Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto was not a hard person to understand. He was happy, optimistic, and a strong leader. He was enormously intelligent – something that couldn't be denied, no matter how many times he cocked his head to the side and asked "What does 'concession' mean?" for the nth time – and a powerful shinobi. He had an unconditional love for ramen and his precious people and would give his life to protect them both.

(Yes, this does include the ramen.)

Though the public knew him well, the Konoha 11 knew him better. Teams 7, 8, and 10 grew up with him, witnessing the enormous change from the "oblivious, loud, and foolish jokester" to the "strong, wise, but still kind of oblivious Hokage". Team Gai hadn't come along until their first ever Chuunin Exams but it didn't take them a long time to catch on. They had watched Naruto grow just as much as the Rookie 9 had, and in turn were just as close friends. All of them knew Naruto better than the blonde man, perhaps, knew himself.

However, there was only one person who knew and understood Naruto even better than the smartest and most perceptive Nara could ever hope to. That person was his wife, Hyuuga Hinata.

And if she was the person who knew him the most, than why was she so anxious? Hinata had absolutely no idea. She took a few deep breaths to help calm herself, but it did nothing to untangle the knot in her gut. She clenched her fists at her side, feeling her nails dig into her palms. She nodded at Shikamaru as she passed by the open door of his office. The Nara man, who was looking towards the door longingly at the time, waved lazily back before continuing to complete his paperwork.

Hinata turned the corner and faced the double doors of the Hokage's – her husband's – office. She took another minute to gain some sort of composure for herself before rapping her knuckles softly against the beautifully polished wood. On the other side, the sound of a pen scratching against paper paused and Hinata knew Naruto sensed her chakra.

"Enter." came the voice from the other side of the door, calm and professional.

Hinata took one last shaky breath before turning the handle and slipping inside gracefully. The door shut behind her and Hinata almost jumped in surprise from the sudden noise. She blinked and trained her eyes on the figure behind the large desk.

Upon seeing his wife, Naruto smiled largely, exclaiming a happy, "Hiya, Hina-chan!" He finished scribbling his signature on the bottom of the letter he was composing ("Hey Gaara! – Do I really have to be all professional and Hokage-like when I talk to you about politically important stuff? I mean, you're my friend I don't think it should be necessary…" etcetera, etcetera, "…you have to come down here soon, ya know? That would be awesome. Oh! Hina-chan is here! Gotta go, bye!") before setting it aside and shoving the tall stack of incomplete paperwork off the desk so it landed unceremoniously on the floor.

"Just the excuse I needed!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning at Hinata. "Tsunade-baachan bullied me into making me do all of the paperwork without Kage Bunshin." The blonde pouted. The Hyuuga head giggled at her husband.

"So what did'ja need, Hina-chan?" He asked after beamed at her again. Hinata's giggling subsided and she thought about Naruto's question. She bit her lip and her eyes focused on the ground. Naruto cocked his head to the side. "What's wrong?

Hinata wondered again why she was so scared. It was a simple fact, an everyday occurrence, and something she knew her husband has wanted for a very long time. She knew he would be happy. But there was this little niggling worry that wormed its way into the back of her mind, telling her that he would hate it, that he would hate her, that he would leave her and even if she knew the voice was wrong she still couldn't help but fear the worst.

So, with a deep breath, she decided she'd take this in steps. She forced her eyes away from the ground and up into those of her husband's and managed to smile at him nervously. Naruto frowned, realizing that something was most definitely bothering her, and moved around the desk to help ease her worries. He reached for her small, pale hand and tugged her gently forward to wrap his arms around her.

"Please tell me what's wrong, Hinata-chan." He said softly. The woman in his arms took a shuddering breath as she nodded. She forced herself to smile as she held back a dam full of tears.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, Naruto-kun." Hinata said shakily, looking him in the eyes. "But I have some very important news that I needed to tell you."

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows and blinked. Important news? He hoped it wasn't bad news. But he couldn't be too sure because she still looked about to cry and her smile looked forced. "Is it…good news?" He asked slowly. He was glad to see Hinata laugh slightly.

"It's very good news, Naruto-kun." She said, a bit of her worry beginning to evaporate. Naruto smiled widely again.

"Then what is it?!" He said excitedly, bouncing a bit and making Hinata laugh more.

"Well…I don't think the apartment is big enough." She replied, hesitantly but with a bit more confidence than before. Naruto's face contorted into one of confusion.

"How is it too small, Hina-chan? It's got plenty of space for just us and you like it." He cocked his head to the side he narrowed his eyes at the ground in thought. "Is there something wrong with it? Is the kitchen too small? I know you love to cook and our kitchen is tiny…or is it the living room? It is kind of hard to maneuver around in there and I trip over the coffee table all the time but the couch is comfy and Kurama makes scraped knees feel like pokes in the cheek…"

Naruto continued to ramble and mutter as Hinata smiled softly and wonder again why she had been so scared. This happy, bouncy, childish, loving, and completely and utterly pure-hearted man was incapable of hating anything. Hinata blamed the old seed that she thought had long since died - the seed that had constantly told her how weak and worthless she was during her childhood. She hoped it was finally gone for good.

"No, no, Naruto-kun." Hinata laughed, smiling genuinely and resting a hand on his chest. "The apartment isn't big enough for three people."

"Three people? What?" Naruto said, happy that she was feeling better but also very confused.

Hinata rolled her eyes and smiled wider. "One plus one equals three." She said, pushing away the embarrassment she was beginning to feel from saying such a statement.

Naruto blinked and frowned again. "But I thought one plus one equaled two. See," He took her fingers and showed them to her. "One…" He had her extend her index finger as he looked her in the eyes. "…plus one…" Her middle finger extended as well. "…equals two! See, it doesn't equal three."

Hinata giggled and slipped her hand out of his. She bit her lip in thought as she tried to come up with a different way of explaining things. Then, suddenly, she remembered something Naruto had told her one time. "How about this, Naruto-kun." She stepped away from him and wandered behind his desk. She sat in the comfortable black office chair and reached for the pictures that were on display.

"Konoha's Red Hot Habanero…" Hinata said, pointing to the picture of Uzumaki Kushina. "Plus Konoha's Yellow Flash…" She then pointed to Namikaze Minato, who stood beside Kushina in the picture. "Equals Konoha's Orange Hokage." Hinata finished, glancing at Naruto to see if he understood.

"But what do Kaa-chan and Tou-chan have to do with the apartment being too small, Hina-chan?" Naruto asked. "I mean, now I understand the whole 'one plus one equals three' thing but what does it have to do with the apartment being too small for…three…" Naruto stopped talking and he blinked. His eyes snapped to Hinata and she smiled.

"You mean…?" He trailed off. Hinata nodded.

"Hai." She replied.

"You're…?"

"Mhmm."

"We're…?"

"Yes."

Naruto couldn't move. His knees felt like jelly and his heart beat excitedly in his chest. "I'm…I'm going to be father?"

Hinata smiled brightly at him. "Yes, Naruto-kun. You are."

The realization finally hit him full force – holy crap Hinata-chan's pregnant holy crap I'm going to be a father holy crap – and the Rokudaime Hokage fainted.

She leaned against the table of the booth and examined her fingernails.

There were hundreds of people bustling around the area that evening. The noise emitting from them was almost unbearably loud and she could see people just dropping their trash on the ground rather than throw it in the perfectly visible and empty trashcans that were scattered around the vicinity in outrageous quantities. It disgusted her; these people, this city, this job.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as simple as quitting and then getting on with her life, finding somewhere else to go and something else to do. She owed money to the owner of this travelling carnival unit, and even if she raked in enough to get herself out, how was she going to get her little brothers out? She couldn't abandon them. Not now, and not ever.

The blonde haired young woman dropped her hand and gazed back out at the crowd. The sky was dark but the entire vicinity was lit up by the high quality lanterns hanging from each stall. The Ferris Wheel turned slowly a ways away, red, green, and yellow lights blinking at her. She sighed sadly, wishing she was enjoying the carnival with her brothers instead of running this grimy stall.

“Um, excuse me.”

Her head whipped in the direction of the voice. She blinked and mentally slapped herself for allowing herself to get distracted so easily. She couldn't afford to let it happen again or her boss would add a larger sum of money onto what she already owed.

She put on her smile; the one she used for show. “How can I help you?”

Standing on the other side of the table was a young woman, around her age, perhaps a few years younger. Her brown hair was in buns on either side of her head and her brown eyes stared back at her. She wore a pair of dark skinny jeans and a white camisole. Dozens of rubber bracelets decorated her arms.

The girl’s lips twitched into a smile. “I’d like to play.” She said simply. Her left arm draped over her waist and she began to play with a bright red bracelet. The blonde couldn’t see what it said.

“Of course.” Temari replied, stepping to the side and gesturing to the table behind her. Aluminum cans were in pyramids of fifteen. There were three pyramids – three rows – and beside each were five hacky sacks. “The goal is to knock down all fifteen cans. If you knock down at least five of them, you can choose a prize from the third shelf –“

Temari pointed at a short wooden rectangular pillar with three triangular shelves. On the bottommost shelf – which Temari was showing her customer – were various knickknacks of little to no value. The bun-haired girl eyed the shelf evenly before nodding at the blonde.

“–If you knock down at least ten of them, you can choose anything from the second shelf –” The second shelf held items of more interest – such as a children’s sweatshirt and a Konoha Foxes Football hat. Temari resisted the urge to sigh as she finished explaining things.

“And if you knock down all fifteen, you can choose a prize from the top shelf.” A lava lamp, a large to stuffed dog, a coon skin hat, and other varying items were presented on the topmost shelf of the pillar-shelf.

“One hacky sack costs fifty cents, three costs two dollars, and five costs two fifty. If you purchase three or five throws, than the amount of cans you knocked down per throw is calculated. The average amount determines your ‘score’ and therefore what prizes you can choose from.” Temari bit her lip and looked up at the roof of her stall. “It’s a bit hard to explain.”

The girl with the buns waved her hand through the air and reached into her back pocket. “Nah. I get it. I actually pay attention in school. It’s average. The number of cans I knocked down per round added together and then divided by the number of throws I bought. Simple enough to understand.” She said, rifling through the crisp green bills in the black wallet.

“You’d be the first.” Temari said in relief, leaning against the front table. “You have no idea how many idiots come to this booth and they don’t understand something as simple as basic math.” She rolled her eyes, stood up straight again, and grinned at the girl.

“I have no idea how you stand this job.” The girl shook her head in sympathy and finally took out a twenty dollar bill. She handed it to the blonde and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry ‘bout the twenty…my mom just gave me a hundred dollars in cash before bumbling off to the bar on Hokage Avenue.” She rolled her eyes and Temari gave her a genuine smile.

“It’s fine. How many hacky sacks would you like? One, three, or five?” She asked, opening up the change box and tacking the twenty dollar bill with the others.

“I’m going to try my luck with five.” The girl said, cracking her knuckles and stretching her arms. There was a confident grin on her face as Temari counted her change and handed it back to her.

“Good luck.” The blonde said, placing five hacky sacks in front of her. Temari’s customer picked up one and tossed it back and forth from each hand.

“What happened to throwing baseballs?” She asked.

Temari shrugged. “It got too easy. So we changed it.”

“Right.” The brown haired girl tossed it in the air one last time before looking at the first pyramid of cans. She wasted no time in bringing her arm back ever so slightly, and firing the hacky sack at her aluminum targets.

The cans clanged together as they fell to the padded ground behind the table. Temari turned towards her customer and gave her an impressed stare. She pulled a small notebook from the pocket of her uniform and popped the cap off of her less than efficient pen to jot down the result of the first throw: 15 of 15.

“Go ahead and throw again.” Temari said, setting the booklet and pen on the front table. “At the second row.”

The brown haired girl picked up a second hacky sack and tossed it between her hands like she did with the first. Then she aimed and fired and the second pyramid of cans scattered to the ground and joined the first. Temari picked up her notebook again and recorded the result.

The third throw held the same result as the first two – fifteen of fifteen cans.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anybody knock down all fifteen, let alone three times in a row.” Temari commented as she moved behind the back table to pick up the cans. “You have perfect aim.”

“Ah, it’s not perfect…” Her customer said with an embarrassed laugh. “I’m out of practice. It wasn’t the same each time. I was about a centimeter off at least for that last throw…I’m lucky they all knocked down.”

“Are you on a baseball team or something?” Temari asked.

“I used to be on a softball team when I was a kid. I was still in the orphanage and the people who ran it thought I had too much pent up energy so they stuck me in sports. When my mom adopted me, she took me out of sports because she thought my accuracy skills were wasted throwing balls. So she taught me how to do something better with it.”

Temari stood up with a box in her arms holding all of the cans. She gave the bun haired girl a look. “And what was that?”

“Knife throwing.” The girl replied with a grin.

“…You’re kidding me.” Temari said with a deadpan.

“In no way am I lying to you.”

Temari shook her head. “I don’t know who your mother is, but she’s insane.”

“I know. Everybody knows, actually. Just ask anybody in Konoha if they know who Mitarashi Anko is and you’ll get about the same reaction every time.” The girl smiled.

“What reaction should I expect?”

“Oh…they’ll run away screaming. Or faint, depending on who you are.”

“Sounds lovely.”

“Mmhmm.”

Temari dropped the box back under the table and moved out of the way. “You can throw now.”

Her customer nodded and proceeded to throw the hacky sack at her target once again. Temari didn’t even bother to pay attention to the last throw, knowing exactly what the result would be.

“Anything from the top shelf.” She said, slipping the notebook and pen back into her pockets. Her brown haired customer cocked her head to the side and met her eyes.

“Your name.” She said simply. Temari stared at her in confusion.

“What?”

“My prize. I want to know your name. What is it?”

Temari hesitated. This was a stranger from a city she wasn’t familiar with. She threw knives and had some crazy insane mother who was apparently not right in the head. For all she knew she could be a serial killer, wanting to know her name so that at the moment she least expected, she could take her out.

Temari pushed these thoughts aside. There was no way she could be anything like a serial killer. Yes, she did seem like one of those crazy types and her mother seemed to belong in an asylum. But Temari felt comfortable talking to her and she already felt like the girl was a friend. The blonde didn’t think she’d had so much fun talking with someone in a long time. Not since before her mother died, at least.

“My name is Sabaku no Temari.” She said finally.

The bun haired girl grinned and held out her hand. “I’m Mitarashi Tenten. It’s nice to meet you, Temari.”

Temari found herself reaching out and taking the girl’s hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”

Tenten grinned and her eyes flickered to Temari’s left. “The lava lamp seems like a cool prize.” She said after a moment.

Temari blinked and turned towards the prize pillar. She blinked again. “Sure.” She took it off the shelf and handed it to Tenten.

“Your name sounds Sunan.” Tenten suddenly said. “Why’d you go and get a job at this carnival? I’m pretty sure carnivals don’t pay well and I can tell that your brain is a force to be reckoned with. You could do something great and yet you’re here. Why?”

Temari stared at the girl for several long moments, her mind internally battling with itself. Tenten met her gaze patiently and expectantly and Temari felt a bit thankful that the girl wasn’t pushing her to answer.

Maybe if she could just tell somebody…she would feel better…maybe she could get help…she could break free of the contract binding her and her brothers to this job…

Making up her mind, Temari opened her mouth to speak. However, before she could get a single word out, she was interrupted.

“Tenten-chan!” A loud exuberant voice exclaimed. There was a flash of bright green and suddenly there was tall, dark haired man standing beside Tenten. He wore a sweatshirt the color of the forest and his hair was pulled back into a braid down his back. His eyebrows were rather large and his grin was blinding.

“Tenten-chan!” The newcomer exclaimed again. “Neji-kun and I have been looking everywhere for you!”

“How many times have I told you not to call me ‘Neji-kun’, Lee?” Said an exasperated young man, appearing by Tenten’s other side. “It makes you sound like an obsessed teenage girl.” The young man’s eyes were a pearly white and his hair was long and chocolate brown in color. His light grey jacket was zipped up halfway with his hands nestled inside each pocket.

“Oh you mean your fangirls?!” Tenten told him jokingly, propping her elbow up on his much-to-tall shoulder and leaning on him. The pearly eyed boy frowned at her.

“But ‘Neji-kun’ makes you sound so youthful!” The green-clad boy said joyfully to his male companion. Tenten grimaced.

“Not everything has to be youthful, Lee…” She said with a sigh. Her eyes flickered to Temari, who was watching the scene with much interest. She hadn’t ever had friends. She hadn’t even gone to school since her mother died and her contract with this carnival was formed. She had to learn all of her knowledge from books. Watching Tenten talk with her friends – that’s what Temari assumed they were, at least – made her want to get out of there that much more…

“Temari?”

Temari blinked and looked at Tenten. She was holding a slip of paper in her hand as her companions – Lee and Neji, wasn’t it? – bickered in the background.

“Sorry, yes?” She replied to the Mitarashi girl.

“My cell phone number is on this slip. Call me sometime and perhaps we could meet up at Hatake’s Coffee Shop – that’s on Namikaze Lane – and get to know each other a bit better. Kakashi may be lazy and a horrible teacher but he never jokes around with his coffee.” Tenten handed Temari the slip of paper. Beneath a nine digit number were directions to Hatake’s Coffee Shop. Temari smiled and slipped into the front pocket of her jeans.

“The carnival opens up again at six pm tomorrow. Maybe we could meet around lunchtime. I don’t have much money to spend for myself so perhaps we could go somewhere where it isn’t that expensive.” She replied eagerly, which was rather unusual for her.

“And again, Hatake’s is the perfect place. Let’s meet up at noon, alright?”

“Sounds perfect.” Temari said. She smiled at her new possible friend.

“Awesome. I’ll see you tomorrow, Temari!” Tenten said happily. She smiled one last time before turning around and grasping the arms of Lee and Neji. “Lee, please tone it down and Neji, don’t fight in public. Gosh.” She rolled her eyes. “You both are insane.”

Temari stared after Tenten until she was swallowed by the crowd.