Chapter Text
September had almost ran its course when Naruto was officially introduced to Konoha’s shinobi ranks, three weeks after the Raikage’s unwanted visit. Kumo had laid low since then, and rumor had it that the hidden village had halted any relations with foreign countries and barricaded itself. It had been centuries since a Bijuu had been spotted, and to have one lurking so close to their borders – the Nine Tailed Fox at that! – had been seen as a bad omen.
While Konoha had refused to lend its help to Kumo, the village still took the threat to heart and started new military drills should a Bijuu wander too close for comfort and attack.
The drills were grueling and something Naruto hadn’t been used to back in her own world. It felt too much like a war was brewing, and it made her ill-at-ease in her own skin. It was with great relief that she welcomed the week off her group had been given to rest and focus on their own individual training. She spent that week burrowed in her room, studying Fuuinjutsu under the curious gaze of Hajime who had started crawling and exploring the world around. It was her last day off and she was spread all over the living room’s couch, keeping an eye out on her son as she poured over a scroll borrowed from the Ninja Archives, when a pouch full of weapons was thrown at her, landing inches away from her face. A quick glance told her it was hers.
Puzzled, the woman looked up and saw Minato dressed in full training gear. He had been ran ragged lately, having to juggle between his Hokage tuition and instructing different groups in the drills, leaving his team of Chunin under the command of Kakashi, who’d been made a Jounin just before the military training began. Today was his first day off in two weeks, which he would usually dutifully spent with Hajime in comfy lounge clothes if they stayed at home, or in a ratty shirt and shorts if they were enjoying the last rays of summer in the backyard. Naruto didn’t have time to question him as he impatiently gestured to the weapon pouch.
“Get up,” the man said.
“Uh. Why?”
He clucked his tongue, annoyed. “I said I’d make you sweat for your rank, and I never go back on my words. Get up, I booked a training field. Kujin will stay with Hajime until we come back.”
True to his words, the redhead dropped inside their livingroom from the open window, waved in her general direction before making a beeline for their kitchen, loudly complaining about having to spend his day own day off babysitting. Hajime had perked up right away, scrambling after his honorary uncle with a happy babble.
Narrowing her eyes, Naruto slowly rolled the scroll back before getting to her feet. She strapped the pouch to her right leg and, staring straight into Minato’s eyes, unbound her hair. It made him frown, and the woman smirked. “Lead the way, Namikaze.”
The training field he had booked was a secluded one, hidden by large trees. There was no body of water nearby, making it a disadvantage for any Suiton user. Luckily, water had always been an element Naruto struggled with, so she wouldn’t be that handicapped on this terrain. Satisfied with whatever information she gathered from her surroundings, she turned her body to face Minato’s, ready for him to open the battle. But the man didn’t move, busy readjusting the braces on his forearms, not even glancing at her.
“You know, Naruto-san, I’ve been observing you.” Done with the braces, he checked his pouches and Naruto frowned, growing annoyed. “While your technique is… ruthless, there are still some things that need to be worked on. For instance—”
The air shifted on her right and Naruto turned on her heels, blocking a kick that rattled the bones of her left arm. “—your environmental awareness is really subpar,” the Minato still standing on the other side of the clearing said before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Quickly, Naruto turned on her heels to face back the original one, but he was gone. She jumped just as arms sprung from the ground, trying to grab her ankles. Naruto threw kunai at the hands, and a puff of smoke indicated it had been another clone. It was unpleasant to be on the receiving end of her favored jutsu. Peeved, the woman went through a few hands signs, and three perfect copies of her popped up.
“Ah, the famous wind clones… I’ve been wanting to see them for quite some time now,” Minato’s voice came from all around the field, reverberating several times before dying out. A genjutsu that distorted sound. Naruto gritted her teeth – genjutsu had always been her weakest point, Kurama her only saving grace. Without the Bijuu helping her, if Minato decided to rely heavily on the techniques, she’d be toast.
But fortunately for her, curiosity killed the cat. Her adversary dropped from one of the trees, clear interest alit in his eyes. He was too fond of challenges, and fighting against the wind clones was something he couldn’t pass on. Naruto and her clones didn’t hesitate a second, throwing punches and kicks at the man who met them with a ferocious grin. The clones could take quite a few hits before vanishing, and when one received one too many uppercuts and exploded, Minato was met with razor-sharp bursts of wind. He jumped back, wiped the blood from his right cheek where he had been sliced, and nodded to himself.
“Good technique, worthy of the Forbidden Scroll, I’ll give you that. But completely useless against another wind user more powerful than you are.”
Proving his point, he released a great gust of wind towards the clones, dissecting them, before readying to jump after the original. But Naruto grinned, spitting out a volley of fire bullets that turned the blasts of air into a fire tornado, forcing Minato to stay back.
“That’s another thing you need to work on,” the man shouted over the fire while it slowly died down as he vacuumed the air around it. “Situational awareness. Using such a destructive technique in such closed quarters if you cannot escape means a death sentence – both for your adversary and yourself.”
“Well, you never cited the terms of this spar,” Naruto shrugged, quite unbothered by the level of destruction her fire tornado produced. She licked at her burnt lips – fire was not an element she ever truly mastered – and winced at the sting before giving her attention back to Minato. “So I just decided to go all out. I was taught to always face my opponents with the intent to kill.”
“You’re right, I didn’t,” he conceded as the fire finally died down. “So here are the terms: no chakra, no weapons, taijutsu only.”
“What? Afraid I’ll fry you if we continue with the ninjutsu?”
Minato cracked his neck and went into position, eyes serious. “No. I want to teach you a lesson when it comes to our bodies.”
Copying him, Naruto lowered herself into her favored battle pose, bringing her fists up and widening her stance. “I’m a brawler. You won’t be teaching me anything I don’t already know, princess. Bring it on.”
For a second, everything stood still. Then they clashed, meeting punch for punch. Naruto knew that biologically, Minato had the upper hand – she was far from scrawny, but her muscle mass wasn’t as developed as the man she was fighting. He might have been leaner than Kujin who was built like a bull, but that was only because Minato knew that his speed was more efficient than sheer strength when it came to attacks. The Fourth Hokage had always been Naruto’s role model growing up – she had learnt everything she could about her idol, and she knew that his speed, with or without chakra, was lethal. He was like a snake: one strike and it would be the end. So the fastest way Naruto could win against him without using chakra was to never stray too far from his orbit so that she could overwhelm him and hinder his moves. She had great stamina, she could do it.
As Minato tried to push away from her, Naruto grabbed him by the elbow and drove her knee in his stomach. He grunted, and she expected him to keel over from the sudden lack of breath, but instead, he took hold of her knee and twisted her leg, forcing her to go with the move and land on the ground or risk breaking a bone. She rolled away from him, barely avoiding the kick he had aimed at her unprotected back. Instead of retreating, like she had assumed he would, Minato kept pressing his attacks, and soon, it was Naruto who was overwhelmed and forced on the defense. She had miscalculated something: the Fourth Hokage – her dad – had been a humane man who taught knowledge with care. This Minato was a ruthless killer who wanted to beat a lesson into her, and wouldn’t mind breaking a few bones to prove a point.
Then she saw it – an overture on his left side! Naruto went for the jab, targeting with all her might his ribs in the hope to crack one or two, but Minato slid to the side. Propelled by her momentum, Naruto tried to skid to a halt but it was too late – Minato was at her back. Before she could react, he put her in a chokehold and hooked his elbow under her right knee, forcing her to stand on her left leg. It was the one she had bruised earlier when he twisted it, and her balance was wobbly. Not willing to give her a chance to fight back, he stood at full height, forcing her to follow on her tiptoes if she didn’t want to get strangled by the arm firmly pressed against her throat. It was the end of the fight, Naruto realized. But Minato didn’t release her.
“I give,” she spat as her leg cramped up and the arm tightened around her throat. Nothing happened. “I give!” she growled, only to sputter as her airways got shut off. Digging her nails into his arm did nothing, and her left leg finally gave out under her weight – the little oxygen she had managed to get was now completely cut off.
When Naruto thought she was going to pass out, Minato finally released her and she tumbled to the floor, gasping for air. “You si—sick bastard,” she spat between coughs. “I said I was yielding!”
“And? Do you think enemy shinobi would’ve just let up?”
“It was a fucking friendly spar, asshole! What the hell is wrong with you?!”
She yelped as Minato grabbed her harshly by the hair. Pulling a kunai out, she was about to slash at him but he gripped her wrist tightly until she had no choice but to let go of the weapon. “This,” he said as with a mere burst of chakra he summoned another clone that subdued her thrashing body, “is what a chakra-less kunoichi is reduced to on the field. You fight like you have the leisure to fool around, relying mostly on your large pool of chakra, but what happens when you have nothing but your body to rely on?”
He tugged on her hair and she winced, feeling trends of it being pulled out. “You taunt them, you enjoy getting the higher ground, so what do you think your foes would like to do with you after they got the better of you? Hm?”
Nothing more needed to be said, the image was quite clear. Rape was something Naruto had never been confronted to, and she was fairly certain none of her friends had to face that cruel reality either. But she remembered what Kakashi had said to Rin when she first met the Chunin team, and chills ran down her back. Her friends… had all been kids from prestigious clans. And the fame of her own parents somewhat protected her from unsavory things as an orphan, she was sure. Naruto had grown up as a Jinchuriki, trained to be a brawler and the first line of attack. She was never meant to be sent on missions that could damage her – the most powerful weapon of the village. But here, despite her massive pools of chakra, Naruto was just a regular kunoichi, nothing special about her. She was no-one, disposable, fodder cannon.
Finally, Minato let her go, but Naruto didn’t move, still shocked. “This is fucked up,” she warbled. “This world is truly messed up.”
The man sighed, like the world was weighing on his shoulders. “Why do you think I still haven’t disbanded my team, huh? They joined the Chunin ranks a while ago, they don’t need a Jounin instructor anymore. But without me, without my name behind them, Rin and Kakashi would’ve been drafted into the seduction and assassination corps without a thought.” His eyebrows were pinched, just like his lips. Like this, he looked just like the face carved in stone back in her time. “I’m not the monster you made me out to be, you know. I do care about my team, and I do care about you, even if you’re making it really difficult with that suicidal strike you have.”
Not this again! She was not suicidal. “I’m not suicidal,” she hissed. “I’m just… too invested.” He shot her an unimpressed look, and she bristled. “Well, you—you! You’re so nosy! Stop looking into my business!”
"I'm trying to protect my family!" Minato barked, lips pulled back against his teeth, eyebrows scrunched so hard a mark would surely linger afterwards. "I'm trying and trying but goddammit you make it hard! Always risking yourself like nothing matters...” There was a bitter edge to his tone as anger died down, leaving only exhaustion behind. “What kind of man would I be if I let my wife; my son's mother throw her life away? What kind of father would that make me? And here you are, wanting me to just sit back and let you run head first into danger as if I couldn't see how broken you already are, as if I can't hear you when you cry at night in Hajime's room, as if I can't tell that every day you look more dead than alive," he spat out.
Silence followed his angry tirade. Taking a deep breath, as if to cleanse himself from all the negativity he felt, Minato tilted his head back and sat back on his haunches, rubbing his hands up and down his face. Finally he stood up and Naruto did the same on shaky legs.
"You really care," Naruto whispered, lips wobbling as she realized that this Minato would tear his own village apart for his family. This Minato would burn the world down for them.
Furrowing his brows, Minato sighed, tired. “Of course I care, you insufferable woman.”
A tear fell down her cheek and she didn't react when his hand brushed it away without hesitation, nor did she move away when Minato gently shushed her and wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him, feeling adrift as more tears rolled down her cheeks.
This Minato – a stranger, unmerciful and so dour – cared more than hers ever had.
And it hurt.
Since their little spar, oddly enough, things had grown warmer between the two blondes. It felt a bit like when they had been stuck in the forest’s cottage and Minato constantly tried to rile her up to chase the boredom away. But now, Naruto would simply ignore him instead of getting angry, or sometimes she’d even tease him back when Kujin was there to back her up. There was nothing funnier than seeing Minato get flustered. So Naruto now felt comfortable enough to ask him things, and usually, Minato would graciously agree to help, taking his role as husband and father very seriously. Hence why Naruto didn’t hesitate one second with her new request, but was surprised by the response she got.
"Teach me seals," she had demanded, confident he’d agree.
"No," had been Minato's very swift answer.
They went back and forth for two whole weeks before Minato, annoyed, finally decided to try and cooperate. Putting his pen down on his stack of reports, he stapled his fingers and looked at his wife with piercing eyes.
"So?" She asked, impatient. "You gonna teach me sealing?"
Humming under his breath, the man tilted his head to the side, deep in thought. Instead of answering, he said: "Let me teach you something about knowledge."
Naruto bristled like an angry cat and let herself fall onto her back, legs still crossed under the chabudai they shared. "Ugh, not interested."
Pretending not to hear, Minato went on. "Knowledge can either be used as currency, or exchanged for a nifty little sum."
"Don't care," the woman moaned, throwing an arm over her eyes. This earned her a shove in the shin from Minato’s knee, which she blindly slapped at.
"Since I'm not hurting for money,” Minato continued, unbothered, his left knee still knocking into her legs, “I will part with my knowledge of seals only if you give me knowledge in turn."
A dark blue eye peaked at him and Naruto sat back, curious. Minato smiled charmingly, but his eyes told her that if she agreed, she'd be losing more than she'd be gaining. "A fair deal, don't you think?"
Well. Naruto needed his knowledge on the hiraishin if she ever wanted to try and go back home when the time was right – even though it seemed more and more unlikely that she’d ever go back to her own Konoha. Steeling her resolve, Naruto brought a hand up for Minato to shake and seal the deal. But the man only smirked and leant over the table, pushing her hand down.
"Sealing art comes from Uzushio, and there are certain customs we must oversee if you want me to impart my mastery on you."
Seeing that she didn't understand what he was saying, Minato brought a finger just under her bottom lip, startling her. It was a light touch, barely there, but it tickled and Naruto shivered.
"We'll seal the deal with a kiss, in true Uzushio fashion."
With a yell that sounded like a whale’s, Naruto jumped to her feet, overthrowing the chabudai as she stormed out of the living room, loudly cursing a storm at the pervert that Minato turned out to be. Unconcerned, the man smiled to himself and went about picking up his strewn reports. He knew his wife well enough now to know she never backed down from a challenge – just like him – and that curiosity will soon be too much for her to handle. That deal would be sealed, of that he was sure.
It was not often that one could find Uzumaki Kujin and Namikaze Naruto willingly hanging out without Minato present. The two loudmouths always ended up bickering about something when alone, and one time out of five, it ended in a fist fight. The rest of the time, it ended in the both of them stuffing their faces while complaining about Minato.
Just like now.
“—an you believe that?! What an ass, tch!”
“Well, to be fair,” here, Kujin paused to burp between two mouthful of curry, ignoring Naruto’s disgusted face, “it is an Uzushio tradition. At first it was a means to put a seal on the pupil’s lips so that no secrets would be spilled. But now…” Kujin put down his bowl and slammed a hand on the table, growing suddenly passionate. “It’s a show of devotion and trust! A bond between master and disciple! It would be blasphemous not to follow our customs, ya know ? Hell, even Minato had to kiss me to learn the sublime art of sealing!”
Naruto snorted water out of her nostrils, laughing like a hyena. “He what now?”
Kujin shrugged, shoving a new spoonful of curry into his mouth. “Well it was either me or Jiraiya, so he didn’t really have much of a choice.”
Laughter dying abruptly, the blond woman grew pale, then green. “Gross,” she breathed out as she couldn’t get the image of a teenage Minato having to kiss Ero-sennin out of her mind.
“I know, right?! The asshole should be thanking me every single day for saving him from the trauma!”
And thus it was back to square one. Kujin had offered to be her teacher, just to mess with Minato, but she had turned him down – no need to anger the man she lived with when they had just started to get along. On the one hand, Naruto really wanted to learn seals. Even if it wouldn’t help her finish her botched-up Hiraishin, she’d at least finally get education on what should have been her birthright. On the other hand, kissing Minato would be awkward as the man was the spitting image of her father, even though she now knew they were two dramatically different people.
In the end, curiosity won out.
Steeling her nerves, Naruto had waited until her next day off aligned with that of Minato’s to make her move. They had just put Hajime down for a nap before tending to some house chores. Rain was pattering softly against their windows and Minato was muttering something about a seal that could remove mud. He was so focused on his musing that he didn’t realize he had finished folding his pile of clothes and was now starting to fold Naruto’s own pile.
She let him, taking this time to observe him.
Objectively, Minato was good looking – pretty more than handsome. There was something delicate about his face, perhaps it was the long eyelashes or his pink lips. Or perhaps it was the sky-blue eyes and the tan skin with barely a hint of stubble on his jaw.
“You’re staring pretty hard,” he commented lightly, and Naruto turned away quickly, cheeks flaming.
Or perhaps it was the smooth baritone that made so many women sigh over him.
Clearing her throat, she turned back to him, avoiding his eyes.
“So… our deal. It’s just one kiss, right?" Naruto asked warily.
Silence answered her, and she flushed red once again, losing her nerves. This had been a bad idea. A momentary loss of sanity. Springing to her feet, she laughed awkwardly. “Never mind, forget that! Books! Books are great! I’ll learn from them—”
A hand had gripped her elbow and she was forcefully turned back towards Minato who refused to let her go. The pile of clothes he’d just finished folding had been upturned, she noted. What a waste of work.
"Yes. Just one." He leant down, trying to catch her eyes, but Naruto only leant back. The tips of her ears were red. Not unaffected, then. Minato smirked and, quick as a snake, wove a hand in her unbound hair to tilt her head towards his. They were close enough that he could see the quickened beats of her heart in the hollow of her throat, her warm breath brushing his lips. "I don't bite," he promised before staying still, waiting for her to make the first step, as was tradition. A show that the pupil was willing to receive whatever their master deemed them worthy of knowing. A show of subjugation and respect.
It had killed his pride when he had to take that same step with Kujin, back when they were fourteen and he had only just begun to see the Uzumaki as his friend rather than an annoying acquaintance he once saved from his evil brother.
And he knew it killed Naruto's pride to kiss him – the man who always seemed to want to smother her.
It took a long moment, and Minato was almost ready to just call it quit when he felt Naruto's head tilt a little more towards his as quivering lips finally pressed against his. It was gone as quickly as it had come – nothing more than a peck, really.
"There. A kiss." Naruto said with red cheeks and furrowed brows, arms crossed tightly against her chest.
She started to step back, but Minato swiftly brought her back in his space, a hand still untangled in her blonde tresses.
"Not so quick," he chastised. "It's my turn, now."
Tradition dictated that once the pupil offered devotion, the master had to either accept or reject the kiss. Truthfully, Minato at first had been meaning to reject it – he didn't want to teach sealing art to Naruto, knowing it would only encourage her on getting more reckless. But he had also been counting on at least receiving a real kiss. It was supposed to be a win-win situation for him.
What Minato wanted, Minato took. He was ready to lose this particular battle – he'd at least get something out of it.
"Wha—" He didn't let Naruto's confused question come to an end and cupped her face before boldly kissing her like he wished she had kissed him.
It was a sweet, slow thing, both of his hands cupping her flaming red cheeks like they would delicate roses, and when he let her go, thumbs gently brushing her cheekbones, he couldn’t resist kissing the corner of her mouth before stepping back.
“There. A kiss,” he said with a cheeky smile.
He watched in fascination as Naruto grew redder than a tomato, gurgling something he couldn’t understand but sounded like the whistle of tea-kettle, her arms flailing around her with no purpose before she turned on her heels and marched out of their home, uncaring about the rain, screaming something about getting Hajime back from Kujin’s – never mind that Hajime was asleep in his room, and she had been the one to tuck him in.
It wasn’t quite what he had hoped for – mainly Naruto falling into his arms and asking to be ravished – but it was better than what he had expected – a punch in the throat. “I guess this is a success,” he whispered with a keen sense of victory, hiding his face between his hands as he felt his own cheeks grow warm.
He was totally screwed. He knew it like he knew chakra theory.
Minato was screwed, because he loved that woman, all imperfect and broken and hissy. He loved Naruto, and there was no going back.