A Senju Returns

chapter 4 surprises and solutions

Kun-Loon smiled triumphantly as she carefully yet hastily shifted mounds of dusty scrolls, yellowed and crinkling with age. Underneath them laid a large scroll with a familiar double-sided, three-pronged insignia. It had no other markings, but she remembered vividly its contents and the importance of what they stood for.

Almost reverently, she cleared an open area on the attic floor and rolled the scroll open, trailing a finger delicately down the elegantly brush-stroked script flowing across it. Ah ha! There, just like her memory had told her, were the listings of ancestral properties. With the decline within the clan, most of them would be empty.

She tapped her chin with a finger, wondering how to accomplish her plan. Kagome needed a secluded place to raise the children, and while it was certainly not the most peaceful of lodgings, she imagined her daughter was not one to be sequestered away for her own safety. The people there would welcome her and protect her zealously, overjoyed that a prodigal daughter had come to claim her heritage.

After all, it was not everyday that a Senju returned to Konoha.

Kikyo mentally sighed as she ground some herbs together for a local remedy that one of the villagers had requested. Since she had come back, the villagers had been cautious and on guard in her presence. The former respect she had had from the villagers was gone, replaced by wariness. Villagers quietened when she approached and children were cautioned about being alone with her. It was a great change for her.

Life had changed for her over the recent years, all for the better since she had sense knocked into her - literally - by the slayer female, and she had started to train her reincarnation. She laughed softly, recalling her reincarnation's easy acceptance of her after the slayer vouched for her, and blushed in remembrance of her first - official - meeting with Miroku and the subsequent beating he was given, which included helpful hints on how to deal with him from both females.

Kikyo sighed again as she thought back to when Sango had taken her to the inugumi. She had believed that it would be her reincarnation who would be most against the alliance, but to her surprise, it was Inuyasha and the kitsune kit, Shippo, who were most against it, and it was Kagome - not Inuyasha - who managed to persuade them to see the benefits of the alliance.

In truth, her reincarnation was nothing like Kikyo had expected and to be honest, she hadn't cared then about the girl; she had merely been an obstacle to her and now looking back she regretted her actions, and was thankful that she had been given another chance by the younger miko.

Kaede eyed the children left in her care warily. Oh, she knew they looked innocent, but they weren't. Not at all. The more innocent a child looked, the more trouble they would cause. For Inuyasha to don that expression...they had done something. Judging by how everyone was acting like perfect angels, they were trying to get in her good graces for something that they wanted. "Kagome will return once she has prepared everything, and no sooner." she warned them, watching as they almost simultaneously all drooped with depression. Kaede eyed them warily, but her inspection of them was interrupted by familiar, female laughter.

"Kagome-kaa-san/nee-chan! You're back!" everyone exclaimed happily as they proceeded to swarm the girl.

"Relax, guys, I'm not going to disappear!" Kagome admonished, smiling as she tried to adjust to the weight of the chibis draping themselves over her.

"You were gone for a really, really long time, nee-san! What if a demon had attacked and knocked away your weapons and you couldn't call for help?" Sango reasoned, using a child's perfect logic.

Kagome smiled at the girl and ruffled her hair. "There aren't any demons in my time, Sango." Kagome said gently.

"You're not going to leave, either?" Naraku asked from his position on her back.

Kagome tuned her head and blinked. 'When did he...?' "No, Naraku, I'm not leaving without you guys this time. We're ALL leaving this time, to first go to my home, and then we'll be traveling to our new home." she told them.

"Please tell me we are NOT going to be staying in your time, in the city," Kikyo groaned from behind her.

Kagome laughed and turned to face her. "No, Kikyo, we are not staying at the shrine," Kikyo sighed in relief, "we are going to go back to where my parents came from and live there."

"And how, may I ask, are we getting there?" Kikyo asked warily.

Kagome grinned. "Through the well, both times. We'll travel home first, change and get supplies, then we'll go through again to their village."

Kikyo just stared at her blankly. "We are traveling through a well, how...exactly?"

"By jumping down it, of course."

"Of course."

"From my time, it leads back to the village that my father is from and where we will be living." Kagome explained.

"That still doesn't explain how the well will work for us. The well has only ever let you and InuYasha through."

"Kikyo."

"Yes?"

"What am I?"

"A miko."

"And?"

"Guardian of the Shikon no Tama."

"InuYasha is what?"

"A hanyou."

"Who has worn what since we met?"

"A subjagation necklace set by...ah."

"Right. While I was at home, I made some bracelets and infused them with my power, linking them to the charms on my bracelet. While wearing these, everyone will be able to go through the well."

chapter 5 coming home and too many chibis

The guards looked at the two women approaching, and then with some trepidation at the group of brats behind them and were slightly wary. After all, they were still rebuilding from the Kyuubi's attack and the other villages would surely try to attack now, thinking that Konoha was weak.

The guards stared in disbelief at the name on the woman's papers.

"Nee-chan, is this an idiot?" he heard one of the silver-haired children ask.

"No, he is not an idiot...at least, I would hope not. It would be quite irresponsible of Konoha to set an idiot at the gate. Then again, gate duty could be used as a punishment."

His eyebrow twitched as he checked over the children's papers, then the other woman's, while his partner went to get the Hokage.

"But he keeps staring at your papers like an idiot...or like they're written in a foreign language." the child reasoned.

"Sess, the term is 'mentally challenged', not idiot. And of course he's not going to believe his eyes. After all, my cousin Tsunade is the only Senju that they know."

"That don't 'splain nothin'." another grumbled.

"That doesn't explain anything, Inu," she corrected. "Her grandfather and granduncle founded Konoha, but she doesn't have the Mokuton, nor the ability to tame bijuu."

"Then is she really a Senju?" Sess asked dubiously.

"Yes, just because those two traits failed to surface in her does not mean she is not a Senju."

~.o.O.o.~

'Save me, save me, somebody please save !' Minato screamed mentally as he worked on the curse of all kages: paperwork.

"Er, Hokage-sama?" a tentative voice asked from the intercom.

"What is it, Sakuya-chan?" he muttered absently.

"One of the gate guards is here, he says he has to speak with you immediately...its about Tsunade's family," she said warily, clear doubt in her tone.

Minato raised an eyebrow. 'Somebody's claiming to be a Senju? Of all the families in Konoha, they're claiming to be a Senju?' "Have them escorted to my office, Sakuya-chan," he said, eyes narrowing at the potential complications from this claimant.

"Er...Hokage-sama, surely you don't mean that! Think of what the children could get into!" Sakuya wailed in horror of what could be done.

Minato blinked at the intercom in confusion. "Children, Sakuya-chan? I thought you said that it was one person claiming to be a Senju." he queried.

Sakuya huffed. "She is claiming to be a Senju, but there are eleven others with her, claiming she is their mother/sister/guardian/friend." Sakuya said.

Minato closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "And they are all children?"

"Well, no,"

Minato sighed in relief.

"Only ten of them are children." she finished.

Minato's head hit the desk.

"Hokage-sama?" she asked, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

He glared at the intercom, before sighing and rubbing his temples.

"And don't even think of leaving me in charge of them while you speak to her!" Sakuya added quickly, prompting a groan from the man.

"But...!"

"You're the Hokage, I'm just the secretary and I am not watching them! ...Even if most of them are well behaved, watching after children while you talk with their guardian is NOT in my job description."

Minato sighed. "Can't the other adult watch them while I talk to this…"

"Senju (supposedly) Kagome." Sakuya filled in.

"Kagome-san?" Minato pleaded.

Silence.

"That still leaves the children here with me." She snarked.

Minato started to shrug before grinning evilly. "Get Inu in here, tell him he has a mission."

Sakuya laughed. "You're sending an ANBU to babysit?" she squawked.

Minato grinned. "Why not? How much trouble can 10 kids be? I want to meet this lady now, Sakuya."

She groaned. "He's going to kill you." She informed her (obviously) insane Hokage before sending the chunnin back to the gates and summoning Hatake.

What that man was thinking, sending an ANBU – captain, no less – to babysit children was beyond her. Though…she really, really wouldn't mind seeing his reaction to the amount of children he'd be watching.