Yay, double digits!

This image reminded me of the one in chapter six and I thought you guys might want to see it. Thanks for reading.

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Naruto was very nervous, which was not a word usually used to describe the young Uzumaki. Usually, she was brave and looked everything right in the face, never thinking of the repercussions it could cause. She never cared for consequences, so the fact that she was almost scared worried her teammates.

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Just a day before Naruto had been training with her team. They hadn't been on a mission on a while, and she needed something to do. She needed a mission, even if it was just saving a stupid cat from a tree or carrying old ladies' groceries. She had no idea where Obito found all of these helpless old people that caused him to be so late, but she desperately needed to know so she had something to do.

She was about to just outright demand where Obito went to find all of these old people when Minato called them all to gather in the middle of the clearing.

"Alright everyone, I am happy to say, we will all be busy tomorrow night." He beamed at them.

As if everyone except her knew exactly what this meant she saw a multitude of reactions. There was the ghost of a smile on Kakashi's face that had just about been the happiest she'd seen him through their entire time together. She looked to Rin to see a look of outright, pure, joy on her face. Expecting the same, she turned to Obito and was shocked by what he saw. He looked almost annoyed. She could tell by the look on his face it was only because he was trying to be cool around Kakashi, and if it had been only the four of them, he would probably also be smiling, beaming even. What could possibly elicit such reactions from her teammates?

Noticing the look of confusion on her face as she studied her teammates, Minato came to a realization. Naruto had never met Kushina. Strangely, she was always wandering off somewhere when she would occasionally drop off lunch, and Naruto had never been one to question free food. Whenever she came by to help them with training, she had always been off doing something else, or couldn't make it to training that day. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how similar to two were. They both had no regard for social norms, were easy to anger, and showed their heart on their sleeve, even if it got them in trouble more than either of them would like to admit.

"We're going to Kushina's for dinner?" Kakashi asked in the most monotone voice he could muster. No matter how aloof he tried to act, Minato knew he loved Kushina like the mother he had never had. Both of them loved each other's company and Kushina was always tried to bring him out of his self-imposed bubble of loneliness. Yet another thing she and Naruto had in common.

It did not go unnoticed that Naruto flinched at the name, though she tried to hide it. None of the others questioned this anymore. She seemed to just do this sometimes when she heard of a name or place. Almost as if it shocked her to hear it. This reaction, however, drew the attention of the blond team captain. She hadn't been this visibly flustered since she had met the team for the first time.

She quickly excused herself before anyone could ask what was wrong and ran towards, what he assumed, was her home at an inhuman speed.

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Naruto didn't know what to do. She had avoided her every time she came near the training grounds by pretending she was sick, going off and training somewhere else, pretending she was busy, etc.

She had thought of finding her mother on the street somewhere and attempting to casually start a conversation with her, but had chickened out whenever she actually saw her. It probably would have been better to do that than to make her team question her sanity as she ran from the training grounds. What if they weren't dense and connected the dots? What if someone finally realized that Naruto looked exactly like her sensei and acted exactly like his wife? Though, she didn't exactly have a choice. If she decided not to go to dinner with them, she would be seen as rude in the eyes of everyone who's opinion mattered to her; Minato, Kushina, and Kakashi.

She decided the best thing to do was to just get it over with, maybe she could make it through the dinner without puking because she was meeting her mother, who was alive, again for the first time in years. This would be the Kushina of before her time, the Kushina that existed before she had a child and gave her life for it. This was a Kushina she had never met.

She decided she could do it.

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Word Count: 847