Disclaimer: never owned Naruto, and still don't wanna own it.

Jagged Pieces 10

It only took two weeks for Naruto to recover from childbirth. She had always thought that most of her healing abilities came from her tenant, but it'd appear that the famed Uzumaki longevity was not just for show. Kujin had been intrigued at her fast recovery but didn't push the matter, thinking it had to do with some minor bloodline from Kumo. The blond kunoichi had never been so relieved to share her father's appearance than now – claiming the Uzumaki name would've been too complicated to explain, what with Kujin's impeccable records of his clan's history.

"I was trained to be the clan scribe before Mito-sama asked me to come to Konoha," he had reluctantly explained when Minato sharply asked him to play nice with his wife as she asked him questions about his infamous clan. After that, Naruto had decided to stop the questions that burnt her lips, not wishing to be at the top of the redhead's shit-list.

What she learnt from that brief, stilted, and very much one-sided conversation was that being a scribe was the greatest honour one could behold in a clan: they had access to the full history of the family as well as obscure jutsus. Everyone would go to the scribe for advice or even permission to learn a new technique, and only the scribe could grant it. They were meant to be the wisest of their clan. Naruto frankly couldn't see it in Kujin – he was brash, indecent, and lacked any sense of social manners. She wondered if she was this savage-looking when she was a street rat running around Konoha and yelling about her dreams.

In these two weeks of recovery, Minato had been glued to baby Hajime. He had obtained a short parental leave from the Jōnin Commander and spent every second with the tiny human that graced his life, walking around the village and proudly showing the infant to whoever was stupid enough to ask about him – they soon learnt to never ask as the blond man couldn't shut up about the kid, blabbering about how soft his hair and skin were, how fragile he felt in his arms but how strong his grip was already… Minato was fast becoming the most doting parent Konoha had ever seen, happily waking up in the middle of the night to tend to the crying baby and soothe his tears and change a dirty diaper, never running out of patience or love despite the growing dark rings under his eyes. When his leave came to an end, he didn't hesitate to just bundle up his child – and he'd never tire of saying these words, his child – and work in the Jounin Lounge, one hand carefully holding the baby close to his heart, the other doing paperwork and filling in reports. He looked disgustingly happy, and his colleagues soon learnt that he was no less terrifying when a poor Chunin ended up with a dislocated shoulder for frightening the baby into peeing himself. Hajime had been inconsolable and had cried every time Minato had tried to bring him back to the Lounge afterwards.

All that meant nothing to Naruto, though. She was jealous. Seeing the man taking such tender care of Hajime made her feel cheated and resentful of her old man: it could've been – should've been – her life. She could've had a dad to kiss her tears away too, if he hadn't decided to screw it all by sealing a chakra beast in his newborn before dying. It was stupid to be this jealous of her own son, and so she smothered this dark, ugly feeling with the unconditional love she had for Hajime, kissing his chubby cheeks and stroking a finger up and down a tiny fist just because she could. Naruto wanted her son to never doubt her love.

Or that of his father's.

At that thought, the woman groaned and rubbed her temples. She was not stupid. By accepting to play house with the Namikaze, Naruto knew she had basically agreed to lie to her baby and let Minato be a father to him for the foreseeable future. She had come to terms pretty quickly with that, actually. It's not like Hajime would've had a father to begin with, so why deprive him of one who was so eager to see him as his own?

It'd be temporary anyway, she kept telling herself. She was not staying in this godforsaken world forever. They needed her back home. They were all mourning and slowly rebuilding their lives, finally at peace with all nations and ready to strengthen budding friendships. There was also the problem of her missing teammate. Naruto had made a promise when they understood Sakura went MIA, and Naruto never broke her promises. It was her ninja way. At that thought, her throat closed up and her eyes burnt with repressed tears and frustration. Sakura. I'm going to find you no matter how long it'll take, I promise. But first…

Taking a deep breath to gain back some focus, Naruto looked at the scrolls unrolled in front of her. She was sitting cross-legged on her futon (both her and Namikaze had agreed to have separate futons in their shared room, Naruto unwilling to share his bedding when she could see how his eyes lingered more and more on her as the days passed) working on deciphering the botched seal that sent her in this new world. Try as she might, Naruto could not see where the problem was. It didn't help that she didn't even have the original Hiraishin to help her research, and she doubted that asking Minato for a spare one would go nicely…

"Why did I not listen to Shikamaru?" she whined as she gripped at her hair, tugging harshly as if the pain would trigger an idea. "Why did I have to work on it by myself? Arrgh!"

Fed up, Naruto sealed her scrolls and hid them in her weapon pouch. Minato already snooped once in her things back in the forest, she wouldn't put it past him to do so again now that she lived with him in his village. She wished she had been smart enough and had storage seals inked on her body, but unfortunately, Naruto seemed to always use her brain after bad things happened to her. Usually, Sakura or Kakashi would be there to think in her stead. Hell, even Kurama was her back-up brain. And now, she was alone with her stupidity.

Naruto closed her eyes, relaxing her muscles. Time to put her dead brain to work. She was in a parallel universe. Check. Based on her own world, she was in the past. Check. People appeared to be quite different from the ones she knew. Check. Kurama was AWOL and Bee seemingly didn't have Gyuuki yet. Check.

She opened her eyes, thinking. When she was feeling for the Fox's chakra, she couldn't find it. Not at all. Either he was extremely well-concealed in Kujin's seal, which she doubted because she was well-tuned to the demonic chakra, or…

Or the Kyuubi was not in Konoha, just like the Hachibi was seemingly not in Kumo.

This didn't add up. It was completely different than her own timeline… Bee should already have full access to his Bijuu and Konoha should still have their own demon under seal. Kujin said he was invited to come to Konoha by Mito Uzumaki… Was it not for the sealing of the Bijuu or was it something else?

"Fuck, I'm outta my depth…"

So much information was missing! She was never a fan of history, so she couldn't even compare her world to this one. Would asking questions be seen as suspicious? Perhaps she could sneak into the library and read up on this world's history… After all, Minato already thought that Naruto had been cut from the world for years since she wasn't even aware of his famous parentage, so she could play on that. She'd have to be careful about her digging and not look too much into Konoha's own history, otherwise, people will get suspicious and deem her a spy…

"What's that face for? You look two seconds away from having an aneurysm."

Startled, Naruto threw the first thing she found at Minato's face, cursing herself for growing too complacent in what was supposed to be her new home. Minato barely dodged the smelly socks, bouncing Hajime in his arms. He tutted at Naruto – tutted – like she was a child!

"You should be more careful, we have a kid now, we can't just throw things around. Right, Hajime?"

The baby gurgled, unfocused blue eyes jumping around the room before settling back on Minato's flak vest, a fist crammed in his tiny mouth. Immediately, Naruto cooed and made grabby hands at her son. Minato obliged and soon she had an armful of her little baby, reflexively checking for his diaper as she talked non-sense at her kid.

Minato tilted his head to the side with a cringe. "You should really try and articulate more when you talk to him, we wouldn't want him to struggle when learning how to speak."

The young mother rolled her eyes. "Oh. My. God. You're so prim and proper, chill dude! My kid is obviously the best little bugger ever, he'll overcome any hardship that comes his way, believe it!"

"Then I hope he takes more after his biological father than you…" the man muttered under his breath, dodging the low-powered air bullet jutsu Naruto spat his way.

Louder, eyebrows already twitching from annoyance, Minato added, "And obviously Hajime will have to learn that violence is never the answer."

"Nah, instead, Haji-chan will learn that violence is always an option," she snidely fired back.

The two blonds glared at each other before simultaneously turning up their noses, one muttering about "idiots" and the other mumbling about "stuck up princesses". In the middle of all that, Hajime just spat bubbles and tried his best to eat his own fingers.

Feeling the need to show who was the real adult here, Minato composed himself and sat crossed-legs on the floor, inches away from the woman who made silly faces at their son. He prayed to every deity he knew that the poor boy will not grow with brain damage. He smiled at Hajime and couldn't resist reaching for his chubby cheeks, his smile growing into a wide grin when the baby quickly snatched the offending finger and rammed it into his mouth to gummily chew on. Finally, he turned his attention towards his wife and observed her for a little bit. Like him, she had dark shadows under her eyes, proof that maternity was taking a toll on her, but she was still glowing with joy as she stared at Hajime. Her shoulders were a bit slumped, as if bearing a great weight, and Minato fleetingly wondered if it was just exhaustion or if something else was plaguing her mind. They had come to an amicable agreement and were tentative friends in spite of their clashes, but their relationship was nowhere near close enough for Naruto to confide in him.

Pushing the thought away, he slipped his hand away from the slackened grip of his sleepy son. "I don't know how much information was available on me in the Bingo Books you read, but perhaps you know that I am the leader of a Genin team."

Naruto narrowed her eyes at him but didn't say anything, letting him continue.

"I didn't want to overwhelm you with all the changes you had to face in such a short time, and without much notice I admit—"

At that, Naruto snorted. "Yeah, you can say that again, buddy."

Minato chose to ignore her and talked over her, "—and Kujin is not the most welcoming person you could've met, so I thought that letting you settle a bit first before meeting my team would be better than just springing them on you."

Naruto had to focus hard to not flinch or whimper at the idea of seeing Kakashi again. Meeting dead parents she never knew was one thing, but meeting her precious people when their death was still fresh and she still hadn't mourned properly for them? She'd need to prepare.

She cleared her throat and said in a surprisingly steady voice, "I'd be happy to meet 'em. Do they already know about me?"

This caused Minato to smirk at her as he reclined on his hands. He looked like the cat who got the cream. "You're the talk of the village, everyone has heard about you without me having to say a thing."

It's been a while since the rumor mill hadn't been about scandalous reports of his fake love affair with Kujin. Minato had never been so happy to throw someone else under the wagon. He was sure Naruto was the kind of person who hated gossipers. He had to fight hard to contain his grin. He just couldn't wait for the stories to reach her ears and to see her rain her fury on the gossipers. Finally, justice! And he wouldn't have to lift a finger.

Naruto took one look at his gleeful face and her 'trouble-maker' senses started to tingle. She frowned. "I feel like you're not telling me something…"

Immediately, Minato switched on his sickening sweet smile and waved a hand around. "Nothing for you to worry about, Naruto-san. Anyway!" He clapped his hands together and leant forwards. "I hope you're up for a visit soon, my team would really like to meet you and Hajime."

Instead of giving a straight answer, Naruto hummed low under her breath. "Tell me more about them."

Kakashi had been tight-lipped about his Genin days, and she knew that Obito's 'death' had haunted him his whole life. He had been utterly broken to learn his lost teammate was at the core of so much heartache later on… If things were bound to be different in this world, she dearly hoped that Obito could be saved.

It took a moment before she realized that Minato never started speaking, choosing instead to look at her with an arch eyebrow that screamed "really, woman?" as if he was deeply offended by her seemingly never-ending stupidity. Once he knew he had her attention, Minato scoffed. "As if I'm going to give you information about ninja under my command. You should know better than to ask. You're a simple civil despite your skills."

"Dude. I'm your wife. I'm kinda entitled to this kind of information."

The words tasted like acid but never say that Naruto didn't know how to play dirty. But it seemed she underestimated how alike they were because he smirked, batted his eyelids and cooed, "Only on paper, remember?"

Well. Fair is fair, she thought while grinding her teeth. She fleetingly considered the idea of using Hajime as a lethal weapon of cuteness but deemed it off limit: she was going to be a good mother, and mothers didn't use their children to win petty fights, right?

"Whatever," she sniffed, making a show of not caring. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something. I know I'm a foreigner and all that crap but how long would it take for me to get my citizenship?"

"Well, Sandaime-sama said you'd have to apply for permanent residency when you feel up to it. We received Bee's forged marriage contract a few days ago and we both signed our marriage certificate with the Hokage's approval, but that only made it possible for you to stay here on a renewable visa. Though it'll be pretty straight-forward now that you gave birth, you can claim citizenship through Hajime's birthright."

Perfect news! From what she remembered from helping around the Hokage Tower, foreign parents who had a child born in Fire country could claim citizenship through their kid's birthright almost immediately. All she needed to do was wait for the paperwork to be signed and then she'd be able to petition either the Jounin Commander or the Hokage for a chance to join the corps. Hell, she could even just go now and be done with it…

She looked at Minato with an excited glint in her eyes. "When will your team come again?"

He shrugged. "When I summon them?"

"Awesome."

Carefully settling Hajime on the futon before jumping to her feet, Naruto raced around the room gathering her stuff. She unceremoniously took off her shirt, ignoring Minato's indignant yelp of surprise as she pulled on a rather horrid orange tee over her head. Her breasts were tender and she categorically refused to bandage them or wear a bra, deciding to wait until she burnt off the last of her pregnancy fat before having to constrict her chest again.

One look at Minato's tomato-red face had her snickering. "Relax man, it was just a boob. Don't tell me you're still prudish around me when I bathed your naked ass."

"I was on duty, we're desensitized to nudity when on duty," he hissed as if it was a good, logical argument.

"Well consider me 'on duty' 24/7 now that I have a kid: Imma flash my boobs whenever Haji-chan needs a feeding, ya know. Got a problem with that?"

He gritted his teeth in annoyance, face still steaming red, and croaked out, "None."

"Good. Now be a good princess, watch over my little bugger while I go be an adult out there."

When he glanced through the corridor to give his goodbye and saw her tighten the strap of her weapon pouch and reaching for her sandals, Minato was immediately on guard. Eyes narrowing, he left a clone with their son and in a flash was standing in front of their entrance door, blocking Naruto's path.

"You didn't tell me where you were going," he said with a hint of disapproval in his voice. "Why the weapon pouch?"

His stance was loose, shoulders hunched as if to convey how inoffensive he was in his baggy pants and long-sleeves. But any ninja worth their kunai could've seen how his fingers were flexed, a second away from making hand-signs, and how the muscles in his legs were tensed, ready to jump or kick. The real giveaway was his eyes, though. Gone was the lazy, sometimes mischievous sparkle. All that was left was steely blue eyes that reminded Naruto how deadly Minato could be with just his fingers and a little bit of chakra.

Instead of reacting with anger, Naruto decided to keep her calm. "I thought it'd be a good idea to go claim my citizenship as soon as possible as well as ask to pass physical tests. This way, I'll be able to ask for permission to join the ninja ranks. I'm feeling antsy when not working."

Incredulity was the first thing that Minato felt. It had barely been two months since she gave birth and here she was, ready to fight. He remembers when they first met, how gaunt she was in spite of her pregnancy, how her diet was so poor Minato had to force-feed her the nutrients she needed. At that, his irritation with the woman grew and he scoffed. "You're not joining the ranks."

Taking a second to actually register what had just been said, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle, eyebrows raised as high as they could get. "Excuse me?"

Despite the cordial words, her tone clearly indicated that she was quickly reaching her threshold of patience. It didn't seem to bother the blond man who kept his eyes narrowed, determined to get his way.

"I think it was clear enough the first time. You're not going on the field."

And that was it. Naruto's patience just snapped, like a rubber band stretched too wide. Mindful of Hajime slumbering in the next room, she took a deep breath to contain her urge to yell and spat venomously, "Who the hell died and made you the boss of me? I can damn well do what I want, and what I want is to fight!"

Crossing his arms and leaning back against the door, Minato rolled his eyes. "Naruto-san," he started with much derision, "you're not a proper Konoha citizen yet, this discussion should not even be taking place. Hell, you were never a kunoichi to begin with; playing mercenaries out there in the wild is not the same thing as being a shinobi in a military village. Why the sudden urge to fight in our ranks?"

She clenched a fist, growling at the thought of being so powerless. Here, Naruto was a nobody, her voice held no sway. How was she supposed to find a way back if she was constrained to the village as a civilian? She would've no way into the Ninja Archives and she could kiss the Fūinjutsu scrolls goodbye. And… Even if she found no way back home, what was she supposed to do then? Let her power and knowledge go to waste? No. No, this wasn't who Naruto Uzumaki was.

"Because!" What was it that Shikamaru used to say about lying? Always lace it with a bit of truth? "That's the only thing I know how to do! And now I have a reason to fight, too! My son is gonna live and grow up in this village, you made damn sure of it when you claimed us as yours, so you can bet your ass Imma fight for Konoha like a proper kunoichi ought to."

Her anger momentarily quelled, she unclenched her fists and then sniffed. "Asshole," she added as an afterthought like it was a much-needed punctuation to her arguments.

Unfortunately, Minato's stubbornness was equal to hers. Unmoved, he stared her down for long seconds, as if assessing if she was worth his breath. She felt like a rookie again, yelling about fighting and honour while Kakashi-sensei looked at her with barely concealed condescension.

"Then it's high time you set your priorities straight. I know Kumo enjoys sending new mothers to the battlefield without batting an eyelid, but we're a bit more civilized on this side of the continent. You want to fight? Fine, but count on me to make you sweat for it. You better quickly decide which is more important to you: caring for your health and that of our newborn son, or caring for your career."

Having said his piece, he pushed off the door and undid his flak vest, ready to let all ninja-talks behind. He rubbed a hand down his face in weariness as he wandered back towards their room where his clone and Hajime were waiting. Just as he passed her, he couldn't help his frustration from leaking out. "You just gave birth, goddammit, you reckless woman…!"

Snarling, Naruto grabbed his elbow and roughly tugged him back so he would face her. She was done with his attitude. She was Naruto Uzumaki, damn it! Nobody was allowed to make her feel like dirt, let alone an arrogant bastard who knew nothing about her.

Dark blue eyes met their counterparts and she tightened her grip on his arm, feeling the flesh give way to sturdy bones. She upped the pressure but Minato refused to give her the satisfaction of seeing him flinch. Instead, he lifted his chin up and arched one eyebrow in an inaudible 'so what?'

"You know what, princess? You better make up your mind. It's hot and cold with you; one day you wanna be my best friend, the next you act like an uppity bitch. I'm tired of your games, Namikaze, either you play nice or we're gonna have a problem."

"There's no game."

Naruto scoffed. "Oh, so you just like to patronize me, got it."

"I'm looking out for you like a friend ought to since you clearly aren't able to do it yourself."

Finally, she released the grip she had on him, pushing him away from her. "Well newsflash buddy: I don't need my friends to babysit me. I'm a grown-ass woman; I make my own choices, understand?"

Minato didn't answer but he looked away without refuting her words. Taking this as a grudging "yes", Naruto nodded to herself and bent down to tie back the loose bandages around her calves before putting her sandals on. She glanced at the blond man only to see him still glaring at the wall, mutinous. Feeling pity, she decided to throw him a bone.

"I appreciate the fact that you care enough to worry about my wellbeing, but if you really want this relationship-thingy to work, you have to let me do things my way, okay?"

Again, he kept quiet, but this time he met her gaze without animosity. Good enough for her. Naruto smiled at him and stood back up from her crouch. Hair securely brushed in a braid hanging down her back, she looked through the living-room window and thought about taking the roofs despite the wind doing its best to uproot the trees outside. It'd be a good way to train her balance and chakra control.

"Well, I'll leave Hajime to you! I'll do my best to be quick, but you know better than me how slow-going the administrative paperwork is…"

And with these parting words, she was out the door, leaving a disgruntled Minato behind. Huffing a sigh, he raked a hand through his messy hair and tugged at it as if to relieve a budding headache. Reckless woman, that's what she was. Utterly, completely reckless.

She'll be the death of me, he thought with furrowed brows as he dispelled his clone and flopped down beside his son who blinked drowsily as he kicked his little feet in the air. Minato played a little bit with the yawning boy before deciding to take a nap with him. His nose buried deep in Naruto's pillow, one large hand cradling the baby to his chest, he drifted off, the scent of citrus lulling both Namikaze boys to sleep.

It took only five days for Naruto to receive confirmation of her citizenship. Her petition to enter the ninja ranks was however rejected by the Jōnin Commander, and it didn't take a genius to understand why – Minato Namikaze was a scary shinobi on his way to shortly become their future Hokage, so nobody was suicidal enough to go against him. Fortunately, Naruto had no self-preservation instincts and decided to appeal directly to the Sandaime. The woman got her audience – set in a month time.

It didn't bother her too much. She knew the Hokage's schedule was full, and she knew that she'd need to be in top shape anyway to prove how valued she'd be in the shinobi forces. The month of waiting was spent on training fields, battering wooden dummies to build up her pain tolerance now that her healing was slowed down. Chakra training had been easier than she had first thought, the lack of Kurama's energy making it less complicated to harness her own power. Her reserves were still stupidly large, which meant that her devastating, chakra-hungry techniques were still within her reach.

Even though Minato was still angry with her, he decided that keeping up pretences was more important than their row and decided to have his Genin meet her anyway. Naruto had prepared for it, late at night when she was watching over Hajime's sleeping form. She would summon a clone, have it take Kakashi's appearance and talk with her.

It had hurt the first time. It had almost been a year now that she lost her friend and mentor.

"Hey," she had mumbled through silent tears.

The clone had gently wiped the tears away as Naruto had catalogued its features. It had been a bad idea because when she had looked at the details that seemed so wrong (too long hair, not enough grey eyes, a skin a shade too pale) she had realized with growing sorrow that she was already forgetting what her sensei had looked like. This was what would happen to every single one of her friends. She'd remember blurry faces and colours as if she was looking at memories through a puddle of water.

"I'm sorry," Naruto had blubbered, snot making her voice stuffy as she had crumbled in her clone's arms. "I'm sorry for forgetting. I'm sorry." It had been a hell of a night, and Naruto had then and there decided to never try to summon a clone of her other dead precious people, the pain not worth it.

The more she did it though, the easier it became to look at the Kakashi clones without crying. Hajime seemed entertained by the puffs of smoke and the messy grey hair, and it tore at Naruto's heart to know she'd never be able to introduce Kakashi to his son.

And thus, when the time came for her to meet the Genin, Naruto was ready.

Or at least that's what she thought until she came face to face with a brooding teenaged Kakashi one morning, a wailing Hajime attached to her arms as she wandered into the kitchen like a zombie to see her dad-husband (urgh!) and his students sitting around the table with scrolls and cups of tea. While Rin immediately jumped up to bow and introduce herself, Obito grimaced with sympathy and tried to protect his ears from the banshee-like screams her son was emitting. The teenage grump that once was her sensei sized her up and down only to look with great disappointment at Minato to say in a drawl, "That's your wife? I thought you always went for perfection, sensei. She's a mess."

Torn between sobs and laughter, Naruto decided that punching the teen through the table was a good middle-ground, and judging by Obito's delighted shouts as he jumped up and down while Minato saved their cups, he obviously agreed.

Waiting deep into the darkness, a fox rumbled.

Fire-red eyes opened into narrowed slits as a yawn broke free of its massive jaws.

Soon, it groaned, laying its weary head on its paws, eyes closing anew.

Soon.

To be continued...

A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you weren't hit too hard by the pandemic and that you and your family/friends are safe and sound. Please, stay at home if possible and don't forget your masks when you go outside: let's be civil in times of crisis (and in general, but that's, like, obvious as fuck).

I had to cut this chapter because it was getting way too long, so I'm now working on the next one and hopefully, it'll be up for August :) It should have a lot more of action and things will move a bit! (Also: KUJIIIIIIN! Because I couldn't cram him in this chapter, and His Awesomeness deserves a bit of limelight, dammit) I'm expecting this story to meet its end at around chapter 15 (HAHAHAHAHA we all know it'll never happen, I suck at planning, we'll still be here at chapter 57 ffs) if everything goes according to plan, so wish me luck!

In the meantime, you can also check Wreaking Havoc on AO3, which is the light-hearted companion fic to Jagged Pieces!

Questions? Complaints? Praises? Feel free to drop a word here or on my tumblr!

PLEASE, DO NOT ASK when I'll update, when I say "August", it's like a very vague timeline, and we all know four years down the road THAT I'M SHIT AT GIVING DAAAAAATES!

A THOUSAND THANKS for reviewing and showering me with kind words and love, I fucking 3 you people, stay awesome and KEEP SAFE!

Et comme d'hab, spéciale dédicace à mes lecteurs francophones: je vous kiffe, bande de fadas.