 104 reviews on 4 chapters.

Anyhow, I've gotten a lot of people commenting on my writing style (which is better in this chapter, I feel) and a few questions raised here and there on the fine points. In the end, I'm surprised at the amount of reviews leading towards the negative, but they've all been thoughtful for the most part so I'm okay with it. Remember, if you post with a question or a comment, I'll get back to you nine times out of ten and talk with you about it.

Mates

Last time on Dragon Ba… Sorry, last time on 19 Tails…

"What's wrong Naruko-hime? Feeling a little hot in here?" Naruto asked. Apparently he did realize what he had done. Naruko, now remembering where they were, seemed quite embarrassed upon realizing that she was essentially straddling him. It was a small awkward moment until everyone heard a smack, a thud, a little giggle, and then the scratching of pen on paper.

The class turned from their conversations to witness the odd sight of a large jounin with his head buried into the floor from a rather strong punch. He quickly recovered, standing up and regaining his composure. He was a fairly tall man, muscular with broad shoulders. He had spiky black hair and an unlit cigarette in one hand. He brushed the imaginary dust from his green flak jacket on top of his fairly standard jounin outfit – the sash he wore at his side the only exception from the norm – while throwing a glare at the woman next to him.

Said woman was quite the looker. She was average height with wild black hair that ran down her back. She wore an interesting outfit of a fairly revealing dress that looked to be made out of bandages with a thorn motif and red highlights. The highlights continued to her bright red lipstick and red painted nails which her carmine eyes were examining as if she hadn't just knocked her male counterpart through the floor in rage for the look he had when viewing the blondes.

To the side stood two more familiar men: Yamato and Jiraiya. Yamato, as always, seemed fairly passive though there was the smallest smirk on his face from watching the beat down his fellow male had received. Jiraiya just gave a small perverted giggle, putting away the notepad that he had written something on.

"Ah," Iruka sighed. "Kurenai-san, was it necessary to do that to Asuma-san inside of the building? The floor will cost money to be fixed, you know."

Kurenai looked over at the chunin teacher before giving a slight nod and light apology. "I apologize, Umino-san. I will make sure he is only punished outside from now on."

"Hey, don't I get any say in-" Asuma started, but Iruka cut him off before the conversation escalated. It wasn't good for strong ninja to argue in a closed space like his classroom – it always ended in property damage.

"Teams 8, 10, and 12, your sensei have arrived." He turned to the jounin. "They're all yours, now. I'm trusting you to continue where I left off as sensei." It was truly a hard thing for Iruka as he had come to care for his students over the years, even for Naruko after their rather odd meeting.

Kurenai was first off, starting off quite crisply with little inflection in her voice. "Team 8 is to meet me at training ground 8 in fifteen minutes. Tardiness will not be tolerated." She was out the door soon after she finished speaking. Shino and Hinata quickly followed, not wanting to find out what the punishment for being late could be while Kiba followed a second later. He got that she was a jounin, but he didn't understand what a cold woman stuck on her looks could teach him. He'd learn to respect her soon enough.

Asuma kept staring out the door after Kurenai. Knowing her mood swings, either everything would be all right for them in a few minutes or he'd be sleeping on the couch for the next few days and all for teasing her about the blondes' position. But he had work to do now.

"Team 10, you're with me." He slowly ambled out of the room, lighting a cigarette as he left the room, much to Iruka's protest that he was still inside. Ino and Chouji hurried after him to make a good impression, the blonde Yamanaka dragging Shikimaru behind her by one leg while he tried sleep and ignore the disturbance of being manhandled.

"And you two, blondie one and blondie two, you're coming with me. But first, would you mind taking that pose again?"

"You old pervert!" Naruto shouted while Naruko just seemed to shrink back a little in her shyness.

As the sannin and blonde upstart argued, Sasuke assessed his situation. It was not good that those two got a sannin and two other teachers while he only got one jounin, but the blondes probably needed him as a teacher in order to catch up to everyone else. He eyed Yamato, assuming him to be his sensei. He seemed strong, but only time would tell. He walked right up to the man.

"You better have some good ninjutsu to teach me, I need to get stronger as fast as I can," he declared, half requesting and half demanding.

Yamato turned to stare at the boy in what first seemed to be amusement until, despite the smile on his face, his slowly growing killing intent truly cowed Sasuke. "I do have some good ninjutsu and you are weak, but I am not your teacher. If I was your teacher, the very first thing I taught you would be a very painful one – the reason you should respect your superiors in the ninja life. You wouldn't want me to think you were being disrespectful," he said while his smile grew even more demonic. "Would you?"

Sasuke quickly found himself taking a step back and shaking his head in the negative. "Good, I'm glad we understand each other." The killing intent receded as Yamato broke up the quickly brewing fight between Naruto and Jiraiya and led the group outside.

Squads 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 were quickly picked up leaving just team 7 behind. After an hour, Iruka even left for the day. Sasuke was bored to hell and back as Sai seemed to do nothing but scribble at his desk while Sakura tapped on her desk while trying to start a conversation with him. The skitch skitch skitch of Sai's pen and tap top tap of Sakura's fingers were driving him insane by the time hour three started. It all became too much and he gave a very loud, very unUchiha like growl of frustration, only to lean back too far forward in his chair and have it fall to the ground.

When Kakashi walked into the room not two seconds later he saw Sakura shrieking in fright while heavily shaking Sasuke's unconscious body to wake him up. Sai still hadn't stopped drawing, paying no attention to the theatrics of his teammates. Kakashi walked back out the door before he was noticed. He didn't feel like doing this right now and, honestly, how much would it hurt if he was only another half hour late?

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Team 12 had been traveling along the "ninja rooftop express" while in Konoha and then by tree jumping to reach their destination quickly, but it had still taken twenty minutes to arrive at their training ground. Although a hassle to get there until the genin learned the shunshin, it was ideal. It was far enough from the center of Konoha that if there were surges of Kyuubi's, now Naruto's and Naruko's, chakra that it wouldn't be felt unless they were totally out of control. Besides that, the training ground was fairly diverse with a small waterfall that fed a large stream that widened into a pond at one point. The rest was mainly forested, but there was a bare, rocky section as well.

All four ninja were sitting in a rough circle along the pond's bank, taking a load off to talk. "Well, brats, we got to meet yesterday," Jiraiya mused, "but I still don't think we know each other very well. We'll do a little intro here, us first, then you two."

Yamato decided to start. "As you all know, my name is Yamato. I have been in Anbu for some time and focus on ninjutsu. For various reasons, I can use mokuton – wood ninjutsu said to be able to suppress the chakra of tailed beasts. I will be helping you control your power while training and teach you other things as well. I enjoy meditation and gardening, and I dislike impatient people. I suppose my dream for the future…" he cut off to think for a few moments. "Right now I just want to help you two become great ninja."

No one had noticed when, or how, but five toads had been summoned as smoke rose up from the ground. Four of the toads started dancing in a circle around the smoke while the fifth played dramatic music on a koto. In the smoke, Jiraiya's voice could be made out. "From the mythical realm of Mount Myoboku, the man all men want to be and all women want to be with, the legendary toad sage," the smoke suddenly cleared to reveal Jiraiya in a dramatic pose, "Jiraiya!"

He looked at his audience in expectation but only saw boredom instead of the awe he had been hoping for. "Damn it." He released the toads summons back to their home. "I'm one of the three legendary sannin and I've done a lot with my life. I specialize in ninjutsu and fuinjutsu, but I can do some of everything and will teach you some of everything. I like writing and the fine female form, though I could do without women beating on me when I'm caught. I also hate traitors. But enough of that. I'm the toad summoner and taught the Yondaime Hokage as I plan to teach you. My only two dreams for the future are to teach you two and maybe have a family."

Naruto and Naruko looked at each other to see who was next. After a short mental conversation through their link, Naruto bounced up to his feet. "I'm next then, Uzumaki Naruto. I don't really know much yet, but I do know the shadow clone and one day I'm going to be the strongest ninja around! I like ramen, pulling off pranks, and Naruko. I don't like the way some of the villagers look at us. I was fine with it, but I can't stand it when they look at Naruko that way too. Like I said, I'm going to be a strong ninja one day, but I'm not sure I want to be Hokage anymore if this is how Naruko will always be treated by everyone here."

Naruko hadn't expected Naruto's most disliked thing to be when she was treated badly. That truly showed his strength of character that he'd focus on others instead of himself. "I'm Naruko Uzumaki. I don't really know much about the world, but I like Naruto. I also like when I was able to hear music, but that didn't happen often. Kyuubi was also nice when we were able to talk, and I'd like to set her free. I don't like how everyone has always treated Naruto." She pouted cutely, but it wasn't just a joke. It had always hurt her to see how he was treated when she was able to see what he was doing. "My dreams are to be a good mate to Naruto, to help out and free Kyuubi, and to find out who I am now that I can live my own life."

This was the part that had the two elder ninja worried. "We need to talk about this whole freeing the Kyuubi thing," Jiraiya suggested. "You told sensei – Sarutobi – that Kyuubi could be summoned and help teach you somehow, but that sounds different than completely freeing it. How do we know it will behave?"

"First off, Kyuubi's a she, not an it. Secondly, dad's seal has connected the three of us, especially Naruto and Kyuubi, so that she wouldn't want to escape, even if it wouldn't kill all three of us. It wouldn't disconnect the seal, just let her out. Finally, she's weak enough right now that most jounin could beat her and with you two present you could easily restrain her if it came down to it."

While Jiraiya and Yamato were pondering her words, wondering on how firmly they were connected and the effects of the seal on a "summoned" or released Kyuubi, Naruto was stuck on something else. "What do you mean dad's seal? Wasn't it the yondaime hokage who sealed Kyuubi?" Just like that the two adults had a whole new can of worms.

After a few moments of thinking on his feet, Jiraiya decided that honesty was the best policy. "It wasn't something we were going to tell you yet, not until you were strong enough to protect yourself, but Minato Namikaze, the fourth hokage was your father."

"But why would he seal a rampaging giant beast into his child?" Naruto asked in disbelief and the beginnings of anger. "Didn't he think about what that would do to the child's life?" Now the rage was coming out in full. "Who even wants a father that would do that to their own kid?"

He would have continued on, but he was smacked hard across his face by Jiraiya. "You should stop insulting him now, you need to focus kid. You're not thinking about the bigger picture here."

"What big picture, the one where Naruko-chan and I get screwed over while he doesn't have to live with his mistakes?"

"No," Naruko's softer voice answered as she took his hand to calm him, her tails wrapping around his body as a form of comfort. "The big picture where, if he didn't do it, we would have died from Kyuubi anyway and the whole village would have followed. Besides that, Kyuubi mentioned once, when we were able to talk, that without her chakra healing you, we would have died anyway. Due to our premature birth we were born weak and only Kyuubi actually let us live."

Naruto seemed to get what she was saying, the fact that she was trying to give him a soothing feeling over their mental link helping her, but he wasn't ready. "Well, I guess it makes sense, but I haven't forgiven yet and I won't forgive him that easily." This was something Jiraiya could deal with and was about as much as he had hoped for. "But what about mom?" he asked, the bitterness leaving his voice.

Naruko had no answer for this one, but Jiraiya knew some of that incident. "She was a wonderful redhead, quite the looker but also quite outspoken and a great kunoichi. Kushina Uzumaki. She knew almost as much fuinjutsu as your father. Like Naruko said, Kyuubi's killing intent, her ki, forced Kushina into a premature birth from the stress. After that, we're not sure what happened. All we know is that she had been killed still in her hospital bed, but we have never been able to find evidence as to who did it." Jiraiya had to stop and sigh his disappointment at that.

"The original plan was for her to raise you, but her death obviously was not foreseen. Kushina and Minato were like my children and it was one of the worst days of my life when I heard that both had died and left you alone. Sensei told me he'd look after you two until it was time for graduation. At that point I was considering teaching you two, and here I am." Jiraiya gave a glum smile. "At least that part of the plan worked."

"So what does that mean for us, then?" Naruto asked. "Are we going to tell everyone or get their stuff or something?" Naruto didn't really care to get rich or famous from his heritage, but he did wonder if there was at least something of his parents he could have to remember them by.

"Of course," Yamato spoke up. As one of Sarutobi's most trusted Anbu he had been entrusted with the blonde's inheritance should they find out the truth. "We don't want everyone to know who you are just yet as they had many powerful enemies, but we are fine with you quietly inheriting their wealth and belongings."

"In fact, after training we can take you to their old place," Jiraiya added. "First, though, we need to talk about the Kyuubi again. We trust you, Naruko, so we'll let you two do as you can to free her if you feel it is right. Just remember, this is serious business."

Naruko nodded her head, understanding the gravity of freeing the strongest Biju from confinement before turning to her brother. "Are you ready?"

"Sure! So how do we free her?"

Naruko just shrugged. "We might all be connected, but she's in you, not me. Talk to her."

"Well how do I do that?" he asked, never having entered into his mindscape except for the one time Naruko met with him and Inoichi in their shared mindscape.

"Well, I'll help you through the link this time, but you need to figure it out yourself in case you need it later. For now, just close your eyes." Naruto followed her orders. "Now slow your breathing." He breathed in deeply. Naruko now communicated directly to his mind through their connection. "Try to find where your chakra comes from." He breathed out, feeling his chakra circulation near his heart and his stomach. "Now imagine what you think Kyuubi looks like." Naruto breathed in once more. His first thought was of a fox of monstrous size and hair in the shades of blinding fire, but it slowly slipped into the picture of a rather attractive woman in her mid to late twenties. It was blurry, and felt like it was out of focus, but it was definitely the same feeling the image of the fox had given him. "Now go to her." This time when he breathed out he opened his eyes only to find himself face to face with the woman he had imagined.

This woman was chained by the wrists to a wall in a dungeon, her long crimson hair managing to cover all the most private spots her nudity would have exposed. She looked up at Naruto as he found himself in front of her. Her flaming eyes caught him by surprise and he noticed her slight nails and claws.

"Hello, Naruto," she spoke. Her voice was calming like the last warming ember of a fire, but he felt that her anger would sound more like an inferno.

"Are you... you can't be..." trailed off the confused blond. Even when they had talked the night of the Mizuki incident with Inoichi present, Kyuubi had always been in fox form in that gaudy cage. Now he saw a beautiful woman in chains of a delicate silver design that looked easy enough to snap, though they seemed to hold her tightly. "Kyuubi?"

"Yes, it's me. I assume you're here so I can help teach you?"

"No, I'm here to free you. If you want to teach Naruko and me afterwards, that's cool too. Naruko said you wanted your freedom and I owe you at least that much after you helped my sister return to me."

She smiled a small smile. "Such a humble boy, not taking advantage of a position in which you hold all the cards. All you need to do is touch where the chains attach to the walls and will them to release me."

Naruko walked behind her to where she pointed and saw little pins with the Uzumaki swirl on them. He reached to touch them and at the slightest contact, they sprung from their resting places. All but the silver manacles around Kyuubi's wrists disappeared in a flash of golden light, and the manacles now held a small Uzumaki swirl on them. Kyuubi, weak from confinement, fell forward and Naruto caught her and helped her to stand up. "Thank you, Naruto. Now, let's get out of here, it's time for me to see the world for the first time in over a decade."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The little group had been waiting for a few minutes now as Naruto sat unnaturally still. The only signs that he was more than a stone statue were his slow, steady breaths and his eyes which flickered behind their lids like the boy was in REM sleep. Soon there was a flicker of chakra that soon greatly intensified before flowing over to a spot just next to Naruto. As the flow increased, Naruto's eyes fluttered open and a beautiful woman with long, red hair appeared next to him, leaning on his shoulder. Her only clothing was two silver bracelets she wore on her wrists.

Had Jiraiya not been absolutely freaking out about the fact that this was the Kyuubi in the flesh, he would have had enough material from viewing her body to write his next few novels. Still, despite avoiding his perversions he was disappointed as the woman used a single hand seal and was suddenly wearing clothes – an outfit consisting of a vest, a tank top, and a skirt – not unlike something a kunoichi would wear.

She turned to Naruto and took his head with her hands she stared into his eyes, pouty lips parted, panting for breath. Still, despite her "give it to me" posture the group was still quite surprised when Naruto dived forward, taking her lips with his like a man possessed. She mewled and moaned as the boy gave into his primal urges, his tongue invading her mouth and his canines nipping at her lips, drawing blood which he eagerly lapped up. Once he had taken in the blood he went shock still before shivering a little, a tenth tail erupting to join the others before he collapsed.

Everyone was fairly stunned into silence until Naruko noticed something. "You took his first kiss, you bitch!" she yelled boldly, quite out of character with the kind, quiet Naruko the group had seen so far.

"Well," Kyuubi said as she sat up, her lip already healing, "I could always be summoned by you two, but we all were talking about a more permanent solution, so I took advantage of it." She positioned the still catatonic Naruto so that he was sitting on her lap, his eyes still blank from what had gone on. "I figured that even the shinigami wouldn't be able to hold me if I became something the seal didn't mean to hold, so I gave Naruto-kun here my power. I made him the current King of Demons and made it so that the seal won't recognize me to reseal again."

"But how did you two manage to do that? By swapping spit?" Jiraiya asked as a joke.

"Well, yes. The transfer of power to make a new King of Demons involves a show of dominance, a slight genjutsu on my part making him rather aggressive, and a transfer of fluid – especially those thick with life. Normally dominance is shown through a fight and the transfer with sex, but he couldn't beat me as he is and I don't think Naruko-chan would appreciate us having sex before she gets her piece," Kyuubi smirked at Naruko who, despite blushing furiously, did nothing to deny it.

"Does that mean something similar happened with you?" Yamato queried.

"Yes, long ago. You see, there was a time, eons past and before my birth, when the world's life form came to three paths. The lesser path was that of dumb beasts, the common animals of the world. The middle path was that of humanity – humans grew in strength and number and cultivated a chakra circulatory system. The final path is that of the greater beasts. I don't mean to say it was the nine of us 'Biju', as you humans seem to believe, but that every tribe of summoning animal gained intelligence and, like humans, cultivated a chakra circulatory system."

"But what about the Rikudo Sennin?" Jiraiya asked. As a sage himself, he had always wondered about the story of the destruction of the beast Juubi and the formation of the nine Biju.

"He was a great man, the first and only to gain the respect of all the greater beast tribes, the first to summon, and he did make the moon, but he did not make us. I was alive far before his birth. No, as I said, we were tribes. The strongest tribes, also called the noble tribes, are those that later gave birth to the Biju, the tanuki, nekomata, kitsune, and the others. The weaker tribes are commonly summons now. The toads, snakes, hawks, bees, and so many other tribes never gained in power to the next level." A faint smile came to her lips while she continued to pet Naruto's whisker marks. The boy had rejoined the group mentally not long ago, and was enjoying both the story and the attention she was paying to his whisker marks and now his ears too.

"I was alive when the weirdest thing happened. Some of us became massive and sprouted extra tails. It all started with a tanuki becoming massive after their whole race supported one leader. Soon after the rest of us grew in size, but not as massive. Then another race, the beetles, made them submit. The tanuki leader had to give much of his power as tribute and the beetles' leader gained a second tail, something unheard of. His power was massive until some other races naturally grew a second tail."

"It was a steady evolution over the eons with a new King of Demons being chosen, taking the power of the old King, and then eventually being met with equal powered beings. Each tribe eventually found their own limit to power, the tanuki ironically never gaining more than their first tail while the ox, beetles, and kitsune continued to gain in power for a long time. In fact, upon the date I was sealed away the kitsune had several strong members including a seven tail. Oddly enough, it seems that a seven tailed kitsune is not quite as strong as the beetle's leader who also has seven tails, though stronger than the slug's leader who possesses six tails. Apparently the strength of a tribe's backing makes each of the nine Biju stronger than those of equal tails from other tribes.

"As the strongest of my tribe I fought the leader of the ox, both of us with eight tails and he the current King of Demons. I won and gained my ninth tail, a power unmatched by any save you two now. As tradition dictates, we would have become mates after beating him, but he was much too frail after our battle and we had already shared enough blood in combat. I took mates over the years, but none was truly satisfying as they were all weaker. Now that I have temporarily given all my power so that a new being – fully human yet now fully kitsune – could have ten tails and become the new king and my new mate – all three of us are now mates. If anything, we are all lucky. Naruko and I have a mate that can actually satisfy us while Naruto, despite his mates having less tails, will likely be satisfied with the two of us."

"But what's the big deal about being a mate?" Naruto asked her, having wondered exactly what it meant. "I get that we can talk through our heads and that it means we're together for life, but what's the big deal about not being satisfied like you keep on saying?"

"For demons with our power, we experience the full and dramatic range of emotions expected from both humans and the dumb beasts. This means we understand love and compassion, but we also can be taken in by overpowering bloodlust or by lust itself. Our bodies naturally go through a heat every so often and, though we can control it some, it adds up overtime. I have never successfully quelled my heat, my demand for sexual satisfaction, due to inadequate mates, so my frustration built up over time. I could have mated with others, but in heat I may literally have killed them. As it stands, you can see what that frustration became as it is what caused me to attack Konoha twelve years ago when my frustration become pure bloodlust."

"So, you're saying that if we don't have sex with each other when we're in heat, that eventually we'll go and attack people at random?" Naruko asked nervously.

"Something along those lines, yes," Kyuubi agreed. "It could take decades to get to that point, though, so don't go rushing it just yet. As it is, with my weakened form from having my chakra siphoned all these years and now giving the rest to Naruto-kun, I won't be a threat for at least a decade from frustration. I won't even be able to mate the way I desire for at least a year if I had to guess."

"But, that's not fair!" Naruto shouted. "I like Naruko-chan, and I think you're pretty and all, but you're saying I can't ever love anyone else or I'll go crazy? That just sucks."

"Yes, it does," Kyuubi continued though her voice seemed a little sterner, "but you need to understand that if you get intimate with someone who isn't strong enough, you may literally break their bones from rutting or rip their throat out in the process if they don't submit the way a mate knows to. Your body is designed for a strong mate, now two, and if you don't follow it, there will be consequences."

"Sheesh," Naruto sighed. "Well that just great to hear." He released a shrill yawn, his eyes narrowing from it like the fox that he was. "Can I get some sleep? I'm really tired now and I need to rest. I need to process this overnight."

"Yeah, freeing Kyuubi and hearing this news has to be tiring for you," Yamato guessed. "Jiraiya can show you to the Namikaze estate we mentioned earlier and then you can sleep after you look around a bit."

The final reason they had chosen their training field was that it was near the Namikaze clan estate. Their estate was on the outskirts of central Konoha on one of the very last streets before the training fields started. The grounds of their new home was surrounded by a sturdy stone wall that seemed to be jutsu made, but was only secured by locked iron gates at various points along the wall. Jiraiya assured them that there were seals on the walls to prevent surface walking, but that didn't mean that they couldn't be hopped by more persistent intruders.

Once inside the walls, they looked around to find that the majority of the estate was covered in overgrown gardens with various spots for light training and meditation. There were ponds and footpaths that all looked less than pristine from lack of maintenance, but would be easily repaired with the help of a few shadow clones. One main path split into several smaller paths that branched off towards cleared plots of land that were obviously meant for future buildings and expansions. Obviously Minato and Kushina had planned for the clan to grow before Kyuubi came to town.

The main path continued to lead straight towards a small cluster of buildings – the only finished structures on the estate's grounds. One was a small building – either a guest house or some similar facility – while the second was a large shed, no doubt used to help maintain the grounds. The third and final building was definitely too large to call a house. The only word that came to Naruko's mind was mansion. It had three floors and Jiraiya mentioned two basement levels.

This building was better locked than the gates were as it actually took blood and chakra to unlock and, the sage explained, had both heavily reinforced materials in construction and was covered in strengthening and defense seals of all types. Jiraiya actually had to tweak the main seal as he had been previously keyed in while Naruto's blood and chakra had been altered upon his demonic transformation. He instructed the blondes on how to lock and unlock the house's blood seal so that they could activate it later if they wished before adding theirs, Yamato's, and Kyuubi's blood and chakra signatures to the list of those who could lock and unlock the seal. Apparently even the windows locked when the seal locked.

The next half hour was a whirlwind of exploration as they roamed the house. A ballroom, a library, a small dojo, quite a couple of bedrooms including the obvious master bedroom, a formal meeting room, a small armory in the upper basement, and vault in the lowest basement that contained all the assets and secrets of both the Namikaze and Uzumaki clans were only a few of the rooms present in addition to those normally expected such as bathrooms, storage, and a world class kitchen. Naruto made a promise to himself that he'd have to scour the vaults while Naruko was more interested in their father's private study attached to the library. Kyuubi was just interested in the master bath and the huge tub inside of it.

The last room they saw was directly next to the master bedroom and was the room that had Naruto most absorbed in his thoughts. It was a nursery, still ready for them. The walls had been painted a gender neutral green, but one cradle was blue and the other pink. Both cribs were surrounded by toys, though there was a particularly large toad plush toy in the blue crib and a mobile made of Uzumaki spirals above the pink crib.

"He planned for you, you know," Jiraiya said as he put a hand on each of the blondes' shoulders. "Even when he knew he wasn't long for this world he planned for Kushina to be able to care for you. Knowing her abilities with seals, better than mine and almost as good as Minato's, she probably could have freed you sooner, Naruko, and helped speed up the chakra transfer. It would have been alright, but s- she was killed."

The man was revealing a side that the teens hadn't yet seen. His voice was breaking up and he was having trouble talking. "I know that you mi- might not forgive him for the sealing, but he never saw this coming. I miss them both so much." Even worse, Jiraiya now knew Minato to be his son. And that made things so much harder.

"Alright, you old perv," Naruto said jokingly, though the tearstains down his face were obvious. "I'll give him another chance, but I better not find anything else bad about him." He was pretending not to be affected, but to the old veteran it was obvious. "Let's go – I'm tired after today."

So soon enough the three mates had collapsed into bed in a position that would no doubt embarrass Naruto if he was coherent enough to realize a girl was on either side. Jiraiya didn't even have it in him to take pictures or make a joke, so he quietly left with Yamato. But they'd be back tomorrow for training. Still, maybe they could sleep in a little tomorrow. He'd wake them by eight.

One scene is horribly cliché, the blondes looking at the nursery. But I always loved it reading it in other fics, so I gave it a go. So, the poll is still up and taking votes. Also, spread the love; check out my other fics (especially A Wish for the End which will be updated next). Finally review or PM me with input. As always tell what you liked and didn't like, and also your third job. I'll share my own – or a story from my own if you do.