From Ninja to Shinigami

Chapter 45: Preparations

By: jacke44

Beta'd by: Scheffinator

[Uzumaki compound, dining hall]

Ashia slowly walks into the dining room the next morning with her head down. Hinata looks at her and asks "what is wrong sweetie?" Ashia looks up and says "I had a dream last night. my daddy came and visited me." Before she could continue, a hand was put on her shoulder, making her look up and find Naruto along with Itachi.

Ashia quickly jumped out of her chair and wraps her arms around the legs of her father saying "it wasn't a dream! You really did come to visit."

Naruto just sits down in his normal chair next to Hinata. He then looks at her and says "once breakfast is done, you can give me a rough draft of any paperwork I have to do that came in while I was out." Hinata nods her head and says "there's not much that you need to worry about."

Naruto looks out of the corner of his eye and sees the father and daughter duo were now sitting at the table. Ashia had once again made herself a big plate of blueberry pancakes. Letting out a chuckle, he looks at her and says "don't you ever eat anything different."

Ashia, with a cute little pout on her face, looks at her big brother and says "I could say the same thing about you and big sister Hinata. I bet if I poked you with my fork, you wouldn't have blood come out of you. You would have ramen broth and big sister would have frosting and cinnamon come out of her because of all the ramen and cinnamon buns you two eat."

This comment makes everybody at the table begin to laugh at the couple sitting at the table with bright red faces as Hinata discreetly hides a cinnamon bun that she was about to take a bite from.

Shizune let out a small giggle as she then looks at her and asks "so, what are your plans for you and your daddy today?"

Ashia, with a little sad frown, says "I want to visit Mommy's grave today." Itachi put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze and says "if that is what you want to do, we can go after breakfast."

[Random street]

Ashia and Itachi were making the way through the crowd. Ashia, who had a tight hold on her father's hand since they left the compound, kept glancing up and smiling. When she spotted the flower shop, she points it out and says "let's buy mommy some flowers." As the two of them make their way inside, the small bell goes off signaling a new customer.

Ino, who had just walked in from the back, smiles and says "welcome to the Yamanaka flower store. How can I help you?" That's when she noticed who was in the store. With a smile on her face, she looks at Ashia, squats down and gives her a hug and says "hello sweetie, it's nice to see you again. You're not here to cause any trouble are you because if you are, I'm going to tell to my mom and she will have you mixing fertilizer again if you are."

Ashia, who happily returned the hug and says "no auntie Ino, me and my daddy came in because we're going to visit Mommy's grave for the first time and I wanted to get her flowers."

Ino, who had had a smile on her face, suddenly begin to frown upon hearing this. She then rubs her head and says "well in that case, let's make sure we make a beautiful bouquet for her." she then reaches out and asks "you want to help me?" Ashia accepts the hand as the two of them begin to walk around the store.

Itachi, who was standing in the middle of the store, was watching this although he did not have it on his face he was smiling inside, knowing that his little girl had people outside her family that were willing to help her.

He is brought out of his musing by a voice he recognized as Inoichi, who walked in from the back room, and says "both my daughter and my wife have taken to both being the auntie/and mother figure to a lot of the kids at the Uzumaki compound."

Inoichi then says "I remember during the first week, when we all found out that he adopted all the kids. My wife, along with the others, each became attached to all the children and began to fill in the role that they needed. Some of them needed a mom figure in their life, some needed the big sister. My wife instantly became attached to her. Something called to her and when we found out who her grandmother was, it took everything I had to stop her from trying to bring her home and attempt to raise her herself, pointing out that Naruto had already adopted her."

Itachi gave a nod of his head and says "when Naruto told me that he adopted her, I was cautious that he would not be able to provide for her but upon hearing that he had set up a large family made up a former orphans and slaves who were now making up a new family I knew that she would never want for nothing."

Inoichi gave a chuckle and says "my wife felt the same way until she saw how they were being raised and how he had set up the family. Showing that he had not just made it a free-for-all with no rules and no punishments for misbehaving." Inoichi then looks down and says "we read the letter you left for her. For what it's worth, I'm sorry it had to come to that."

Before Itachi could say anything, Ashia runs up to him, holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers. She then holds it up and asks "do you think Mommy would like it?" Itachi rubs her head and says "I'm sure she would." He then begins to reach into his cloak but is interrupted by Inoichi saying "it's on the house. I don't feel right charging a young girl for flowers to visit her mom's grave for the first time." Ashia hands the flowers to her daddy and then gives Inoichi a small hug and says "thank you uncle Inoichi."

[Cemetery]

Itachi, holding Ashia's hand, leads her into the cemetery. After a minute of walking, they approach a white stone on the ground. Ashia looks at it and sees her mother's name. Ashia then looks up at her dad and asks "what am I supposed to say daddy?" Itachi put his hand on her shoulder and says "just say what's in your heart sweetie." Ashia puts the flowers in the holder and says "hi Mommy. I'm sorry I haven't come to visit you but I didn't know where you were. I Had to spend a few years in the orphanage with the mean lady because daddy had to become the bad guy to stop his family from doing something naughty. But it's okay now because I've got big brother Naruto. He adopted me along with all the other kids in the orphanage. We have a big house now and we are one big happy family. I got lots of aunts and uncles to who all love me now. I've got lots of friends to. I also started taking classes at the academy. My teacher says my reading and writing are ok but she says I'm really good at my numbers and recently I got to meet Daddy because big brother Naruto got him a letter so he can come and visit me for a couple days. I want to be a Kunoichi when I grow up and I hope I can be as strong as you were to make you proud. Big Brother says I don't have push myself to be the best of everything and he says that as long as I put effort into it, he would be proud of me no matter what."

Ashia then says "I'm happy that Daddy came to visit me too because he was telling me funny stories about you that I didn't know, like the time you had to fight your washing machine which made me laugh."

Itachi would swear that a cold wind passed over him in his face at that moment and knowing that it was Maho showing disapproval for telling an embarrassing story to her daughter.

Ashia continued to tell her mommy all about herself along with how she was becoming quite a little prankster with her friends. As Ashia finally stops, she looks up at her daddy and asks "do you want to talk to Mommy, Daddy?" Itachi looks down at her and says "don't worry about it, today's your day."

Ashia, with a smile, looks back at the grave and says "don't worry Mommy. Now that I know where you are, I'll come back and make sure you have lots and lots of flowers."

As the two of them begin to leave the cemetery, Ashia looks up at her daddy and asks "so, what are we going to do now Daddy?" Itachi says "whatever you want to do princess." Ashia smiles big and asks "can you help me with my training then?" Itachi gave a nod of the head and says "let's go to one of the training grounds that I know it has a large lake. If you are going to be kunoichi, there is one jutsu from our family that you need to learn it as it is a rite of passage."

Ashia begins to bounce up and down asking "what is it? What is it? What's it called?"

Itachi says "it is a jutsu that has been a specialty of the Uchiha clan for many generations the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique A/N (Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu)"

(Training ground)

Itachi was standing on the dock, facing the lake with Ashia standing next to him. Itachi looks at Ashia and says "now, I'm going to show you the hand signs before I perform it so, please pay attention." He then goes through the hand signs one at a time performing the sequence which was horse-tiger-serpent-ram-monkey-boar-horse-tiger.

Ashia quickly tries to follow her father's hand signs. Itachi shakes his head and says "no, you switched the third and fourth hand-signs around. Try again." Ashia quickly tries again, this time doing the hand signs right. Itachi gave a nod of his head again and says "that's good. Before we go any further, I want you to practice several times." Ashia begins going through the same hand-sign sequence over and over until her father told her to stop.

Itachi then says "take a step back." As he turned back towards the lake, he quickly goes through the hand signs, at the end breathing out a massive fireball shooting towards the middle of the lake.

Ashia had a look of absolute amazement on her face with stars in her eyes and visions of herself in her head doing the jutsu and impressing her big brother. Itachi, after managing to get her to calm down, begins to explain how the jutsu is performed. Ashia quickly steps up to the end of the dock and performs the hand-signs and takes in a big breath and breathes out, but nothing happens. With a look of sadness on her face, she looks up at her daddy and asks "what did I do wrong?"

Itachi shakes his head and says "there's more to it than just performing the hand signs and filling your lungs with air. You have to mold your chakra." He then begins to give an explanation of how to do this.

[Uzumaki compound]

Naruto along with Hinata were sitting in a meeting room with several other members of the clan. Naruto then says "let's get this meeting started." As he looks to his right at one of the women that he had rescued and who had agreed to become the clan's financial officer and gives her a nod of the head to go ahead.

The woman smiles and opens a folder and says "all of the clan finances are going well. The money that was stolen from you was returned, along with all the new taxes the Fire Daimyo leveled against the Leaf village have begun to come in. Also adding in all of the money you have brought in from all your gambling along with our clan's ANBU Operatives who have been raiding bandit camps and low-level missing ninja. There is also the fact that Lady Hinata signed over all of the businesses that she was awarded for the cruelty of her family to her and her sister to the family which has increased the income."

As she turned one of the pages saying "even accounting for humanitarian relief that we've sent out to that village on the coast, we are still looking good financial wise. I have also taken into account the money that the clan owes the Hidden Sand village and have drawn up a money payment plan of 5 million Ryo payments every three months with an estimated payment of 86 payments to pay off the complete 430 million. Taking into account any more interest, it might go up to 90 payments."

Naruto smiles and says "thank you for your report." Turning his head to the gentlemen sitting next to her and asks "your report?" The man opens the folder in front of him and says "as you put me in charge of our housing in the compound and in the district, I have had my team go through all the vacant houses and properties, updating all of the appliances to modern standards since they were about 30 years out of date and I believe we are ready to start renting the properties out. I understand that you want to make sure the properties are given to people who actually need them such as people from the poor district. Especially those with children and then elderly." Naruto gave a nod of the head and says "I trust your judgment. If you need anything else, let me know."

Naruto, turning his head to the other side of the table, gives a nod to Amie, who gives a smile and says "not much to report here. I would request that we get a few more people to help with the laundry and I had a request for at least one more maid. In terms of the children, there was not much to go. We've had minimal fighting amongst the children besides normal sibling rivalry. There is one note here that I think you should be aware of. While you were in the Land of Lightning, two of the girls started their monthly cycles. Myself, along with my staff, took the girls to give them the talk that they needed along with getting them all of the cosmetic products."

Naruto quickly nods his head and says "I'm glad that you are on top of it. Should I arrange for them to go to the doctor and get checked out or not? I'm not an expert in this field." Amie along with the other girls in the room smile as she says "while it is not necessary right now, you might want to have them scheduled for an appointment soon. Girls at the ages of 10 getting their Monthly cycles, while rare, is not unusual in this day and age."

[Head office, Uzumaki compound]

Naruto smiled as he put the last piece of paper in the outbox having finished all the paperwork that Hinata said that was important. As it turned out, she was correct. There was not much for him to go over. One of the papers was a request of a noble from the Land of Claws who had purchased Fuuinjutsu seals long before the destruction of Whirlpool from his family and wanted to have the seals checked as they were starting to disintegrate and weaken and he made a note to send his parents. Figuring between the two of them, they could repair them or completely rewrite them and update them.

A second letter had come from the Land of Honey stating that the impartial judge who would be acting on the tribunal would arrive soon. Naruto had chosen this country as it had no connection to the Land of Fire or the Land of Whirlpools, and thus would be able to be impartial.

Naruto smiles as he was now walking through his compound. His stomach had let him know it was time for lunch and as the children race past him, he then sees Hanabi sitting outside and called to her "hey Hanabi-chan, you want to go get some lunch?" Hanabi blushes but quickly walks up to him and nods her head. As the two begin to walk towards the gate, she sees her sister. She grins and pulls down her eyelid and sticks her tongue out while holding up two fingers. Then mouths 'this is date number two.' Hinata, with a smile on her face, looks at her sister and then cups her breasts and gives them a squeeze, indicating that she might have got the second date but she was still beating her in another department. Hanabi quickly turns back around with a blush and quickly grabs Naruto's hand.

Hinata, despite wanting to strangle her little sister, was happy that she was getting time to spend with the boy she had a crush on and was not spending years watching him from the back like she had to.

She was brought back by the voice of Tsunade letting out a chuckle and saying "it's quite funny, watching the two of you competing for the same boy. From what you told me about her turning it into a little competition between the two of you of who's going to get the brat first."

Tsunade, with a smirk on her face says "she might be on date number two, but what she failed to realize is, he's already seeing you naked, and as you demonstrated, you already have your chest while she is still flat as a board, and while I know the brat doesn't care about that, it's still funny to watch him blush whenever you're around."

Hinata looks at her and says "as you might know I have to use whatever I can to get the upper hand because you know what they say, all's fair in love and war."

Tsunade let out a laugh and says "oh, so, I guess you won't want to hear that I heard her planning on taking him to the hot spring?"

Hinata shrugs her shoulders and says "Naruto and I have already discussed about their relationship and he did promise to keep it within certain boundaries until she is of a proper age. As for her wanting to go to the hot spring with Naruto, that will be their choice. It is not that uncommon for families to sit in a hot spring together and I trust Naruto not to do anything he's not supposed to." And with a sly smirk on her own face, she says "besides she might try to use it to seduce him but she's forgetting that while he will see her she will also see him and from what Ino has told me, she will pass out when she gets a look at Naruto's log."

Tsunade burst out laughing and between laughs, says "let me guess, you have never also taken a peek using your Byakugan?"

Hinata turns to walk away but says "what I accidentally see while I was sitting in the academy while the senseis was giving lectures and I was practicing turning it on and off is irrelevant."

Tsunade, who has a grin on her face, let out a small laugh and says "don't think for a moment I don't know about you sneaking in to see Jiraiya to have him autograph your little book."

As Hinata begins to quickly walk away, she thinks to herself 'thank you for reminding me. I have just remembered I need to reorganize the family photos. I'm betting Naruto would love seeing her in a little baby bunny onesie.'

[Naruto & Hanabi POV]

Naruto glances down at Hanabi as the two walk down the street. She was holding his hand with a smile on her face. The two of them then walk into Ichiraku ramen. As the two of them take a seat on the stools, with Naruto shooting a glare at Ayame due to the fact that she had her mini me standing next to her, helping to chop up vegetables. Teuchi walks in from the back and smiles at Naruto as he says "how's it going Naruto? We haven't seen much of you recently, although you have given us a few new customers."

Naruto looks at him and says "everything is good. Especially now that I have my family." He then says "although certain people are really starting to irritate me by taking my siblings and making mini me's out of them." As he glanced at Ayame, who along with the little girl, turn around and stick their tongues out at him.

Teuchi just gives a laugh before quickly stopping a boy from coming in from the back, carrying a stack of bowls that he recognizes from the compound. Naruto just starts to rub his forehead and asks "can we just get an order of two beef ramens please?"

Teuchi gives a nod of the head and begins to make the order.

Naruto looks to his left and says "now, while we wait for the order to be finished, we have to have a talk Hanabi." As he was looking at her with a serious expression on his face, he says "what you did before I left for the mission with Hinata was not cool. I am all for fun and games and playing pranks on people. But the fact that you had me walking in on your sister while she was undressed was not acceptable."

Hanabi looks down and begins to fiddle with her fingers and says "I know. Hinata chewed me out for that." Naruto nods his head and says "I hope you understand why we were upset. I mean, how would you feel if I walked in on you and you were undressed?"

Hanabi's face goes red then says "I'd probably never want to come out from underneath my blanket again."

Naruto gives and nod of the head and says "then I think we're done with this conversation. As long as you know not to do something like that again." With her quickly nodding her head and saying "I won't do that again."

What Hanabi had not told Naruto was that her sister had threatened to strip her naked and parade her in front of Naruto if she ever did anything like that again. Soon both of them were eating the ramen and catching up on what had happened while he was away.

[Uzumaki compound, night]

Naruto had just finished putting on some cologne and begins to walk through the hallways. As he's passing one the courtyards, he sees Ashia and Itachi, with Ashia quickly running up to him and trying to tell him all about her day in the span of 5 seconds. Naruto goes down to one knee and says "breathe." Ashia takes a breath and says "thank you so much big brother. I've been having so much fun today with Daddy. First, we went to Mommy's grave. Then we went to the training ground and Daddy tried to teach me this cool, cool jutsu call the Great Fireball Jutsu but I couldn't do it, but Daddy says it takes a lot of practice and told me to keep trying. Then we went to practice taijutsu. Then we went to the arcade and I beat Daddy in all the games." With a big smile on her face. Naruto rubs her head and says "well, I'm glad you had fun but your big brother needs to get going. He's having dinner with Aunt Ino along with her parents."

[Holding cells]

Naruto walks into the room and can see Jiraiya sitting in his cell with a fat lip and a black eye, who looks up at him through his swollen eye. Naruto then says "I'm going to take it that Tsunade visited you about the seal to hold Sage Chakra?" Getting a nod of the head in return.

Naruto just shakes his head and says "yeah Ma was pretty mad when I came up with that idea. I cannot confirm it but I'm pretty sure that she broke a rolling pin over pa's head and was shouting at him." He then says "I mean that's only one of my ideas. I mean why can't you just use a shadow clone off to the side hidden and let it gather Sage Chakra? Then when pops it would transfer to you."

Jiraiya Let's out a breath and says "I'm going to get another beating I just know it. When ma gets a hold of me." He then looks at him and asks "so, what, come here to gloat? And what's with the fancy clothes?"

Naruto just shakes his head and says "I came here to tell you your trial is tomorrow. As for the fancy clothes, I'm most likely going to a funeral right now, namely mine. I'm going to go have dinner with my girlfriend and her parents."

Jiraiya, despite having a fat lip, grins and asks "is she a looker? And why do you think it's going to be a funeral?"

Naruto replies "my girlfriend is Ino Yamanaka and she is absolutely beautiful. And the reason I'm saying it's most likely going to be my funeral is the topic that we slept together is going to be brought up."

Jiraiya looks at him and says "you are dating Inoichi Yamanaka's daughter? Ok, you have my condolences but I don't suppose if he kills you, I can get out of having to go to the trial." Before Naruto could say anything, the voice of Tsunade says "don't even think about it. I will make sure it happens one way or another." As she steps into the room.

After Naruto had left the room, Tsunade looks at Jiraiya with her own smirk and says "you know it's a good thing you didn't raise him. He's got more game than you've ever had when it comes to the ladies. From what I understand the first woman he ever got with was a hot Milf from the Land of Waves. And from what he's told me, they are not technically in a relationship and he is more of a stress reliever for her as she has no interest in getting another husband but that is irrelevant. Since then, he has acquired five other girlfriends that I know of which two of them are sisters. The brat is so charming and charismatic, and he does it unintentionally. I personally saw him charm a girl who was a die-hard kunoichi who disliked anything relatively feminine. Such as buying clothes and makeup, believing that they are pointless. And would make her seem weak and break down into tears. After a small speech about how she did not have to always be strong as a woman and that she could let herself have a little bit of fun." And as she turned to walk away, she looks over her shoulder at her teammate who has fallen to his knees with silent tears going down his cheeks as the fact that his godchild had more game than him and pride that he was surrounding himself with beautiful women.

Tsunade, knowing that this was going to hurt him even more, says "oh, and by the way one of them is Anko."

[Yamanaka household]

Naruto was standing outside the front door. He takes a deep breath and knocks on the door. The door was immediately opened by none other than Inoichi, who crossed his arms and says "I was wondering how long you were going to stand there Uzumaki."

Ino walks up behind her dad and slaps him on the elbow and says "stop trying to scare him daddy." Ino walks up and gives Naruto a hug and a small kiss on the cheek. With a grin, she looks at her dad and says "daddy's been watching the window for the last hour waiting for you."

Inoiki, who walks in from the kitchen, let out it laugh and says "it's been like watching a caged tiger pacing in front of the window." As she walks up and gives Naruto a hug. After giving a small hug in return, Naruto says "I'm sorry I'm late but I had to ditch my two little security guards. They were insisting on coming with me." Which makes the mother and daughter duo laugh again.

Naruto reaches behind him and activates a storage seal on his belt, and in a puff of smoke is holding a bouquet of flowers. Presenting them to Ino, with his grin, he says "although these flowers are beautiful, they will have to weep their little petals off at the flower that they are being presented to."

Ino accepted the flowers then looks at him and says "okay turn back the dial. I'm already your girlfriend. There's no need to make daddy want to kill you more." Inoiki slaps her husband on the shoulder and asks "why can't you be that charming?"

Inoichi looks at Naruto and through gritted teeth says "you're doing it on purpose, aren't you? Making me look bad." Naruto shrugs his shoulders and says "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I do have one more thing I got to do." As he reaches back again and activates another seal. Presenting a box of chocolates to Inoiki, he says "these are from that famous chocolate restaurant that is in the Hidden Cloud village. I know how you and the other ladies love their chocolate but it's impossible to get here in the Leaf village so I stopped by and got you a box of the deluxe gold rappers." Inoiki quickly accept the box, opens it and takes a peek inside before giving him a kiss on the cheek and says "if I was two decades younger and you were not dating my daughter, I would keep you for myself."

Ino began to giggle into her hand as she watched her father's shoulders slump and mouthing to himself about upstaging brats.

Inoiki let out a giggle and says "now Naruto, you can come help me in the kitchen with dinner. It is just about finished." Naruto nods his head and says "that's a good idea. We want to be the ones eating dinner not the other way around, especially if Ino is the one to help." Ino tried to give a kick to Naruto's ankle but she misses.

About a half hour later, the four of them were sitting at the table having a light dinner. Inoiki, with the classic mom grin, looks at the two sitting across from her and says "so, Naruto, Ino told us about the little prank you pulled on her when you were going to get Lady Tsunade and I'm interested to see what my granddaughter's going to look like."

Naruto gave a laugh and quickly transformed back into the little girl again and says "hi Grandma." Both parents stare at the little girl in shock. Both could see the characteristics of both Naruto and Ino.

Inoiki looks at her daughter and says "you weren't kidding when you said she was going to be cute." Ino, after finishing her bite that was in her mouth, says "I know she obviously gets all her good looks from my side of the family. Now let's just hope she gets my brains too or she would be doomed If she got her father's brains."

Inoichi looks at them and says "if that is indeed what my granddaughter is going to look like, I think I need to start getting a bigger sword collection." Naruto, who had released the transformation, gave a nod and said "I've started looking for a space to build an all-girls school. That way I won't have to worry about her getting a boyfriend. Because there will be no boys allowed on the campus."

Both Ino and Inoiki give a laugh and says "trust me, if she is an Uzumaki, she will still find trouble, even at an all-girls school."

Inoichi then put his hands on the table and says "since we are on the subject, I don't know how I feel about the two of you sleeping together." Ino puffed out her cheeks and says "daddy, I already told you. Naruto-kun didn't make me do anything I didn't want to do. Besides, the fact that I'm the one who went to him and initiated it, the entire time he made sure I was as comfortable as possible. We used protection and we were both consenting. He gave me full control, the only thing that he's had control over was how many rounds we went, which he stopped after 3 because he didn't want to hurt me and have me walking funny the next day."

Inoiki gave a nod and says "that was smart thinking. Too often young men go at it without any consideration of their partner. That just shows that he has a great deal of respect for you. And personally, I'm happy that the two of you got together. I don't think I could think of anyone better than you to be my son-in-law. The only thing I ask is I do not want her to become a mother before she is 17."

Naruto gave a nod of the head and says "that won't be a problem due to the information I have from all my volunteering work at the hospital, I know how much damage a pregnancy can do on a girl's body if she's too young. Girls between the ages of 18 to 25 is when they enter the age where it's safer for them."

Inoichi, who has been sitting, listening to this says "you make a good point and how many children are you planning on having with Ino? She made a reference that you said at least three."

Naruto scratches the back of his head and says "that was just me talking but the fact remains that the number of children that we would have if we ever want to have any will be up to her. Again, with the information I have, I've already stated I know how much strain can be put on the body by a pregnancy and as she's going to be doing all of the work and risking the damage to her body so it will be up to her to decide if she wants to have one or more." Both parents smile proudly while Ino sat next to him with red cheeks. Inoiki smiles and says "now that that's taken care of, let's have dessert."

[Konoha, night time]

Kakashi was walking back to his apartment after spending a few hours in one of the bars. As he made his way down one of the deserted streets reading his new copy of Icha Icha while thinking to himself 'I need to find out how that brat got so strong and came across all this information. He could not just have been hiding behind a mask this entire time. Something else must have happened. Someone had to have helped him.' As he was passing an alleyway, he failed to notice a golden chain slithering on the ground coming out of the shadows of the alleyway before it's struck out and wrapped around one of his legs and yanked him back into the dark alleyway, leaving his new copy of the book laying in the middle of the street.

End of chapter 45.

[Omake: Hinata's birthday planning]

Naruto smiles at all of his friends that are gathered. He then says "okay, let's get down to business. We all know why we are here. Hinata's birthday's coming up. So now we need to come up with ideas."

Ino raises her hand and says "well she likes tea ceremonies so why not make it around that."

Naruto turns to a blackboard and writes it on the board. He then looks at the group again and asks "any other ideas?" Sakura says as well "she likes to flower press so we could plan a trip to the Land of Flowers."

Naruto quickly added it to the board. Kiba gives a laugh and says "we could always throw her a surprise wedding as a birthday present." Everybody in the table looks on and says "no."

Naruto scratches his chin and says "you know, I just had a thought. Hinata actually likes pastries, right? What if we made her the world's largest cinnamon bun?" Every single person at the table's faces goes bright red. Before anyone could say anything else, both Ino and Sakura shoot to their feet and say "not happening."

Naruto scratches his head and says "oh come on. Why not? She would absolutely love it." Choji nods his head and says "he's right, she would love a cinnamon bun that big. I've seen her go to town on those things."

Kurenai says "we were not be doing that." In a very strict voice.

Naruto crosses his arms and says "give me one good reason why we shouldn't do that." Ino walks around the table and whispers into his ear, making his face go bright red along with a large goofy grin on his face, making Ino slap him and say "get your head out of the gutter. The last thing we want to see is the two of you go at it on top of a giant cinnamon bun."

Naruto looks at her and asks "so does that mean I should cancel the giant blueberry pie for your birthday?" Making everybody in the group laugh.