A/N: I wrote this when 659 of Naruto was the latest chapter. In this fic the war has been won but the edo tensei-ed hokages are still reanimated and in one piece except for Minato. Feedback is always welcomed. Thanks for reading and enjoy.

A Way With Words

Minato was never one to leave a person looking gloomy if he could help it. Sure, he wasn't a bluster ball of charming, raging energy like his wife, but he had his own version of charming he managed to develop in the process of becoming Hokage. In fact, Minato liked to think that he had a way with words which no one else did. Certainly the jutsus that he named flowed on the tongue like no other. At least, that was what Kushina used to tell him as she patted his head, pecked his cheek and told him to take a break from work. Minato believed her. His jutsus had style to their name regardless of what Jiraiya-sensei said. Besides, his wife was always right. To question his wife's words was to find yourself at the mercy of the Red Hot Hanabero and her steel pan of death. He can vouch it to be a grisly and painful experience. Scratching the back of his neck, Minato appreciated the fact that at least he was able to be reanimated in one piece.

Back to the situation at hand or rather the person at hand, Minato studied her as he strolled towards her. A Hyuga, he deduced from her white eyes, a nervous Hyuga. He could tell by her hunched form as she sat on the boulders, watching her index fingers push at each other. It was contrasting to the prideful, straight Hyuga bearing he always remembered. It was also unusual considering that Hyugas were not one to be nervous in public, not even at the face of war. So Minato decided to cheer her up and to pass the time while waiting for Orochimaru to decided what to do with the Hokages now that the war is over. Naruto was still busy talking to the current Kages so talking to Naruto would have to wait till later. Till then, Minato decided to learn as much he could about the newer generation in order to retell them to Kushina when he joined her later. He could start with this young lady right here.

"Mind if I join you?"

Her brows furrowed slightly at his question and looked up. Immediately her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. Minato was slightly pleased and flattered. Having people's jaws drop at the sight of you is only one of the benefits of being Konoha's Yellow Flash. That smug feeling lasted only until she jump off the boulder and heard her panicked whisper.

"Kami! We n-need to get you to a medic quickly! I'll get Sakura-san!"

Minato was then reminded of the small fact that one of his arm was blown off. He had sincerely forgotten because his shoulder wasn't swelling or bleeding. One of the benefits of reanimation, he supposed. Before the little lady ran off to get the medic, he managed to catch her shoulder and sheepishly reply, "No! No! It's allright! I was reanimated. Really, I don't feel a thing! No need to get a medic."

He then proceeded to the lines that marked, but not mared, his face and the Hyuga's furrow lessened at her realisation. Then quickly her eyes widened again and she swept herself into a bow and began to frantically apologise, "I'm so sorry Yondaime Hokage-sama! I did not realise. I must've seemed silly, I'm so sorry! I'm really sorry for putting you into such an awkward position. I didn't realise you were the Yondaime Hokage-sama or that you were reanimated. I'm so, so sorry!"

Minato felt awkward but bemused at her apologies. She was definitely not like any Hyuga he had met before. She was too humble and too jumpy, for the later reason Minato was reminded of a rabbit. A hippity hoppity rabbit. Minato had always liked rabbits.

"It's really alright," Minato said. He then motioned to the boulder. "If you really want to make it up to me, why don't you sit with me and tell me what's on your mind?"

The Hyuga sighed and sat. The dirt in her hair did not hide its indigo colour. Smudges of dirt contrasted her white complexion. Although she was pale from exhaustion, Minato could tell that she radiated a healthy glow that did not originate from Kurama's faded chakra cloak. She began to press her index fingers agaisnt each other and for a short time, she was content to sit in silence before she whispered, "Thank you but I wouldn't want to waste your time. You should leave because there are more important things to do with your time." She raised her head and as she watched the shinobi clear the battlefield, Minato noticed that her eyes had a pale hint of violet. "But I was just thinking about the future. About what happens from here on."

"Ah yes, the future." Minato sat beside her and observed the clearing before them. They were at the last stages of carrying the wounded and collecting the corpses. The effects of war, Minato acknowledged, were always felt the hardest by its survivors. Although living is most times better than dying, living while trying to mend the holes created by loss can be just as painful. "Don't fret yourself, it is never a waste of time to be listening. I didn't become Hokage by ignoring people."

His cheeks pinched with dimples, he smiled at her. Not used to having people direct such a charming smile at her, the Hyuga's cheeks flared red and she began to concentrate more on her fingers. She really was a shy, quaint little rabbit, so hesitant to come out of her burrow. It was at this moment that Minato realised the he did not know her name.

"I'm sorry but I never caught your name." She watched him as he held out his hand. "Since Yondaime Hokage can be a mouthful, please just call me Minato."

She took his hand, her hands miniscule compared to his. "Hai Minato-sama. My name is Hinata. Of the Hyuga clan."

"It is very nice to meet you Hinata-chan," he responded gently. "What were you thinking about? Of the future, I meant."

"I..." Hinata's eyes took on a glassy look. Her body was beside Minato but he could sense the distance in her mind. Even as she looked at her worn palms, red, bruised and calloused, Minato saw she was deep inside her own thoughts. "I want to become stronger. I want to become as strong as I could ever be." He watched as she slowly curled her hands and closed her eyes. "Especially now since my precious cousin, my genius cousin, who had reach heights I could only have dreamed of, had deemed me to be more worthy of living than himself."

More worthy of living, huh? So her cousin had saved her, Minato deduced. He gathered that her cousin died in the process. The grief that curled up in her eyes threatened to unleash the tears that she had tried to keep at bay. She wiped her sleeves over her eyes and Minato realised he was doing a horrible job at cheering her up. Grief was something a person had to individualy work through and he did not know how to even begin addressing it. Minato teared a bit of cloth from his already ripped cloth and lifted his hand in an offering to which she daintily thanked him for.

"I'm tired of crying," Hinata sighed, "my cousin-he...he could not tolerate tears. He could handle my silence, my anger, m-my frustration but never tears. He would fluster and panic and warn me that I'm already dehydrated enough."

Minato chuckled. "Honestly, I don't think there's any man who wouldn't panic at the sight of a woman's tears."

"Not even you, Minato-sama?" Hinata enquired.

"Not even me." Minato nodded. "When my wife was pregnant, I was both the happiest and frightened man of my life."

"Really?" Hinata observed the man beside her. His long jagged blonde hair framed a slender face that fit a tall, muscled and slender body. Hinata found, looking at his broad shoulders, that even after losing an arm, it was hard to imagine it shuddering with fear. From what her father told her about the Yondaime's wife, she was a loving, caring woman. "My father had remarked once that he was in your class during the academy years. He told me that your wife was a gentle, patient, loving woman."

Minato burst out laughing. Gentle and patient. Patient. "Loving she is, but gentle and patient, not so much. A Hyuga in my class, huh? Let me think. You must either be Hiashi's or Hizashi's child."

Hinata nodded. "Hiashi."

"I should've guessed." Minato held a hand to his stomach. "Hiashi's always had a twisted sense of humour."

Hinata frowned. Her father. Humour? Maybe the Yondaime was hallucinating from losing an arm. Such things surely had to hurt.

Minato glanced at the girl looking at him as if he had been hit around the head with a pan once too much. "I'm not joking. Your dad was pretty wild back then."

"Are you feeling okay, Minato-sama?" Hinata's brows gathered in worry and she placed a palm against his head. He must be feverish, thinking that her father could be anything but proper. The wildest Hiashi had ever done was to drink tea on top of his futon and risk it spilling over. That might be a bit too wild for Hiashi in Hinata's opinion. "Are you sure you don't want a medic to come and check on you."

"Really I'm fine!" Minato shook her hand away and patted it. "Anyhow, the wife of the Sandaime had warned me that pregnancy had a way of turning the gentlest woman into a banshee but my wife already had quite the temper before she was pregnant."

"Where before her temper got her the nickname Red Hot Habanero, during pregnancy she would've been Schorching Red Hot Piquant Habanero of death." Minato lifted a hand to pat his head. "One of the reasons my teleportation jutsu is revered to be the best is because if it were less so, I would have many spoon shaped dents on my head."

Hinata gasped and Minato lowered his voice to emphasise the severity of his ordeal. "And the worst bit were the sudden mood change. There would spoons thrown everywhere and suddenly it would be like a dam bursting. She would be spouting rivers and rivers of chocolatey tears, because that was all she wanted to eat at the time, Just her beloved chocolate. I would hug and comfort her of course, even at the knowledge that my unsightly demise might occur the second she finishes crying. Pregnancy was a truly frigthening time for both of us."

"Oh, your poor wife, Minato-sama." A melodious giggle escaped between the fingers held at Hinata's lips. "Being pregnant can't be comfortable."

"How about me?" Minato asked, "I was the one constantly balancing precariously on the line between life and death."

"You are a brave man, Minato-sama," Hinata teased, "but you are also a shinobi so it would be normal for you. I would feel more sorry for your wife but, I must say that it must have been a truly terrifying experience. You have a wonderful way with words, Minato-sama."

Minato really liked this girl. "Thank you, Hinata-chan. May I call you that? You are the second woman to ever say that about me."

"Really? May I ask who was the first?" Hinata asked.

"Of course," Minato replied, "the first was my lovely wife. Once I was able to open up myself to her, I picked up on her speech patterns. A million ideas would pop in her head and she wouldn't be able to voice it fast enough and as a result, she often uses strange catchphrases. I have adapted that in my own way I guess."

"Hai, I h-have a friend," her cheeks turned slightly crimson and her violet eyes softened at the mention of said friend, "who has that tendency."

"Oh?" He voice took on a teasing tilt, not missing the slight flush to her face or her deepening eyes. "Just a friend you say? Not a boyfriend."

At once her cheeked flared red and she shook her head vigorously. "N-no, it's not like that! He's just a friend." Her shoulders drooped and her voice took on a slightly dejected note. "I wish he was more than that. He doesn't really notice me half the time."

"Oh?" Gloom is not fitting to a beautiful girl like her. Minato wanted the little rabbit to hop happily again, "You know... I was in your position once."

"Really?" Hinata peered from underneath her bangs.

"Really." Minato leaned against his hand on the boulder and reminisced fondly at his past.

"I was a pretty shy as a child and had a huge crush on my wife. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Even as she was crushing her fist agaisnt her bully's face, I thought she was magnificent. She would then turn her eyes and catch mine... And glared fiery daggers at me while asking 'What's funny?!' and I would be scared out of my mind. Scared, yes but not enough to stop following her everywhere she went."

Hinata was rather chilled at his description but she could relate towards the end.

"There were so many times that I wanted to approach her but I didn't know how. I would watch her and try to make myself talk to her but it was always too late as she would have gone somewhere else and the process would repeat again. Really, I was probably stalking her at times." Minato pondered aloud, "That was probably the time I mastered tree climbing. Tell me if I'm making you uncomfortable because I just realised how creepy my actions could be interpreted."

"No, no," Hinata began playing with her fingers again, "I understand. I-I used to do that as well to m-my crush as well. I used to stutter a lot more than I do now so I only settled for w-watching. I couldn't climb trees most of the times so I just used bushes."

"Well from one admirer to another," Minato drawled, "I can definitely say that trees and much more comfortable to watch from. The higer range of vision is an added bonus."

Hinata puffed out a sigh. "I try not to st-stalk him around anymore. I have already confessed to him that I l-loved him and I have decided to let him do the rest."

"Well I'm glad," Minato remarked cheerfully, "Mind if I ask what made you fall in love with this guy?"

Hinata stopped playing with her fingers, instead laced them together with each other. She sat straighter and Minato saw a smile grace upon her lips. "He's, just so..."

Struggling to describe Naruto with just a single word, Hinata freely let her heart pour with each word. "He's the most amazing person I've met. I used to be first person to really believe in me and stand up for me. He made me want to beome a stronger person. People say he's loud, annoying and stupid but that only makes him more amazing in my eyes, that someone so flawed, so human, could continue to stand and chase his dreams after being beaten down so badly."

Minato noticed the lack of stutter and was content to sit back and listen to Hinata.

"His whole being is simply wonderful," Her eyelids closed as she continued, "he has had a hard life, he lost his parents when he was young. Yet he keeps smiling and giving. He has the power to make others smile so easily and he does. A lot. Always looking forward, never backing down, that's just who he is."

"But at times when he thinks he's alone is when I love him most." She whispered contently, "He slumps, wounded and broken from loneliness. You can see in his eyes that he is a man craving to be loved, yet there is also steely resolve. He is man who is stronger than any Kage and in my eyes, the most amazing man in the world."

She left out one important detail about this man as well, Minato thought. He was a very lucky man. To have a person look at them the way Hinata's eyes does at only a memory, the way Kushina's eyes gently connected with his, is a precious thing. As he looked at Hinata's soft, violet eyes, itself sighing at the thought of her love, he deduced that he wasn't a very a smart man for missing such tender looks that have been passed his way.

"He lost his parents early you say?" Minato was reminded of the life that Naruto led and felt sorry for Hinata's object of affection as well as feeling regret descend upon his shoulders. It was one of his utmost regret that he was not there for Naruto's childhood.

"Hai," Hinata nodded. "Everyone ignored him at the beginning so he acted o-out to draw attention but it was n-never positive attention."

"Except for yours Hinata-chan?" Minato chuckled as she blushed a bright red again. This man was really lucky. He continued to ask her questions. "So how long have you felt this way about him?"

Hinata had only blushed at the mention of her love, it wouldn't have been that hard to notice her feelings for him. Not to mention she was as easy to read as an open scroll.

Hinata sighed. She seemed to always do that when talking about Naruto. "A long time. Before starting the Academy. Although, I didn't realise I loved him until later on."

"Wow." Minato whistled. "That's a pretty long time. Did you try to hide it?"

She nodded. "I'm wasn't very g-good though. I used to f-faint at the sight of him because I would be..." Hinata searched for the right word.

"Overwhelmed?" Minato offered.

"Hai! Thank you. Y-yes I would be too overwhelmed that he was l-looking at me."

"How often?"

Hinata played with her fingers again. "A lot of times."

"He still doesn't realise?"

"Nope." Hinata sighed in despair. "Not a single clue."

"And yet you keep chasing him." Minato felt slightly pleased that he at least, wasn't that clueless. "He must be a really special person."

A specially challenged person.

"Hai," Hinata confirmed. "He's not smartest man in the village. Or just smart. He's very clueless and blunt. You may n-need to explain things to him a couple of times. Repitition helps. Subtle is not also a word in his dictionary. But to make up for it he can b-be very clever and deviously unpredictable."

An unpredictable block head. Minato wasn't sure he approved of the little rabbit's mate. But hey, the heart wants what it wants. He couldn't really blame the person for being a blockhead however, he himself had proven to uphold the blonde stereotype at times. Kushina had said many time that he was an airheaded version of Einstein. Minato liked the latter bit, but wasn't really sure of how he felt of the former bit.

Not once during their conversation had Hinata mentioned the name of the person that she was in love with. Throughout their whole conversation a niggling suspicion tingled at the back of his neck which grew bigger during these last few questions. Still, he ignored that feeling. He was about to ask Hinata for the name of the person who held her heart but was interrupted by someone calling for him from behind.

"Hey dad! Baa-chan wants to have a word with you!"

The bellow, distinctive in its rough tones, huge enthusiasm and rampant energy, can only belong to the one and only Naruto Uzumaki.

Minato stood from his boulder. From the corner of his eye he saw Hinata sit straighter than possible as a lump of orange and black descended infront of them.

"Hey dad, Baa-chan wants to talk to you about-," Naruto's blue eyes, a mirror reflection of his own, widened as he saw who sat next to him. "Hinata! Hi. I haven't seen you for a long time."

Hinata blushed a bright red, giving a new meaning to the term tomato, a term which he was always fond of. "Hello, Naruto-kun. We saw e-each other earlier today."

"It felt like forever though!" Naruto grinned. "At least we were the victors."

"Of course we were, we had you Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled at him. "You were ama-mazing on the front lines."

Minato's eyebrows shot high to heaven as he saw a tint of red on Naruto's cheeks. True to his name, his eyes flashed back and forth from a cherry red Hinata to a sheepish Naruto scratching his neck.

Wait a minute.

Naruto-kun.

Naruto-kun.

Naruto-kun!

As if Kushina slammed a pan agaisnt his head, Minato heard symbols crash as the pieces added together. He may have only spent time with his son for a little while but even he knew that the words clueless and unpredictable was almost synonymous with Naruto.

After feasting on the colours of orange and black, Hinata then recalled a small detail which left her bewildered.

"D-dad?" Hinata's voice was steadily raising it's pitch. "I-is the Yondaime your f-father, Naruto-k-kun?"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto slapped his forehead protector as he took Hinata's hand in his turned towards his father. "I didn't think to tell anyone yet but yup, the Yondaime's my dad! How cool is that? Dad, I'd like you to meet a close friend of mine, Hinata. Hinata. this is Minato Namikaze, my father."

"Close friend, huh?" Minato whispered to himself. His cheeks cracked as mouth succumbed to a huge grin. "Hinata and I have already well acquainted ourselves with each other. I enjoyed talking to her very much. Why son, I approve!" He then proceeded to land a solid on Naruto's shoulder and winked at Hinata.

"Uh, sure. Thanks dad." Naruto patted his shoulders. His hand still firmly clasping Hinata's.

Minata had the pleasure of watching violet eyes moved from her connected hands, to his face in rapid succession and he was rewarded with the best impression of a red stream train he had ever seen.

"Well I must get going. Thank you Hinata, for our conservations which I will treasure and I will talk to you later Naruto." Turning around he began to walk to find Tsunade, grinning madly as he skipped towards the Kages. But he wasn't too far that he couldn't hear Naruto ask, "So what did you and my dad talked about?"

He wasn't too far that he couldn't hear a thud as Hinata's body met with the ground. And he was definitely not too far as he heard Naruto's loud voice searching frantically for a medic. Worry was the last thing on his mind however; there was a bounce in his step and his heart swelled with joy and pride. Minato was satisfied. Naruto would continue to live, love and be loved long after him and Kushina are gone and that's all he could ever want as a parent.

Strolling, Minato chuckled. He couldn't wait to go back to Kushina and tell her of everything that have happened. Maybe he could detail it in a way that could be written into a poem that Jiraiya-sensei could transcribe. A super cute, epic story of what happens when a cunning, clueless fox meet a sweet, gentle rabbit. The fox and the rabbit. A fitting pair indeed.