Hidden Tears/ Family Pain

Summery: When, in a bout of accidental magic, eight-year-old Harry James Potter escapes his abusive relatives he discovers a new world of Chakra and ninjas. After his escape he finds a new family, one forged of pain and tears. But this new family is incomplete…

(Epilogue)

Several months (that seemed to fly by) later, Sirius, Remus, the Malfoys, and most of the Auror department arrived at Konoha's gates. Naruto and Minato were waiting for them at the gates to greet them.

"Hey Padfoot, nice to see you," Minato called, "You look like shit."

"Nice to see you too Flash," Sirius muttered sarcastically, causing Minato to laugh. "Who's your clone?"

"Clone?" Naruto squawked, pouting as Minato laughed harder.

"No Sirius, this isn't my clone, this is my Musuko." Minato smirked. "When you came to buy that house nineteen years ago, my beloved Fireflower was a few months pregnant. He is our beloved Maelstrom."

Sirius blinked. "…Oh… How is Fireflower anyway?"

Minato and Naruto shared sad looks before looking away. "She's gone too…" Minato murmured sadly, "Died the night Naruto here was born because Kyuubi was ripped from his seal."

"Sorry Flash."

"No… it's ok, it's been a long time, and she wouldn't want us to be sad. She'd kick my ass if she knew how I'm acting." Minato gave the last two Marauders a grim smile. "Thankfully all of our possessions survived Pain's attack three years ago (somehow), there's a Wizarding portrait of her in there somewhere. Naruto and I are in the middle of cataloguing everything and haven't found it yet. I'll need you to activate her when we do."

Sirius nodded. "Sure."

"So, Moony, how are you?" Minato asked.

"Not bad Flash, all things considered." Remus replied. "Why do you call Naruto Maelstrom?"

"Because that is how we spelled his name on his birth certificate." Minato grinned. "We got his name from this book that Sensei wrote, He spelled the name Fishcake. Fireflower and I loved the name, when we looked up the meaning we decided that we liked Maelstrom better than Fishcake." Minato handed Remus another copy of the book.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he was Naruto's Godfather, since we used a name he came up with, and we were well aware that he came up with the name when he was eating Ramen." Minato explained.

Naruto grinned, blushing. "Otou-sama…"

Minato ruffled his son's hair. "I am very proud of him, he has lived up to his name, and the source so well. He's grown up the way Fireflower and I wanted him to, despite the fact that neither of us were there to help him. He is truly a Shinobi to emulate."

Naruto blushed in embarrassment. "Tou-chan… Stop it…"

"No Naruto… you deserve every word of praise." Minato smirked. "Welcome home." Minato told the group of wizards. Naruto followed his father as they walked away, allowing Remus and Sirius to sign in. They were going back to their extremely messy house and weren't really looking forward to it.

When Naruto and Minato returned home, they started going through everything again. "Hey, Tou-sama… I think I found her!"

Minato came running, "Does it look like she's sleeping?"

"Yep," Naruto nodded. "She's so pretty…"

"I know, isn't she?" Minato asked as he gazed at her lovingly, "Her hair is one of my favorite parts of her… We need to wake her up."

"How?" Naruto asked.

"By getting Sirius of course," Minato smirked, causing Naruto to laugh at the joke. Minato smiled, he loved hearing his son's genuine laughter. Once his Fireflower was woken up, the pain of losing her wouldn't be so bad. There was a knock at the front door, and Minato got up to get it. "Yo, Padfoot was just about to go get you. We found her."

"Already? That's awesome," Sirius replied. "Take me to her then."

Minato let him in. "This way Padfoot." The Yondaime lead his prankster friend through the still messy house, to the room where Naruto was still admiring his mother. Minato had to pull Naruto away so that Sirius could do his work.

Sirius pulled out his wand and muttered under his breath. A second later Kushina's eyes shot open. "Why is the house so messy?"

"We only just got home Fireflower, Naruto and I have been cataloguing everything, we haven't had the chance to put anything away yet. And we really wanted to find you so…" Minato gave her the charming smile that he could. "Now that we have, we'll start."

"You did use the seal I gave you right?" she asked in concern, "It looks like no one's lived here in years…"

"I did… but it left me open." Minato told her, "While I was recovering the Light Lord…"

"What did he do?" Kushina asked, irritated. "If he took you away I'll kill him!"

Minato silently thanked the gods that she was a portrait and not a person. She'd hurt him for leaving their little Maelstrom alone. "That's because nobody has, my precious Fireflower. I was switched with a cadaver, how no one realized I'm not sure."

"You were kidnapped?" Kushina asked incredulously.

Minato blushed. "Yes, I tried to return when I woke but they did something to me."

"Dumbledore is lucky that I am dead!"

"Yes dear… on that note…" Minato and Naruto shared a look.

"Oh yes, where is Lily-chan?"

"Riry-chan is…" Minato looked away. "I'm sorry Kushina-chan, the Light Lord killed her."

"…When…?"

"Almost eleven years ago now, my Fireflower…" Minato looked away. "By that time I was already deep in a drugged sleep. Otherwise they might still be alive, since there is no way I would have let anything happen to them."

"…What happened to Naruto-chan Minato?" Kushina asked, eyeing the younger blond.

"Against all odds, he grew up the way we wanted him to." Minato grinned, causing Naruto to blush.

Kushina grinned. "He should have had your name, not mine."

"He didn't." Minato told her, "He grew up with yours."

"Mine? That's not what we wanted!" Kushina exclaimed. "He should have always been Namikaze Naruto!"

"If he had been, the Light Lord would have been tipped off." Minato sighed, remembering before, "Your name allowed Naruto to fly under the radar long enough for him to free me from my confinement."

"Oh…"

Minato looked out the window sadly; he remembered meeting the pranksters like it was yesterday…

Family Pain/Hidden Tears

Lily Evans (who was really Uzumaki Yuri) [1] speculatively eyed her boys from where she was, crouching on her tree branch. "Are you boys really sure that you can keep up with my tree hopping?" Her boys (her boyfriend and two of his best friends) gave her suspicious looks. "You will have to morph… I am really fast you know…"

"It doesn't matter Tigerlily, even if we can't keep up we'll still be able to find Konoha, it's just down this road a ways isn't it?" James asked stumbling over his words slightly because he was still learning the language.

"It is Jamie, my sister and her Saiai [2] are at the gates waiting, we shouldn't keep them waiting too long…" Lily reminded them.

"You still haven't told us what that means, are they together?" Sirius asked also stumbling on his words before he transformed into Padfoot.

"Saiai means beloved you Mutt." Lily giggled, "My sister is married by the way." She then took off into the trees near the road.

James groaned before transforming and letting Remus get onto his back. Then he and Sirius took off after her. Why was his Tigerlily like this? He and Padfoot sped off after her disappearing form, knowing that they wouldn't be able to keep up.

Lily grinned when she finally saw the huge open gates of Konohagakure no Sato. She was finally home after almost seven long years! She had done her best not to make friends… but then she had met the Prince and Potter cousins and she hadn't been able to stop herself. It was a good thing that they were looking for a house here. She was glad that she'd been able to convince them. She hopped down the tree and dashed the last leg on foot, wanting more than anything to see her older sister again.

"Nee-chan, Minato-nii!" Yuri called as she raced to the open gates. She could see them waiting for her. Lily tackled her older sister Kushina happily. "I missed you both!"

"We missed you just as much Yuri-chan." Kushina replied, her arms encircling her younger sister in a warm hug. "So, what are you doing here?" she asked curiously, Kushina had known that her sister had wanted to move back home but hadn't been expecting her for several more months.

"My boys and I are looking for a house." Yuri grinned, "Is the place next to yours still open?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes it is." Kushina replied, "And what's this about your boys?"

Lily blushed, "Well…" she searched desperately for a distraction, a change of subject and finally noticed that Minato's cloak seemed different from the other times she'd seen it in the pictures that her older sister sent her every year. "Have you become Hokage Minato-nii?"

Minato blushed, "Yes I have." He had to step back to balance himself when Lily slammed into him with a hug. "It was a tough decision between Orochimaru and me …I don't think Orochimaru-sama is too happy with the decision…" He laughed nervously.

"You will always be the better choice Minato-nii!" Lilly reassured him, "How's Deidara by the way?"

"Tokubetsu Jounin now," Minato informed her proudly, "We are still getting the by monthly packages from Onoki-dono for him too, the special clay for his bloodline. He's out on a mission with Kakashi right now, though, they should be back by sometime tomorrow."

"Good, I missed them both a lot." Lily replied, turning when they heard two animals approaching. "And here come my boys." She grinned, pulling away from her older brother-in-law as the dog, deer, and man arrived at the gates.

Minato eyed the three of them before nodding. They didn't seem too bad…

Family Pain/Hidden Tears

Kushina looked away sadly, "And their son?"

"Harry's fine," Minato reassured her, "After we get the house cleaned up we're going to set up a room for him. The rest of the banished clans have also arrived home and many of their members will be taking assessment tests to see where they belong in the ranks."

"That's good, I'm glad everyone made it home safely." Kushina responded, "What about your title as Hokage?"

"We still haven't figured that out yet…" Minato grinned sheepishly as he continued, "I still need to have a few things done at the hospital before we can even begin to discuss the Hokage issue but I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Why?" Naruto asked his father.

"Because we are home where we belong, safe and sound."

(End)

Footnotes:

[1] Yuri is the translation of lily into Japanese; I figured that if I was going to make Lily Japanese that she would merely translate her name to make it easier on everyone else, and since it's still her name she won't forget to answer to it. She had to take on the Evans name because Dumbledore was being bitchy (he wasn't happy when he found out she wasn't British) she wasn't adopted into the Evans family, she just asked if she could use their name. (Not that Dumbledore knew that when he first placed Harry with the Durselys…)

[2] Saiai means beloved, beloved wife is it flipped around aisai. She has been teaching them Japanese, but there are still a few words they don't understand, those will be Japanese words like here. There will be a few more, but not many.