Chapter One: Loved One
Heavy breathing. A deadly still forest's night, smoke and blood in the air. The parents knelt over their infant child, a new jinchuuriki. The heavy, labored, pained breathing was from them.
The parents were dying.
"We've said everything we wanted to," said Minato. "But we thought we were having a boy. What do we name her?"
Kushina smiled through the blood trickling down out of her mouth, smiled with a terrible kind of sadness. "... Suki," she said. "It means 'loved one.' We wanted her name to have an inspiring meaning, right? We wanted it to be cute and sweet?
"That way…"
"She'll know we loved her," Minato realized. "She'll always know she's loved. And she'll know… we hope for more love in her future… in spite of her status.
"Yeah." There was a warm smile in his own voice. "I like that name. Suki."
The ninja gathered solemnly around the barrier heard every word, Sarutobi Hiruzen included.
Five minutes later, the glowing golden barrier had fallen. The couple lay dead, arched protectively around their newborn child.
Hiruzen and the other ninja rushed over to Minato, Kushina, and… Suki, new Kyuubi jinchuuriki, but by that point it was already too late.
Hiruzen gazed down at them sadly, the baby's wails faint in his ears, his mind distant.
"Loved one," he pondered quietly to himself, a single statement almost no one else heard.
The entire council had gathered together in the council room in a dark and solemn emergency meeting. Hiruzen sat at the head of the table, watching and leading the goings-on with steepled fingers.
"Who gets the jinchuuriki?" Danzo said quickly around the long table at the end. He didn't even use her given name. "I want -"
"Danzo, you only take boys," Hiruzen said sharply. "And we all know it. Besides, as newly reinstated Third Hokage and maker of the new decree, and as the one who was there, I believe I should be allowed -"
"Ahem. There is a tradition to consider."
Everyone looked over in surprise at Koharu, prim with her chin lifted high.
"A special ward is always placed under the direct control of the highest-ranking village member… of their gender. If the jinchuuriki had been a boy, that would indeed be Hokage-sama. Since she is a girl…"
Koharu's eyes were sharp.
"That means -!" Hyuuga Hiashi realized, his eyes widening in alarm.
"Yes. According to Konoha law… Uzumaki Suki's raising in the warrior village-state of Konoha… belongs to me," Koharu finished softly.
Hiruzen gave her a cautious, assessing stare. "I agree as Hokage," he said suddenly, trusting Koharu over Danzo in a moment of leadership decision. "It shall be done. Koharu, I can prepare housing for her and -"
"Don't be ridiculous," Koharu sniffed. "I will raise her myself."
Everyone at the table paused.
"She will live… with you in your home?" Hiruzen realized, trying not to look surprised.
"Yes. I need a granddaughter and heiress; she suits perfectly," said Koharu primly. "Besides, Hiruzen, you are far too lax. That girls needs protecting - and for someone to keep a strict eye on her.
"Of course, she will live with me. I will train her to be a suitable jinchuuriki - and a good person," Koharu finished more softly. An addition Danzo would never have made. "You may be content to leave her raising to the village, Hiruzen, but I prefer the hands-on path. That is my way of the ninja."
Hiruzen paused - and suppressed a warm smile. Leave it to Koharu, he thought in wry amusement. "Very well. It is decided!"
He struck his hand against the table, the robed scribe in a corner wrote it on the transcript scroll, and it was done.
Later, as everyone had stood with heavy hearts and made to leave to repair their village, Hiruzen came up to walk smiling beside Koharu, hands behind his back. "The girl Suki will be given over to you immediately," he told Koharu pleasantly. "I must say, this plan interests me."
"Because of her training?" Koharu wondered.
"Oh, the training is the least interesting part." Hiruzen smiled as Koharu blinked in surprise. "Who will Suki befriend in Konoha, with a female gender and someone to boost her power and connected confidence, to lessen her loneliness and envy of others…?
"Just how different will some of her Konoha connections turn out to be?"
Author's Notes: This is part four of a six-fandom series called Gender Changes Six. Follow me for more.