6 Chapter 6

They held onto each other for what felt like hours but was actually only a few minutes.

They would have embraced for longer…

…had Naruto's stomach not interrupted.

*Grooooowl*

Naruto blushed. "S–sorry."

To his embarrassment, Kushina giggled. They let go of each other and Kushina's smile could have melted him on the spot. She seemed so…joyful, so full of life. It was like something had been lifted off her shoulders, so far removed to how she looked before.

"Let me make dinner for you, son," Kushina seemed to still be surprised at the title she gave him. Surprised that this was even real to her.

"Let's make dinner together, mom," Naruto corrected.

Her voice hitched in her reply. She looked like she was going to burst out crying again but managed to hold herself together. "A–Alright."

They set out to organise the groceries that Kushina had bought earlier. It was mainly just fruits and vegetables.

"What would you like to eat?" Kushina asked, coming beside him.

"Honestly anything is fine," Naruto said, "I ate yakiniku for breakfast this morning…met some of my old friends in the meantime."

Naruto looked melancholy thinking back to this morning's talk.

"What a day it's been," He said but then he felt Kushina placing her hand in his and giving it a squeeze.

"You know that no matter what, I'll be here for you, right?" Kushina said sternly.

Naruto was surprised that she would give him her trust so easily, that he believed in him so much already, despite literally meeting each other today. "Th–thanks, mom."

They gave each other a timid smile, both unsure about how to interact with one another.

"Say…" Naruto asked, "Do you have any ramen, mom?"

For some reason, that was the thing that made her tear up once more.

"E–eh? What happened? What did I say?" Naruto panicked.

"Y–you take so much after me," She said, sniffing, "even though I haven't been in your life until now, you–you're so much like me! From your tic, to loving ramen. Oh, Kami, I'm getting emotional again,"

Naruto gasped. "Y–you love ramen, too?"

"Yes!" She agreed enthusiastically.

"Y-you truly are my mom," Naruto muttered.

They both looked at each other.

Then they burst out laughing.

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Naruto had headed back to the inn he was staying in to check out and grab his things after dinner. His mother–he was still getting used to calling her that–insisted that he move in with her immediately.

Naruto hadn't mentioned it before, but the state of his mother's house was sort of…to politely put it…a mess. It was a mess.

Kushina had been embarrassed when he'd subtly pointed it out, stating that she never really had visitors for a long time. Naruto hadn't minded it at all, but left a few clones to help her tidy up before he got back.

He really needed the walk–the fresh air to gather his thoughts on what just happened. He was incredibly lucky that his mother was exactly who he thought she was. This world's version of her wasn't evil or hateful or cold or anything negative. She was…she was as kind and loving as he thought she was from his encounter with her in his mindscape. In fact, she was almost too eager to jump in the boat he was sailing in, uncaring of whether it would sink and drown them both, or even where he was going. It was like the moment she saw that she could have her son back in her life as a possibility, no matter how slim it was, she took it by its reins and went to the deep end with it.

He…appreciated her for it. More than she realised. To have someone he could potentially rely on in this tumultuous time.

He'd put his henge back on, covering his clothes and all, though his mother had also promised to go shopping with him tomorrow to sort out his wardrobe situation. Honestly, he was sort of excited to spend time with her. He was excited to learn what she liked, what she disliked, what she absolutely adored and hated, he was excited to learn everything!

He hadn't been this happy for a long time. Even if he'd lost all his friends, or rather they all lost him, he was glad for the opportunity to start over. He could remake his friends, reforge the bonds he had with them….but one thing he couldn't do was bring his mother back to life. Not with what it would cost him. So this chance to even have a mother who was alive and well…he was grateful beyond belief.

Naruto looked up at the starry sky. The sun had already set.

He'd never felt so…alive.

So…free.

When he made it to the inn, a smile was permanently etched on his face. He checked out with the clerk, grabbed his things, and made his way home.

…Home…

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Naruto awoke just an hour after he fell asleep to the sound of the floorboard creaking. It was his mother. She was in a silk nightdress and was holding a lamp light.

Naruto rubbed his eyes. "Mom? What is it?"

"Sorry, son. I–I just wanted to check that you–that you were okay," Kushina had caught herself from saying that she wanted to check that he was actually real once more. She would sound like a broken record.

"I'm doing alright, mom," Naruto yawned, "I'm so tired I could sleep on the floor and snooze away."

"Oh, right," Kushina said, "I shouldn't be bothering you then, of course, I–I'll go now."

Before she could leave, however, Naruto called out.

"Mom?"

"Y–yes?"

"I know my story was hard to believe but…I'm so glad that I have you in my life now."

Kushina nodded. Even as new and accepting as she'd been to him. She really couldn't believe it. Her son! Or…well not her son but a son of a version of her. But still!

To Kushina, that was more than enough.

Her throat had suddenly become dry over the welling up of emotions, tossing her qualms to the wind. "W–would you mind if I stay here? T-to make sure you don't disappear?"

Naruto smiled. "Of course."

Kushina came over to lay beside him, placing the lamp light on the bedside table. Not able to hold back, embraced him once more, shaking from her sobs. Before they knew it, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

And so, the second day of Naruto's new world experience was coming to an end.

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Day 3:

Naruto woke up in the morning and all he saw was red. Not in the figurative way to indicate he was angry but he literally just saw red.

It was his mother's hair, he realised. It was…so vibrant, like fine strings of ruby, glistening in the subtle light of the rising sun leaking from the window.

He tried to gently disentangle himself from her hair and after a few minutes of slowly picking the strands out of his face with his hand, he could finally see again.

…And found that his mother was nestled up to him like an overgrown squirrel. For someone in her thirties–from his guess–she looked rather young as if she was in her early twenties. Perhaps it was the Uzumaki life force keeping her youthful; He knew very little about his bloodline and he was hoping to learn more from her.

She looked considerably better than the tired, tanuki-eyed version he saw the day before. Almost as if she'd healed overnight from a long suffering ailment.

She was so pretty. Perhaps it was because he'd never had her in his life before, or the fact that he had no one to look to as a motherly figure, so when he gazed at her, he didn't see his mother, he saw a woman. An extraordinarily beautiful woman.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts, blushing furiously. He cursed his teenage hormones and banished whatever just happened to the deepest, darkest corners of his mind, never to resurface again.

He slowly but surely extracted himself, untangling her clutching limps from his torso and replacing it with a pillow. She was in deep sleep, he discerned, for she didn't even give so much as a twitch when he moved her.

When he was finally free, he covered her with a blanket, making it act as a barrier between him and his undesirable thoughts.

He found himself in the bathroom a moment later, and thankfully relieved himself…in more ways than one, guilt hanging over his thoughts.

Once the deed was over, he cleansed his thoughts for the final time, evicting the corruption that was placed by his late god-father.

He set out to make breakfast.

He took his time in exploring the kitchen. It wasn't like he had anything planned today other than going clothes shopping.

He checked the cupboard one by one to familiarise where things were. He had offered to pay rent during his stay here but his mother only scowled at the attempt. She'd said that this house was far too big for one person and if he wasn't going to move in, then she'd hunt him down and chain him up in the basement.

Naruto chuckled at the memory. His mother was fiery and fierce, as was so often described by those who knew her in his past life.

He drew open the utensils drawer, closed it, then the spice drawer next. It seemed that her gantry wasn't very well stocked, suggesting that she didn't really put in the effort in her cooking.

…because why would she? Who was she cooking for?

No one but herself.

Naruto felt a pang of sympathy for her. To be alone all this time…after having lost her family. He was a kindred soul in that sense, for he spent most of his life alone too.

He suspected that this gantry was soon to be filled with more and more things now that he was here. They'd experiment in cooking together.

He smiled at the thought.

Then he spotted a carton of eggs in one of the cupboards and a simple test by submerging some in water to see if they'd float–a trick he'd learnt from Sakura–told him that they were fresh.

He grabbed a frying pan, turned on the flames and started cooking.

It was therapeutic for him to cook. Contrary to popular belief, he didn't have three meals of ramen a day. He just had one meal of ramen…everyday.

Alright, he was still a ramen addict but he could cook simple things too. Like fried eggs. He could make fried eggs.

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With Kushina:

Kushina awoke to bliss. She hadn't slept this well in a long time. A full night's rest without any nightmares to plague her thoughts and dreams. Her bleary eyes came in and out of focus before realising that she was not in her usual bedroom.

Then it all came rushing back to her. Her son. Her son! He'd come home!

She snapped her head to both sides, taking deep breaths to calm herself. A scent that was definitely not her own invaded her nostrils. It was masculine, yet still sweet, almost like apples and honey. It intoxicated her.

"N–Naruto?" She mumbled. For a moment her heart dropped, thinking that what she'd experienced the day before was but a lucid dream, but she reminded herself that it couldn't be. It was far too real. It felt far too real. Not even an Uchiha could conjure something to that extent.

And sure enough, the smell of something cooking alerted her to a living presence. She flared out her senses and, like looking into a blinding beam of light, she found him. Restrained like he was yesterday when trying to spy on her, his chakra capacity had already been quite large despite being held down. Now, it was like comparing a bowl of water to the ocean. It was the first thing she'd noticed about him and the first thing to convince her that he was who he said he was. None other than a fully fledged Uzumaki could ever hope to have even half the chakra capacity contained within him. How much he'd been through to become this…powerful, she could not understand. She could not truly comprehend the significance of every event he'd described–some of which were so incredible that it could be written in a book of epic tales.

…But that wasn't the most important thing she cared about–she'd have time to understand his worries and experience in time. She'd say it as many times as it takes. She just cares that he's here with her.

She bolted out of the spare bedroom and to her immense relief, there he was, still in his ragged undershirt and orange pants.

"Naruto," The words came out of her lips reflexively. Just to confirm that his existence is real. That he is real.

He turned to her, surprised, before blushing for some odd reason. "Ah, mom! G–Good Morning! Sorry, did I accidentally wake you?"

She rushed over to hug him for the-she-didn't-care how many times in 24 hours. She will continue to give him hugs until she laid her doubts to rest on whether his existence was an illusion.

For some reason her son was so surprised by this gesture that he hiccuped and blushed terribly.

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"So what are your plans, son?" Kushina asked as she enjoyed the simple but hearty meal of egg and rice before her, with a bit of soy sauce for seasoning. It was made by her son! That made it more delicious than anything she'd ever tasted.

"Well, I'd want to buy new clothes for one," Naruto responded, his eyes bouncing anywhere but in her direction. He must be truly fascinated in the house she lived in, though ashamedly it was still a bit dusty from neglect.

She let out a giggle. "I meant for the foreseeable future, not today's plan."

Naruto blushed. "O–Oh, well I'm not really sure."

He leaned on the back rest of his chair, having already finished his meal. "I suppose I will take it one day at a time. There's no telling how much different this world will be from my own. Maybe the events of my past will never happen here."

Kushina nodded. "Like I said yesterday, remember that I'll be by your side, son, even if the world turns against you. You can count on it!"

Naruto smiled and his heart warmed. "Thanks, mom."

Kushina returned the smile. "Are you planning on enlisting as a ninja again?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. I don't want to go to the academy and take the ninja ranking process all over again. Heck, I'm still technically a genin from my world, with the war going on and all, I was apparently too unavailable to get promoted."

Kushina contemplated her son's worries. "I can put in a good word for you if you want? Maybe if you show your capabilities, Hiruzen can place you in a rank appropriate to you."

"H–Hiruzen?!" Naruto jumped at the name. He realised that just like Jiraiya, the old man was still alive. Orochimaru hadn't killed him.

"Hm?" Kushina made a sound, then his story from yesterday came back to her. "R–right, you said that in your world, he was killed by Orochimaru, didn't you?"

Naruto nodded, feeling bitter at the memory. "I was thirteen when he died. In a sense, he was the grandfather figure I had during my childhood. I loved him like one, despite his shortcomings."

Kushina reached out to place her hand above his, though she was still secretly furious at how…little Hiruzen had done for her son. Sure she understood that Naruto, being a Jinchuriki, couldn't align himself with a clan for political reasons, but he still should have been taken care of more than he was. She could understand that Hiruzen was limited in aiding her boy due to his duties as Hokage to a weakened Konoha after the tragic night and she could appreciate that, at the very least, he still did something in giving him a house and occasionally checking up on him.

Hiruzen was often too soft on people, kind-hearted as he was. He'd let himself be taken advantage of far too much, especially by that Danzo friend of his as well as his wayward student Orochimaru. Kushina could see him being pulled in far too many directions to make time for a boy who was struggling behind his sunny personality.

Kushina shook her head. "Well he's alive now and he's just as kind of a man as the one you'd described to me from your world."

'Though kind doesn't always make him right.'

"R–really?" Naruto asked, oblivious to her thoughts.

"Really," Kushina confirmed. "If you want to tell him about your story, you can, and I have enough political power to make him shut up about it afterwards, though I suspect that the old codger wouldn't say a word to anyone about it anyway. He's too kind for a ninja, much less a Hokage, but he's probably the only one smart enough to believe in parallel worlds and what not–other than me of course."

Naruto looked down at his hands. "I–I would love to meet him again."

Kushina stared at her son. "Do you…want to be a ninja, son? After all you've been through? Are you willing to take up the responsibility placed on you?"

Naruto thought long and hard about it, being silent for a few minutes while his mother finished her food.

"I…I have to, mother. I won't be a bystander when the world collapses upon itself. It would be a disservice to the sage who put me here." Naruto bit his lip.

Kushina shook her head. "I don't care about the sage, or anyone else. I care about you, son. If you don't want to shoulder the burden, then you shouldn't have too, prophecy or not."

Naruto disagreed. "I do have to, but…I also want to. I would be able to save so many people, to help so many people. But…this time, perhaps I can go about this a different way. A way that I don't have to shoulder everything myself."

A gleam in his eyes showed his determination. "I'll be a ninja, and I'll meet the Hokage about it, but I won't be a tool for the village. Ninshu was made for peace and understanding, not for death and destruction–although I've learned that sometimes it is necessary to kill for justice. Regardless, it should never be the first option. I want to spread that message."

"Then I'll ask Hiruzen to come over for dinner today," she said, as if inviting the most important man in the village for dinner was a mundane chore like watering the flowers.

"Just like that?" Naruto blinked, a bit flabbergasted.

She smirked at him. "Being the only fuinjutsu master in the village has its perks. Besides, I haven't asked anything of him in a long time. He'll accept. Even if he had an important meeting scheduled this evening."

"I–I see…"

Kushina nodded, before smiling. "Now, let's clean everything up, get dressed, and go shopping!"

For some reason, a shiver ran down Naruto's spine.

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"Hm…no, try this one instead," Kushina said, handing yet another shirt over to him.

"But it's not–"

"–It's not orange, I know, but it'll look good on you."

With how minimally Naruto was henged, he didn't really have to change back into what he normally looked like for Kushina to have that womanly sense on how well the clothes fit him, especially after she had his very image etched into her mind. As if she'd ever forget what her son looked like…despite only meeting him yesterday.

In this case, the dark blue shirt sold his lean, muscular figure nicely.

Her son was handsome, without a doubt. He was like Minato, in a sense, but his features were less sharp and more rounded, making him seem less intense and more cheerful. In her humble, totally not biassed opinion, her son looked even more handsome than her late husband–no small part thanks to her own features mixed in. Though, she suspected that the social discrimination towards him had eradicated any chance he had with girls growing up, and thereby making him unaware of just how many looks and glances he'd attracted even during their walk here.

She'd need to be careful lest some harlot snatches him up.

As if she'd let anyone play with her son's heart!

Naruto, on the other hand, was rather gloomy as all of his orange suggestions were firmly put aside for his mother's tastes. He really wanted that one trousers with the orange flames but it was a lost cause in convincing his mom.

He tried the shirt on in the changing room and went back outside…

…only to catch the eye of another person who just entered the shop.

It was none other than Yamanaka Ino.

"Oh, hey!" she called out, "what a coincidence!"

Both Naruto and Kushina turned towards her.

"It's Yuki–kun, right?" She said, coming over to them.

Kushina raised a delicate eyebrow at Naruto.

He'd spent so much time telling her of his backstory, that he forgot to tell her about his cover name, so he awkwardly replied: "Yeah, it's Yuki Naru, nice to see you again. Ha ha ha haaaaa…."

"..."

Kushina hid a snicker at just how bad her son was at going undercover. Yuki Naru? Seriously? That's already the majority of his first name in his fake one…and what was that obvious hint he gave her? Did he forget that she was a former Jonin and could easily read between the lines?

She found it achingly adorable at how straightforward he was. Luckily for him, it seemed that the Yamanaka kid was too…enthralled with him to notice his terrible acting.

'Speaking of potential Harlots…' Kushina thought.

"Oh! Are you buying clothes? I could help you with that!" Ino said, almost leaping at the chance to spend more time with her son.

Some part of Kushina felt annoyed that this…vixen would even try to take her beloved son from her when she was standing right there.

And so, before Naruto could even reply, she shot down the offer. "Thank you for the offer, Miss Yamanaka, but I have it handled."

As if just noticing her presence, Ino almost lept from her spot. "Oh Kami, Lady Uzumaki! Forgive my rudeness in not greeting you!"

Kushina smiled, knowing how a teenage girl could get tunnel-visioned in the vicinity of a hot boy…but that boy was her son!

Was this that motherly protectiveness that she'd heard so much about? Some part of her felt proud that she was feeling this way. The same part felt proud of her feeling proud! What a paradox. She could create an infinite loop of pride doing this.

"It's quite alright Miss Yamanaka. As it turns out, Naru-kun here–"

Naruto's eyebrows twitched at the nickname.

"–is a long lost relative of Minato's. I saw fit to help his situation out, seeing how he just moved here," Kushina said.

Naruto noticed that she wasn't technically lying…just omitting the details.

"A–ah, I see…" Ino sounded dejected.

But Naruto, bless his kind heart, jumped in after seeing her disappointed expression. "Don't worry In–I mean, Yamanaka-san, I'll come by your store later today to buy some flowers for lady Uzumaki. It's the least I can do for her after she kindly welcomed me into her home."

"Ah!" Ino said, immediately doing an emotional 180, "I'll be looking forward to it! And you live in the Uzumaki residence now? That's wonderful news."

Kushina rolled her eyes at how easily her son gave in to the puppy eyes of this young flower girl. Now she knew where she lived and got an appointment with him later on during the day. She'd need to teach him to be more resistant to womanly manipulations lest he'd be dragged by the nose by every girl who'd even so much as give him a pout.

"Anyways, I guess I'll go back to shopping for my own clothes then," Ino said, going over to the women's section.

Kushina resisted the urge to roll her eyes once more. Ino was without a doubt, spying on her son from the so called 'woman's section.'

Her son, bless him, was oblivious to all that just happened.

"Naru–kun?" Kushina said.

Something in the tone of his mother's voice made his hair stand on end.

"Y–yes?"

"I have much to teach you."

"R–right."

Naruto did want to learn a lot from her, especially things regarding his clan…but something told him that that wasn't what she meant.

"Now try these on for size," Kushina said as she handed him yet another shirt.

Naruto sighed but did as he was told.

Meanwhile, Ino was between the clothes lines, with her eyes caring more about the free fashion show she was getting than what she intended to buy–especially with such a hot model!

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