Chapter Text
The day had begun for the resplendent Konoha, but it was not like most other day. Today was a special day. Today was the day when the children of the heads of many important ninja clans would be graduating from the ninja school. Among them was the son of Namikaze Minato and his wife Kushina, as well as the second son of clan leader, Uchiha Fugaku and his wife Mikoto. What will this ninja generation bring? No one knew. The only thing that was for sure, was that they would do great things. They were promising.
Mikoto Uchiha finished preparing lunch for her children who quietly ate it. It was a special day so she decided to pamper them with delicious dishes that would make their mouths water. It was a pity that Fugaku was not there, working as a police chief and clan leader consumed most of his time.
As she finished making a hot cake she turned to see her beloved children facing each other. Her oldest, at seventeen years of age, was Itachi, was powerful and slender. He sat calmly at the table as he held a deadly aura about him. Across from him and trying to imitate his older brother, sat her youngest. Just a few days ago, Sasuke said that he was a big boy just like his brother.
Mikoto rested her hand on her chin like her elbow on the table and let out a sigh. How her children had grown. They wanted to be the best ninjas, and boy she knew they would make it. A mother like her knew it. Once the two had become great ninjas, then the brides would come. They would become independent, leaving her with her beloved husband. Then they would marry and finally, millions of sweet grandchildren will arrive.
"Itachi, Are you going on a mission today?" she asked her older son who had finished eating.
Sasuke sipped the juice that Mikoto had made, tried and failed to hide, dislike and disappointment to know that his brother would possibly leave and miss such an important day for him.
"Today I will go to a mission but it will only be in an hour," he said to his mother before looking at his brother to give him a slight smile. "I'm sorry little brother, I know it's your special day, that's why I'll take you to your school as compensation."
Sasuke looked away trying to hide his blush from his brother who inside laughed to see him like that. He was always and will be his foolish little brother.
"You will be late if you do not leave now, here is your lunch," Mikoto said, handing their lunches to the two young men in her house. "Have a beautiful day"
Both of them kissed their mother before leaving the house calmly in the usual Uchiha fashion.
Naruto Uzumaki was in heaven as he sat in front of the millions and millions of bowls full of ramen, all of them different flavors, freshly made, and ready to eat. With chopsticks in his hand and the dribble of drool dripping from his mouth, he rushed to eat them. Just as he was about to take a bowl, a woman with a small crown and a wand interrupted his meal with a big smile on her face.
"Hey, grandma let me eat. I'm starving!" Naruto whimpered ignoring the tremor in the woman's left eye.
"Naruto, you have been chosen by the beyond as a person with a brave and strong heart with the possibility of taking all these bowls to enjoy." She turned to the innumerable ramen bowls, "You have a mission to fulfill, a future of misfortunes and difficulties, your destiny is much more than it is now. I come to warn you that you must make yourself strong, with your power that you have achieved for the great lord, the power of Yin, you must protect the fruit of life" She turned back to him." You must ... "
Naruto was no longer there. Confused, she looked around, trying to find him until the sound of someone slurping caught her attention. Behind her she found Naruto, sitting on the floor, with a bowl of Ramen in hand.
"Ne, old ramen fairy I don't understand what you said. What is destiny?" He asked between sips.
The proclaimed ramen fairy trembled from where she was. Naruto who was enjoying his glorious ramen, was suddenly grabbed by the woman and shaken as he was pulled up to be face to face with the furious ramen fairy. "Incompetent idiot who only thinks about ramen, you must respect your elders!" She shouted, her once soft features giving way to those of a demon and her fury rose.
Naruto screamed in fear.
"Narutoooo, idiot" Shouted the demon that did not stop violently shaking Naruto "Naruto, AWAKE!"
Naruto's eyes snapped open, his breathing was agitated as his body trembled. When he focused his eyes he was met with a pair of clear eyes, half-closed and framed with red hair.
"Ah! A DEMON!"
A vein appeared on the forehead of the furious Kushina, and she released her son who fell on the bed. Without hesitating, she punched him over the head so that she could knock some sense into her son.
"Idiot, I'M YOUR MOTHER" She grabbed him by the neck again, shaking him furiously, her hair moving like Medusa in person. "How dare you call me demon!, I am your mother who comes to wake you up because you slept in on this important day."
Naruto screamed and curled into a ball, trying to make himself less of a target as possible when he realized that he had confused a poor demon with his mother. It was then that her words of being late for an important day reached his ears. His mind began to spin around as he struggled to understand their meaning, until he realized what day she was speaking of.
"EEEEEEHHHH!"
The whole village could hear his scream. Like a bullet he grabbed for some clothes he had scattered on the floor, a pair of underpants and his orange jumpsuit. He went to the bathroom to change and grabbed his shoes on his way out. Ricocheting off the walls, he struggled to put on his ninja shoes and adjust his bag while he traveled through his house. He entered the kitchen where his father was skimming over the newspaper and his mother continued to make breakfast in front of the stove.
"You slept again, son," said an amused Minato, watching his son sniff the eggs placed in front of him, chug down his milk and leave with a loaf of bread in his mouth.
"I'm late," he mumbled, barely audible with the bread in his mouth as he readied to go out the window.
"Naruto, what are those manners, at least brush your teeth!" Kushina yelled angrily waving her spatula as a weapon.
Naruto jumped out the kitchen window, ignoring his mother. He was running too late to worry about hygiene. When Minato and Kushina were alone, she lowered the spatula, letting out a loud sigh."Good heavens, he is growing fast," she said, raising her eyebrows with nostalgia as she rested her head on her right hand.
A pair of arms surrounded her, Minato rested her head on the hollow of Kushina's shoulder. "If you want we can have another child," he whispered in his ear hoarsely, one of his hands massaging Kushina's hip while the other ventured higher.
Whack!
The spatula in Kushina's hand slapped Minato's face, stopping his advances.
"Are you sure you want to have another Naruto running through the streets and causing disasters? Believe me when I say, you'll go crazy, words of a wise mother." She raised an eyebrow, looking out of the corner of her eye to Minato. Minato pouted, although her comment was valid, it was very difficult to deal with the complaints of people and ninjas every day, having two Narutos running around would be his downfall. Kushina went to the stove and turned it off, Minato raised his eyebrow when she turned to face him, leaving the spatula on the table, his eyes sparkling with malice.
"Although, I do not complain about celebrating that our son becomes a ninja today."
Minato laughed out loud as he approached to hug his wife, how he loved her!
It was past noon when Kushina decided it was time to go to the school to pick up her son, she clenched her fist with pride at the thought that she did not forget this time. Today they will be told who will be part of the team. All the mothers will go to pick up their children to congratulate them and of course, to know who will be the teammates of their children. Some were seriously concerned that their children would be teamed up with someone who would not be good, while others were sure their child would be with the best. In her opinion everyone should be dying of nerves as they hoped their child would be teamed with her beloved yet foolish son.
As she approached the courtyard in front of the school she saw many women gathered, some with their husbands at her side, all waiting with encouragement to see their children to appear. She went to greet some women of the Nara clan, then Inuzuka, and several others.
Among the women, she spotted the unmistakable black hair of her friend with the usual embroidered fan of the Uchiha clan on her back. With encouragement she approached her.
"Mikoto!" She shouted animatedly, passing one of her arms behind the slender woman who, not at all surprised, smiled at her scandalous friend.
"You arrived."
"Of course, I would not miss anything to see my son with his newly formed team," she said, raising her nose to the sky with pride.
Mikoto laughed, shaking her head. Her friend could sometimes be pompous, but she would never tell her. For where she had her faults, she also had a generous heart. There were several times when picking up her Sasuke-kun, Mikoto found a sulking Naruto pouting and growling because his mother had forgotten to come for him. So she took him and delivered him safely to his house herself.
"It would be great if our children were in the same team," Mikoto said nostalgically. Although it seems that since they were infants that their children acted like dogs and cats,deep down they loved each other as brothers.
A pair of arms on her shoulders shook Mikoto out of her reverie, and she was greeted by the light eyes of Kushina as she looked at her brightly.
"We can make a dinner to celebrate the graduation of our children whether or not they are together or not. We can invite the others," said Kushina. "So we give them a push to become friends."
Mikoto understood and she nodded excitedly, it had been a long time since the two families sat down for dinner. While their children were having fun, adhering to someone else was easy.
"Yes, Yeas! And maybe I can find my future daughter-in-law on my son's team,"Kushina added humorously.
The conversation was interrupted when the boys began to arrive, some with their teachers, others with their team. Among them was the well-known InoShikaCho team where the blond-haired girl complained about having joined the glutton and the lazy one for the fun of her parents. People began to decrease until there were few people left. To the side of Mikoto was Kushina, crushing a paper that who knows what it had been before it was used to kill er nerves and her boredom.
"Grr, I'll kill that teacher for taking so long to free my son." Kushina growled, throwing the paper to the floor. Her patience had already reached its limit.
"Tell me about it. I'm about to leave my daughter here for making me wait so long," said a woman standing a small ways from the two friends. At her words Mikoto and Kushina's attention turned to her. Standing under the tree with a cigar in her hand, stood a blonde woman.
Many mothers knew her, Mebuki Haruno was a civilian who had agreed to let her daughter become a ninja because it was her wish. The woman reeked of cigarettes and looked moody as always. Since the death of her husband several years ago due to some renegade ninjas, she had gotten into alcohol and cigarettes.
Kushina was going to say something until her son's voice drew her attention. The three women turned to the scandalous child who was accompanied by two other people. The eyes of Kushina and Mikoto opened widely both in surprise and excitement. The excitement came because it seemed their children were in the same team. But the surprise came because it seemed the daughter of the woman standing off to the sidee was with them. Neither woman was familiar with the woman's daughter. Nor did they know what to expect with a mother like Mebuki.
"Mom, I am on the same team as Teme and Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, being the usual loudmouth he was.
At least they knew her name was Sakura.
"Nice to meet you," the girl said with a little blush as she greeted the two women with a bow.
"Nice to meet you too, Sakura-chan," Kushina replied with a huge Uzumaki smile.
"Sakura-chan, we were thinking of holding a celebration party for the formation of your new team. Would you agree to come to my house this weekend at seven?" Mikoto asked with the best intention in the world. If Mebuki's daughter was to be part of her son's team, then she would do her best to help form a bond between them.
"Sakura, you can do whatever you want, but I will not be going." Mebuki said, pushing off from the tree and leaving without waiting for her daughter.
The little girl looked downcast, but bowed again and forced a polite smile on her face. "Thanks for the invitation, I'll be there." Sakura promised. "If you will excuse me, I have to go." She added hurriedly.
The two women watched the girl run off to catch up with her mother until they disappeared. They tried with the mother, but at least there was still hope for the girl. They would just have to wait until the weekend came.
Mikoto Uchiha was fixing the last touches of her dinner. Today was the day the children would join the dinner for the first time as a team. Kushina warmed up a dish she had brought with her while Minato sat in the room with Fugaku as they talked about politics. From the kitchen they could hear Naruto and Sasuke harassing Itachi in the yard to help them train. The dinner would be perfect and all they needed was for Sakura to arrive.
The doorbell rang, both women had their hands busy to answer, and to their luck Itachi entered.
"I will get it," Itachi said, getting rid of the two children that had been following him for a moment. The two women thanked him and Itachi slowly walked over to the door.
He was more than curious to know who would be the female partner of his brother and his best friend. She would need to have nerves of steel to survive the pair. To his surprise, he found a girl he had never seen before when he opened the door. Now that he had seen her, it would be hard to forget. Her hair was an unrivaled pink, her pair of green eyes shone like emeralds and her skin looked like porcelain. When Sakura saw him, her cheeks turned red as she began to fidget nervously.
"Good evening, I'm Sakura Haruno." She held up her hands, showing a bag containing two boxes, one large and one small, "I bring a gift."
"Hi Sakura-chan," Itachi greeted causing twelve year old girl to blush more to his amusement, "I'm Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother, come on in."
The embarrassed pink-haired girl took off her shoes before entering and set them down neatly with the rest of the shoes neatly lined up by the door. He led her to the kitchen where he found Kushina and Mikoto looking at her with smiles. "Good evening, I brought a gift. I made them myself," She said.
The grateful mothers took the bag and put it on the table. It was then that Naruto and Sasuke came back into the house from playing.
"Sakura-chan, you came!" Naruto said excitedly, dragging an irritated Sasuke by the arm. As he approached he gave her a big hug that left the others in the room curious about affectionate actions of the blond, especially his mother who raised her curious eyebrow. When Naruto realized what he was doing, his face went completely red and he separated from her as she were fire. The packet on the table caught his eye, he looked at Sakura once more, only now his eyes sparkled with gems as he blushed "Don't tell me you did it! Everything you cook is delicious."
The three older ones looked at the curious boxes and Kushina moved to open the big box. Inside there was a big cake with some strawberries that looked delicious.
"You made this Sakura-chan?" Kushina asked curiously.
"Yes ... Sorry for not asking, but it was not right for me to not bring anything."
"It's okay Sakura-chan. Anyways, this is better than jello, and the gelatin lasts a long time. Besides, we cannot waste something like this." Kushina winked, earning a smile from the girl.
A groan caught their attention and she turned to see Sasuke looking with disgust at the sweet cake on the table. Everyone knew he could not stand sweets. Of the two Uchiha brothers, it was the oldest with the sweet tooth, despite what others think.
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura caught his attention causing her to blush at the look of the dark-eyed boy. "I know you do not like sweets so I also made some muffins, they are not as sweet."
Now everyone was curious, and Mikoto turned to the unopened box to peak inside. When she uncovered the contents, it revealed little stacked rolls that shone like the sun, they looked appetizing, even Sasuke agreed with that.
"Then if it's not sweet I'll eat it," he said with a frown, his eyes suddenly turning away to hide the blush that was showing on her cheeks.
Sakura shrieked with joy when she saw that Sasuke-kun would eat her dessert. This was the best day of her life! Mikoto on the other hand raised an eyebrow. She was very curious to see such behavior being shown by her youngest.
"We will finish cooking, and as soon as the food is ready we will call you to go to the table," the dark haired woman announced.
"Itachi-teme, train with us," requested Naruto.
As the blonde gave his impolor, he could see that his brother looked at him from time to time, he could see that he too wanted to train. Looking out of the corner of his eye he found the curious eyes of the girl looking at him as well. He gave a short nod which was received with excitement to the two young boys.
"Do you want to come as well Sakura-chan?" Itachi asked as soon as the two boys shot off into the courtyard.
"Yes Itachi-san."
Minato and Fugaku went into the kitchen to see that their wives were nearly finished with the meal, so they knew they did not need much to do, onlookers found the food already heated on the stove and two boxes of desserts on the table. However, what caught their attention was seeing their wives glued to the window facing the courtyard as the two women whispered to each other.
Cautiously they approached to see what was happening, there in the courtyard were their children together. With them was a girl with a head of scandalous pink hair. Itachi was training the two boys to pass time, while Sakura watched what her classmates were doing with a smile on her face.
"She is aware of what is happening with her team, she knew that Sasuke-kun does not like sweetness," Mikoto murmured.
"She was polite when she showed up, she seems a little shy but has potential. I think it's because of her mother." Kushina added, and Mikoto nodded in agreement to her speculation.
"I think she is interested in my Sasuke," Mikoto exclaimed.
"My Naruto is interested in her," Kushina quickly claimed.
"It's cute."
"Oh! She is quite the character," Kushina said, trembling with emotion. Her son was obviously smitten with the pink haired girl but unfortunately his brain did not know how to handle interacting with her. It seemed that he just lacked confidence.
"She's certainly smart." Supplied Mikoto.
"She also has perfect control of chakra," added Kushina
"She's perfect," they chorused at the same time.
The two women looked at each other, sparks coming from their eyes when they saw each other. A sweat drop rolled from each of their husbands as they watched their wives, a man knows when he should not get involved, this was one of those times.
"She will be my future daughter-in-law," they each said confidently. They reached out and shook her. "May the best mother-in-law win."