"Your students need you."
Decades of practice kept Nari's sudden anger from showing. Trust a Nara to know exactly where to strike to win against an opponent. On the battlefield against their enemies, it was an invaluable asset. But when they turned that on a comrade…
I could spit fire at Shikaichi, Nari mentally snarled, resisting the urge to glare at the Nara clan Head, and he would deserve it. You don't drag family into a fight.
Her students weren't quite her children. Nari still loved them as much as her own son.
Nari exhaled her fury with a silent huff, barely audible in the nighttime stillness. Shinobi. They didn't fight fair, ever. And they were ruthless in defense of their home and family. Shikaichi was only looking out for his village and clan.
Two could play that game. "They have each other. They'll survive without me." Nari made sure to thump that into their heads. You didn't survive three Great Wars without relying on your teammates!
But the two-year-old sleeping on Nari's back only had Nari. Between her well trained, lethal students and her defenseless granddaughter, Nari would pick Yuri every time. It hurt, like salt ground into an open wound, and it wasn't fair. But family was never fair. Nari learned that a long time ago.
Shikaichi picked up on her unstated words and grunted with grudging acceptance. He understood Nari's rather precarious position - his own grandson was even younger than Yuri. But Shikamaru still had his parents and an entire clan for protection against those who would strike against the vulnerable Nara heir. "You won't have any back up outside the village." Shikaichi warned. "No protection other than yourself." He sent a pointed glance at Nari's leg.
She hid a grimace. A shattered femur during the Third War had seen to the end of her career. The medics had done everything they could, but old age meant that Nari simply didn't heal from the same injuries she once did. Tsunade's revolution of ijutsu allowed Nari to keep her leg - which would have been impossible during Nari's genin days - but even a fraction of her weight on it sent sharp pains shooting up her leg and hip. She didn't strictly need her cane to walk, shinobi training meant she could ignore or numb the pain, but Nari rather preferred having the steel core length of wood on hand in case people got ideas.
Like her bratty students, who thought that a crippled leg meant she couldn't still kick their asses around a training field. She didn't survive fifty odd years of active duty without learning a lot of tricks, something she gleefully demonstrated.
She could handle a jounin, even one backed up by chuunin or tokubetsu jounin. But two jounin? Especially from Kumo or Kiri? While protecting Yuri at the same time? Once that would have been simple. Now she'd be toast faster than she could say Shodaime.
Still, as dangerous as they were, Kumo and Kiri weren't Nari's greatest concern for Yuri's safety. The quiet, anonymous life in the small town along Hi no Kuni's southern coast would be their best defense against that particular threat. Any enemy shinobi that somehow found their way to them Nari would deal with.
No, Nari wasn't worried about that.
"Nari-sama." Years of shinobi training meant Shikaichi did not jump or freeze as a masked shinobi melted out of the shadows. Instead, his body stilled, muscles relaxed in preparation to move at a moment's notice.
"Mouse." Nari greeted the black masked man, briefly comparing the white painted design and the man's chakra signature against her memory of the current ANBU General. "How long?"
"No more than five minutes." Mouse replied, his voice a low growl that did not fit the animal his mask represented. "Horse will escort you out."
"Understood." She didn't have much time, but there should be just enough… Nari stepped closer to Shikaichi, pitching her voice so low the Nara had to strain to catch her words. "Beware the one-eyed hawk. On the surface, you cannot see how far the roots of the tree spread."
Shikaichi's eyes narrowed sharply. "Is the tree still healthy?"
"It may require a careful watch and pruning," Nari replied, "to keep this particular sickness from the heart. The budding blossoms are especially vulnerable, I hear."
That was all she could do to warn him. Konoha needed manpower, needed a show of strength in the wake of the Kyuubi attack and the deaths of their Hokage and only jinchuuriki. Kumo and Iwa still nursed grudges from Konoha's victory in the war. As weak as the village was, the Kyuubi's rampage destroying any recovery Konoha had made since the end of the war… if Iwa and Kumo decided to initiate a Fourth War, Konoha might not be strong enough to hold them off.
Sarutobi would reinstate ROOT. He had to. ANBU were stretched thin enough, and they could not afford to turn away any missions in their current state. Not even the blackest of Black Ops.
Unfortunate, but true - and an opportunity for Danzo to get his hands on whoever caught his eye.
Yuri was very obviously her mother's child, from her bold coloring to the sheer potential of her clan. Already, Danzo had expressed an interest in Yuri. Before, Minato and Kushina were there to turn the old war hawk away, to threaten the cripple should he or any of his agents so much as go near Yuri.
Now they were dead. And Nari was not going to risk her granddaughter's safety hoping Sarutobi wouldn't allow Danzo to train Yuri.
Especially not when Yuri had just awakened her kekkai genkai. It was dangerous enough when awakened in adulthood. At Yuri's age, she would be defenseless, unable to hide the effects. If Danzo discovered it, discovered the bloodline Nari had passed onto her son, who had then passed it to Yuri? The kekkai genkai Nari's long dead clan successfully kept hidden for generations? There would be nothing Danzo would not do to bring Yuri under his control, to bleed her dry of information and use it for his own purposes.
The Nara Head hummed absently, a dangerous glint in his eye. "You won't be gone too long, I hope? I'll miss our games."
"You have a clan of game partners, you lazy codger."
Shikaichi had a valid point. Nari and Yuri could not stay away forever. Yuri needed extensive shinobi training to protect herself, and Nari could not do that on her own. Physical limitations aside, it would draw unwanted attention, and Nari and Yuri would be without help when shinobi inevitably came to investigate the rumors of shinobi in such a small town so far from Konoha.
"She'll be in the Academy no later than your own grandson." Nari promised. Academy students could join anywhere from five to eight years of age. Kakashi, the brat, had been the only exception. Naras on the other hand, never attended younger than six. Most were seven or eight before they entered.
Nari had six years. Just enough time to prepare.
Hopefully.