Sorry that the chapter was busted! Hopefully Open Office will come to the rescue. I resaved it and reuploaded it.

OOOooOoO

Chapter 7: Dealing with Humans

OoOOOoOoo

The kitsune saw the wrinkled, red, goo-covered raisin-like excuse for a human and almost gagged. The brat had reproduced in this loop, a somewhat rare occurrence what with his dangerous life and the hate that many usually aimed at him (intensified when the fox got annoyed with repetition and encouraged him to rampage).

Like all his emotions, when she felt the inexplicable burst of love she felt in the brat's chest it crossed over into her own energy. She was fairly sure being this close to such amounts of unselfish love would eventually kill her by unraveling her very nature, but it was hard to feel that annoyed with death by baby. Especially when it was the brat's baby.

Their child.

Her kit.

Hers!

OoooOOo

"No one hurts the kit!" The kyuubi growled, grabbing the passed out Uchiha clan head by the hair and slamming his head against the floor once for good measure.

She sat there, straddling him and breathing hard until she noticed the silence in the room. She looked around and everyone gasped and stepped back, except for Minato, who was walking towards her with his arms held out, and Itachi, who was staring at her in shocked disbelief.

"Musume, come away from him, alright?" Minato said gently, holding his hands out to her. She looked at them and then reached forward.

"Hokage-sama, don't!" Shouted one of the ANBU. The kitsune reflexively looked at him and he fell to the ground with a gasp. Others started moving but Minato shook his head at them decisively.

"Come on, Musume." He said gently. The fox put her hands in his and allowed him to lift her up. "Would you please release Badger-san?" He asked politely.

Musume looked over with a wry smile. "Ah… I think he'll need to come out of it on his own."

"You little!" The Hyuuga started, before the kitsune glared at him and he slumped over in his seat.

Musume looked over toward Minato and focused on his nose before closing her eyes. It annoyed her to find that his nose was no less visible. "It is a horrible technique." She whispered, dizzy at the implications of her new eyes. On the one hand, this solved her problem with not being able to focus her chakra enough to win in a fight. On the other hand, she now was the one thing she hated in this world more than being sealed.

"You… you are an Uchiha!" Someone shouted. She twitched and glared, but didn't open her eyes. It was disconcerting being able to see through her eyelids, but it seemed to mitigate the effects of the Mangekyou Sharingan

"What are you people, deaf? I've been saying so for years." Damn humans. She should hypnotize the lot and slit their throats. She should do that right now, in fact! Minato's hands were warm on her own, however, and she didn't want them to be cold with death.

She felt the power slide out of her eyes and she opened them with a sigh.

"If you had shown your Sharingan, that would have been definitive proof." Minato said gently.

"But…" The kitsune trailed off from her reflexive protest, before the corner of her mouth quirked up. "So it would, wouldn't it." She decided not to mention that she both hadn't thought about that before, much less that she hadn't known that she had it at all.

The fallen ANBU groaned and stood up. The eyes of the room focused on him.

"Badger-san, what did she subject you to?" One of the council members asked.

The ninja shuddered. "A room with a moose."

"A room with a moose?" The council member was confused. "That doesn't seem so bad."

"Then you ask her to trap you in a room with a moose for weeks." The ANBU said, glaring.

"You were only down for a few moments." The council member protested. The ANBU just stared at the council member until they coughed and looked away.

The Hyuuga was quick to rouse afterward, with a groan. He looked around before announcing, "I'm not going to talk about it." And then not saying anything else, no matter what the whispered protests were.

"We called this meeting for a reason." Minato said, moving to drop the Musume's arms. She tightened her grip, looking up at him with wild eyes. He sighed and guided them both to their chairs and gently extracted his left arm. "Impressive displays of Kekkei Genkai aside, we have not resolved the issue of Danzo's unauthorized actions, nor the concerns of the Uchiha clan."

It was a long but productive evening that lasted into the early morning. Everyone relaxed marginally when Musume passed out on the Hokage's shoulder, though the tone was still somber. Fugaku had yet to wake up from the gengutsu, even when the ANBU and military police together carried him to the ANBU holding cells.

Minato looked down at the sleeping woman and couldn't help the fond smile. She looked so deceptively innocent when she was unconscious. And she had only activated her eyes when his son was threatened. As anyone knew, the way to Minato's heart was through Naruto. And now everyone also knew that threatening Naruto was apparently the way to Musume's rage.

With a resigned huff he gathered her up into his arms. She sighed and curled against his chest but didn't wake up. He nodded to his assistant to take the papers and file them, and then walked out the door and towards his house. Like Hiruzen, his house was very close to the tower was one of the benefits of being Hokage (or retired Hokage.

He had to shift Musume to being slung half over one shoulder in order to open his door, but even then she didn't awaken. Minato frowned a bit in worry. He didn't think that using the Mangekyou Sharingan was supposed to cause chakra exhaustion, but she seemed fairly out of it.

Minato lowered her onto his most comfortable couch and covered her with a blanket from the closet. He sent up a quick prayer that when he woke up he would still have an intact house before going off to his own bed.

OoOOOooo

Naruto raced down the stairs, making sure to make lots of noise so that his father would wake up. He knew that his dad had come in really late- he was in the Academy already! No ninja would miss such a detail! But being out late didn't mean he got to skip breakfast. That's what the ninja code said, after all- it was in print!

He stopped though when he noticed that their couch seemed to have acquired some sort of odd growth at one end of it. "Eh?" The boy grunted, looking at the pile of blankets. He poked the mound and got a grunt in response. Who the heck was sleeping on their couch? Naruto pulled the blanket away and revealed tangled hair so black it had blue highlights.

Naruto grinned. He leapt onto the blanket and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Hey lady, time to get up! You can't hog our couch all day!"

The kitsune jerked awake, thrashing around so much she toppled both of them to the ground. "Brat! I am going to beat you so hard your fool father will be sore!" She roared, struggling to untangle from her nest.

"Bleeeah!" Naruto said, holding the edges of his mouth with his fingers and sticking out his tongue. "You have to catch me first!"

Musume crouched on all fours, glaring up at the boy through tangled bangs. "I'm very quick, brat. You sure seem confident for a midget."

The boy flashed through familiar handseals. "Kage Bushin no jutsu!" He cried, and suddenly to room was filled floor to ceiling with shadow clones. "You can only catch me if you know which I am!" A chorus of voices cried.

The kitsune's eyes glinted. "I'll have you know I'm an Uchiha, brat. We have advanced eye techniques that let us see through these things."

"No fair! That's cheating!" the Narutos pouted.

"True." She replied. "Especially when I've already got such an advantage." She grinned and leapt at the closest Naruto, who disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Ahahah! Try again, slow poke!" The Narutos took off to various parts of the house, the kitsune dashing after them and smacking them hard enough to dispel them, but as lightly as possible so that if she hit the real Naruto it wouldn't hurt him.

She poked a clone in the forehead that was pulling down his eyelid with his finger, and when it dispersed she was pointing at the bare chest of the brat's father. "Good morning." She grinned. She poked him on the chest in a short jab, causing the man's look of absolute horror to turn to one of annoyance.

"What was that for?" He grumbled, rubbing his eyes. "And what is the meaning of all this?"

"I had to make sure you weren't a henged shadow clone, which is pretty much the meaning of all this. Your son started it." Musume decided that since the Hokage didn't seem inclined to do much besides blink that he was giving her permission to take a good look. The fact that he was trying to simultaneously wake up and recover from a wave of adrenaline was of no consequence.

Normally she wouldn't think a human body attractive, but something about his shape was definitely pleasing. Maybe it was the toned body? No, she had seen plenty of muscled humans before. The pale skin? Probably not, the lack of fur was more disturbing than anything else. Although, it did serve to highlight the hair he did have, which was all that fabulous yellow. The kitsune was amused and somewhat concerned that her hand was itching to feel what the fine hairs on his chest felt like on her palm. She swallowed when she realized she was drooling.

"Hey! You stopped trying to catch me!" A (the?) Naruto pouted next to them.

"Naruto." Minato blinked at his son, still looking adorably half asleep. The kitsune frowned when she ran that thought back through her head. Adorable? "What have I told you about jutsu in the house?"

"Yeah yeah." The brat pouted. "But you also said that we had to wear pants when company was over." With that the shadow clone dispelled itself.

Minato looked confused for about five seconds before he looked down at himself in horror. He was dressed only in a pair of boxers with little bowls of ramen all over them.

"We could forgo that rule." The kitsune offered hopefully.

"Erk!" Minato stepped back into his room and slammed the door. She sighed unhappily and walked back down the stairs.

"Brat! Where's breakfast!" She called.

"Almost done!" Came a voice from the kitchen. A Naruto with a bandana tying his hair back and an apron on popped his head around the doorframe. "You like sweet toast, right?"

"Sure, brat." Musume sauntered into the room and flopped down at the table. She watched the three Narutos bustling about.

Minato was down a few minutes later, wearing pants that stopped mid-calf and a loose T-shirt... and his wounded dignity like a protective shroud. "Thank you for cooking, Naruto." He said, sitting down stiffly.

"I thought you said there was no one who would take me in?" The kitsune asked, her tone a bit sharper than she intended with disappointment over the amount of clothing. Better than the robes, she supposed.

Minato frowned and picked at the wood on the edge of the table. "There isn't anyone else. And you couldn't go back to the jail. Fugaku is there."

"So?" Musume pouted, annoyed that apparently he was not considering himself as a possible host.

Minato looked at her from the corner of his eye. "You attacked him yesterday, if you recall. The latest report stated that he still hasn't woken up from the genjutsu you put him under."

Her mood instantly lightened. "The jerk deserved it. In fact- he literally asked for it." She settled her hands in her lap and grinned. "That will show him to try and take control of people."

Minato sighed. "We'll have to deal with the fall-out today. Yesterday the village and the Uchihas came to an agreement and we've started mediation on their concerns, but they will most likely want you to come back to their part of the village."

"Oh, now they want me to stay with them." The kitsune grumped. Just when she had gotten to bunk with her two favorite humans. And learned that one of them would walk around mostly naked if roused suddenly. She purred a bit at the thought.

"Well, now you're an Uchiha."

"I was always an Uchiha!" She snapped, snatching the plate from the shadow clone so abruptly that it dispelled. The other set a plate in front of Minato and then vanished while the real Naruto sat down and took a bite of his own sweet toast.

"Of this I am aware." Minato said mildly. "And the irony is not lost on me."

"What's irony mean?" Naruto asked around a mouthful of toast.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Minato chided.

"Irony means 'stupidity' in this case, brat." The kitune snarked, before savagely tearing into her own toast.

"So after breakfast, you should probably clean up a bit…" Minato continued.

"Are you going to help me with that?" She asked slyly. Minato choked on his toast.

"I'll help you!" Naruto offered.

"No, absolutely not!" Minato dropped the toast and took a drink of tea to settle his throat.

"Oh, are you jealous?" The kitsune asked, slinking back in her chair and looking at him smugly.

"You know perfectly well how to clean yourself." Minato said shortly.

OooOOOoo

Breakfast was over fairly quickly, and Musume was shown where the bathing area was. She did in fact know the basics of cleaning up, but it was also true that she wasn't loathe to accept help. Especially with the long pelt springing from the top of her head. She felt that she should keep as much of it as possible as the rest of her body was so bald, but it was really hard to keep from tangling into a huge matt that stank to high heavens. And it seemed to enjoy sticking straight up in the back, despite its length. She blamed the inbreeding for that.

So it was without shame that once she was washed and dressed in new clothes that Minato had left for her, she sought him out. He looked up from a stack of papers and put down his cup of tea. "Are you ready?"

"Mostly." She replied. Now that she was standing in front of him the request seemed stupid. Like she were a dog, not a fox, and she was asking her master to rub her tummy.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Nothing." She shook her head and backed away.

Minato set the papers aside and stood up, coming over to her. "What's wrong? You like Teyaki and Uruchi, right? I'm sure they'll take you in now that Fugaku has been over-ruled and put in a coma."

She frowned. "Why does anyone have to 'take me in'? Am I some orphan child?"

"No." Minato said, leaning back in surprise. "You are definitely not a child."

She looked at him, studying his expression. "I could live on my own, couldn't I? I'm sure there's something in this town I could do." She studied her hands and the restrictive human chakra coils that prevented her from being 'useful' by demolishing things, as her essential nature demanded. "Maybe I could do sculpture or something." She muttered in disgust. She almost jumped when a hand landed softly on her shoulder. She turned to Minato, uncertain. Nothing seemed right anymore. She didn't even know what she was still doing here.

"Whatever you want to do, we'll figure it out, alright?" Minato asked gently, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly.

The kitsune looked down at the floor and sighed. Things used to be so simple; destroy everything in sight, chat with other demons, answer summons, destroy more things (including the summoner if possible), take a nap for a few centuries…

Minato's other hand came under her chin and lifted it gently, until they were looking in each other's eyes. "It will all work out." He promised.

"Alright." She whispered.

"What were you going to ask me?" He murmured, running his hand along her jaw, tracing behind her ear before he let both his hands drop slowly.

The kitsune wanted to grab his hands and put them back, but was disgusted with herself for the thought. "I… uh…" She felt one side of her mouth quirk. "Was wondering if you would help me with my hair?" Her nose twitched and she scratched at it.

"Alright." Musume looked up at him, startled. He would? "Where's the brush?" She handed it to him and he gestured for her to sit down on the couch. He sat behind her and she waited from the pain to come. But he was working quite gently at the ends and working his way to the top.

"Why are you doing that?" She asked, twisting around a bit to see, though she was pushed back to face forward immediately.

"Doing what?" Minato asked, continuing the steady rhythm.

"Brushing it like that." She clarified.

"It works better to start at the ends with long hair."

"Is that so." She mused. It certainly seemed to be, but maybe he was just playing with the ends of her hair and it only seemed he was brushing it? "Ouch!" She snapped, trying to twist around again.

"Sorry." He pushed her back straight. "Yes, it does. I had long hair for a while and Kush…" He trailed off. She could hear him swallow. "Kushina had long hair." He finished the statement, but didn't say anything more.

"Dad!" Naruto called as he bounced into the room. "I'm off to the Academy."

"Do well today. Graduation is tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Yup! And this year I'll pass for sure, since I know the super awesome Kage Bushin. I will blow them away! It's much better then the regular bushin, right Dad?"

"That it is. Have fun and be safe." Minato replied, laughing.

"Heh heh! I know the ANBU-san will be watching me the whole time, Dad. How could I get into trouble?" The kid grinned widely.

"You always seem to manage." Minato said dryly.

"Yeah, yeah. Have fun yelling at the old farts." Naruto called as she slammed the door on the way out.

"We should get going soon." Minato commented. He finished the last big snag in the impressively long and previously impressively tangled mane. He swept the brush along the scalp of the woman in front of him and heard her gasp. He hadn't felt a snag, but he was about to ask if he had hurt her when she started to… purr? He brushed along her scalp again and watched her arch into it. He hastily set the brush down and stood up. "There you go, all the knots are taken care of." Musume turned to him lazily, eyes half lidded.

"Can we do that every morning?" She sighed. Minato gulped, though for some reason the question had him almost reflexively answering 'yes.' It wasn't like she hadn't been a nearly constant presence in his life for the past two years. Mostly when he was scolding her about a prank…right? Buying her ramen was a bribe to stop the pranks, especially when he caught her plotting with his son, nothing more... bringing her home with him was a necessity... He grumbled to himself and rubbed his forehead.

"We need to get going. The Council will be meeting soon." Minato said decisively, moving towards the stairs. "I need to get into my official clothing. I'll be back down in a bit and then we can go, alright?" He beat a hasty retreat without waiting for an answer.

The kitsune pulled some of the long black hair in front of her shoulder and ran her fingers through it. They met no resistance. She sighed and flung it back behind her. She had thrown away her pride as a fox, a wild creature and a force of nature and acted like some domesticated bitch; her reward was having Minato pet her like one. It sort of seemed worth it...

She scoffed at herself and stood. Pathetic.

OooOoOoOO

Minato had to move the meeting outside as a good half of the Uchiha clan as well as large numbers of other highly placed clans' members and assorted civilians had come. Since all the basics of a peace agreement had been hammered out yesterday, and since technically all meetings of the Council could be attended by the general public... as much as this was going to be a disaster, neither Minato nor the Council members could do anything about it.

"Show us..."

"No." Musume cut off the Hyuuga.

"But..."

"No!" She growled at the Uchiha.

"Everyone, please wait for the meeting to ask your questions." Minato said, steering Musume away from the crowd of ninja and civilians before something exploded. And, looking at the woman's twitching face, it would probably be the prankster and everyone that happened to be around her. "Relax." He murmured in her ear. She looked up at him with wide eyes. He counted it as a win, as she was no longer snarling.

Minato sat her down and then settled beside her. "Alright everyone." He called out, causing most of the talking to die down. "We're here to settle some issues that have come from the recent misunderstanding between the Uchiha clan and this Council."

"Misunderstanding!" Someone shouted, and it was chaos again. Minato rubbed his forehead tiredly.

"Yes, misunderstanding!" Minato called out. "Anyone who continues to disrupt this meeting will be taking away by the ANBU or the Konoha Police. Whichever force looks more bloodthirsty." Everyone mostly quieted down. "There have been some issues, but the principle players have been arrested and will be tried for treason. The remaining parties have come to agreements which will most likely not impact anything in daily life." Minato nodded to acknowledge Uchiha Hotchikisu, the acting head of the clan, indicating that the temporary leader had the floor.

"We would like to apologize for the previous clan head's hostility toward Musume." Hotchikisu started. Musume cocked her head to the side but didn't acknowledge the speaker and more than that. "It is the hope of the clan that she will live with one of the Uchiha that have volunteered for the honor of hosting her in their home." Minato noted Musume's nose twitching and started to get a bit nervous- that seemed to be a gesture that precluded snarling.

Several Uchiha stepped up with the interim leader. It was glaringly obvious that all of them were unattached males of marrying age, all of whom had activated Sharingans. All but one were on the Konoha police force. It was somewhat conspicuous that Itachi was absent. The Hokage hoped that Musume wouldn't pick up on the unsubtle tactic...

"What is this, a line up of mates?" Musume snapped.

Minato sighed. It was a vain hope, as he had expected. She might be oblivious most of the time, but a maneuver of such blatancy wasn't going to get past even the most politically ignorant child in the Academy.

"These young men have all volunteered..." Hotchikisu started.

"You want me to mate with these kits? Do you take me for a cradle robber of some sort?"

"Er..." Hotchikisu looked confused, and rightly so. It was unusual for a woman to protest someone thinking she was younger than she was. But also, Musume looked perhaps mid- twenties at the oldest. The average age of the Uchiha men looked considerably older than that. Though, Minato considered, she had been in the village for the past... he blinked. For almost six years now. And she had always looked to be mid-twenties. He'd have to compare with her intake photo, to see if there had been any aging changes or not.

Hotchikisu made placating motions. "We felt that it would be helpful for you to have a selection of young men who find you attractive." Minato looked over to the woman beside him and saw that the flattery had gotten Hotchikisu absolutely nowhere. In fact she looked more annoyed. "And with these fine Uchiha, all of your children will have the capability to activate their Sharingan."

A crash made Minato jump a little bit- not because he had been surprised to hear it, but more because of the sharply increasing sense of impending disaster.

"You wish me to serve as a brood mare for a clan that has rejected me?" Musume's aura seemed to be turning a bit red around the edges.

"Very few women are able to activate their Sharingan and those who do have all their children able to do so... we have few girls in the clan as they rarely survive to adulthood... and no one, of course, has it to the level..." Hotchikisu tried to continue.

"You not only want to use me as a brood mare, but as one for the despicable Man-" Minato clapped a hand over her mouth, receiving a deadly glare in response. Made even more deadly by the three black commas spinning in each red eye.

"It's activated." Minato told her softly and watched those red eyes widen and then fade back to black. He let her go.

Musume took a deep, shuddering breath before turning back to Hotchikisu. "No." She replied, before sitting back down.

"But... you need to come back to the clan. Is there someone else that you would prefer to live with?" Hotchikisu asked hopefully.

"I owe nothing to the clan. One of your number has..." She trailed off. Minato winced at the reference to Uchiha Madara. "But I didn't blame you for that. Much." She paused again. "But since that time only three of your number has been anything but hostile." She waved a hand airily. "I suppose I could stay with Itachi. Doesn't he still live in Fugaku's house? I feel that taking over the family would be an appropriate battle trophy." Her grin was wide and stretched almost ear to ear. Minato felt that the idea was an awful one, and not just because she had just essentially killed the head of the household.

Hotchikisu turned a bit pale, and the other Uchiha were looking restless. "Itachi and the rest of his family are under review, they aren't really available to host such a valuable person..."

Musume grasped the armrests of the chair so tightly that they creaked and started to crack. Impressive considering that she was not a ninja, and the chairs were reinforced with the strength of one in mind. "Then I have no desire to return to your clan." She said through gritted teeth.

"But you didn't even say if you activated the Mangekyou Sharingan the same way!" Hotchikisu burst out. Minato hoped that she would cooperate and coach the Uchiha, as the promise of the technique was part of the reason that they were not in open civil war now.

"You want to match me up with some young kit and spill clan secrets into a general meeting?" Musume sneered at the man.

"No, of course not right now, you don't need to choose a host, either, of course, these are clan matters..." Hotchikisu babbled. Minato felt a bit sorry for the man. He was the only one the clan could agree on, but he wasn't particularly politically savvy. Or really, even remotely politically savvy.

"No, no." Musume waved magnanimously. "If you wish to be so generous as to make all of your clan's actions completely transparent, I shall have to oblige you." Hotchikisu looked rather ill. "As all Uchiha are aware, the only documented way to activate one's," she slid a look to Minato before she continued. "Manky eyes, is to become very close friends with someone, love them in the deepest part of your heart, and then brutally murder them."

Everyone gasped. The non-Uchiha at the revelation, and the Uchiha that she had actually said it. Minato felt as ill as Hotchikisu looked. He knew there was something horrific involved, but killing your best friend? The picture of what had been done to the woman at the hands of Madara had been bleak before, but now he realized that on top of completely controlling his own daughter, he must have also emotionally tortured her. It was a wonder she was functional at all.

"Oh, but that's not the end of course." Musume sneered. "That will only get you the first level. If you stay with that you will eventually go blind, and every time you use your new technique, your eyes will bleed. In order to counteract that, you have to kill your own sibling and steal their eyes, which have to, of course, be at the same level."

At this pronouncement there was complete silence. Minato looked over at Musume, but her face was a blank mask. His heart contracted painfully. Madara hadn't done this to only one child, but two? And that was assuming that he had gotten the process correct on the first try. What a monster!

"You want this technique? This thing that controls people, takes away their will, traps them in a prison of their own mind's making?" She continued quietly. "Maybe it would have been better, then, if you had all been murdered." Minato winced, both because that was supposed to be a state secret, but more because of the pain in her voice. "I'm a fool." She whispered, so quietly that only Minato could hear her. "What am I doing here, connecting? They're all the same." Minato sucked in his breath to say something, but she stood up and walked toward the assembled Uchiha. "Anyone who tries to get the Manky eyes- I will kill them." She said it flatly, with no emotion. Turning to Hotchikisu she snarled. "And I don't need a keeper." And with that she disappeared in a flash of red.

Minato blinked. That hadn't looked like a body-flicker, that had looked like his own yellow flash technique. But that was impossible, wasn't it?

Minato stood, trying to reign in the frantic whispers that had broken out after Musume's disappearance. He swept his vision over the gathered people. A good percentage of the Uchiha looked angry or scared. These were probably the ones for whom Musume's speech had not been news. Some of the Uchiha and all of the villagers looked disgusted. He had a feeling that if anyone now appeared with the Mangekyou Sharingan, that person would be hunted by not just the broken Uchiha woman, but also most of the rest of the clans, if not the whole village.

OoOOoOoO

A/N: This chapter's trivia: the gengutsu that Badger-san was trapped in is from what cartoon? (This one should be easier than last chapter, the answer which was my 2nd favorite character from Soul Caliber: Ivy! First favorite is Voldo, but he just makes gasping noises. Hard to quote that.)

Also- I switched to Minato's PoV in this chapter at sort of a weird place, but I still like how it worked, so I'm leaving it. Tell me what you think. My beta (omg- I have one?!?!) went through it, he rocks!

Oh, and Hotchikisu is not a canon character. I named him after my favorite Japanese word (stapler- the name is the sound it makes).