AN: So another chapter. It's a little short, but hopefully you like it.
A Quiet Thunder Arc.
Eternal Spiral.
Chapter 10: Sand Castles.
It took longer than a month before they could leave, the reason being the seals she had to put up.
The last thing she needed was for it to be easy for the enemy to get to the slowly being rebuilt Uzu no Kuni.
After she'd finished sealing the bridge and showing Tazuna where they were – though she hadn't shown him much more than how to get his men across to start clearing the destruction and rebuild, that the seals would only kick in if they sensed ill intent.
When he's asked how they knew friend from foe, she'd tried her best to explain, but even to her the theory behind some seals confused her.
"You'll visit, won't you?" Tsunami asked as Jiraiya, Naruto and the twins said their goodbyes (well, the twins didn't say much, being only two and half months old).
Naruto smiled.
"Of course," she answered. "I don't know when, but we definitely will, Tsunami-kaachan."
It was a short exchange and kind of tearful for some of them, but soon they'd left Nami no Kuni behind and entered Hi no Kuni.
Not wanting to be noticed in Fire Country, Naruto and Jiraiya both wore a henge.
Jiraiya's was more obvious and made him look more like a normal civilian with short black hair and blue eyes. His red facial markings were gone as well, and of course his henge made it seem like his clothes were more fit for a civilian.
Naruto chose a disguise simple, and maybe a little older than her current age, around nineteen years old.
The henge made her hair black, though the same length but a mess of waves instead of the mostly pin straight locks. Her skin was now pale, and her eyes black, reminiscent of an Uchiha in coloring at least.
Of course her now usual garb of battle kimono – the black and orange-red one – was replaced with a regular, yet almost expensive looking, pale pink kimono with dark yellow obi and blue, darker pink and orange cherry blossoms on it.
It was actually a replica of one of her kimono's that she had brought back with her from Uzushio, unlike many of the Kimono's she'd brought along this one didn't have a spiral symbol.
The reason for the henge's was the twins.
Hopefully they were young enough no one would look at them and scream Uchiha for all to hear.
That would be the sort of rumor to end in disaster.
If anyone stopped to ask, Jiraiya was her father, and they were headed to meet her husband in Wind Country. Once out of Fire Country they could do away with the disguises.
The power of a simple henge, though she knew it was also easy enough for those skilled and trained to see through a henge if looking and dispel them.
Though, they were making a stop at the safe house Sasuke had left directions for.
They planned to stay there a few days and she'd begin placing the needed seals to keep people from seeing the home, and from getting in.
"This place is a hole," Ero-sennin said, as they stood back and stared at the safe house.
Naruto rolled her eyes, it wasn't that bad. It just needed a tiny bit of work, it was abandoned for over a decade after all.
It looked to be the size of a small home, probably no bigger than two or three bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and a bathroom.
It was nestled in a clearing in a vastly wooded area, close by was a small stream, that probably led to a river back in the direction of Wave Country, possibly one of the areas sea side countries.
"It's not that bad, Ero-sennin. You're just upset there is no one to peep on," she said, smirking. "Here hold the twins."
Naruto handed the two babies off to Jiraiya and headed for the front door of the cabin like home.
Sasuke had told her there was a defense on the place, but that she would be able to get past it with a bit of blood from the twins – something she didn't want to use, but it was the only way to ward her into the defense mechanism since it would only be lifted by an Uchiha.
Since she was not one, the next closest one was him or the twins.
Sasuke had spent a lot of time in the isolated Uchiha Compound exploring and reading.
He knew one way for someone not of Uchiha blood to get in was to use the child sired between said person and an Uchiha to sort of... encode them into the complicated seal the Namikaze clan had gifted them not long after Konoha had been built.
Not many realized the Uchiha had been allies with the Namikaze, mostly because they had similar enough ideals that they respected each other.
Personally, Naruto didn't know much about her father's clan, she was the last of the clan though, so there wasn't much to truly know.
Especially since before her, her father had been the last and many things had been lost in concern to the clan since they hadn't originated from Fire Country or Konoha.
While in Konoha they had never been as large as the Uchiha, or Hyuuga, but they had been just as respected because of their Fuuinjutsu and strong Shinobi.
Back to the point though, basically it would somehow take notice of the second DNA that came from her and make it so she wouldn't be rejected from any of the seals similar or this one.
As for Jiraiya, she could simply let him in once she got past it.
Taking a vial out of her hip pouch, Naruto walked up to the front door, careful to avoid some of the traps set up and disable them on her way.
There were only three, one was a seal trap, a basic one that she wouldn't be surprised if five out of ten jōnin knew, the other two were trip wire.
Once at the front door she poured the blood from the vial onto her hand and made sure it covered it from finger pads to the end of her palm.
It made her nose twitch, and the pit of her stomach feel sick because she knew this was her babies blood.
Even if it had been taken by needle, and hadn't really hurt them, she still felt disgusted at having their blood on her hand like that.
Shaking the thoughts from her head she placed her palm on a certain part of the door where she knew the seal would be, despite it not actually showing up on the wood.
Many seals that were advanced didn't without chakra flowing through it, much like the Shiki Fujin on her stomach.
She felt the the seal on the door warm up, and she forced her chakra into into her hand and the seal.
She didn't even flinch when she felt a small prick on her hand, knowing it had probably taken her blood as well to compare or join with the blood on her hand.
Sometimes she had the feeling seals had some form of sentience with how strangely they worked.
It took about three minutes before it finished glowing and the door clicked, unlocking.
Pulling her hand away she looked at it, and turned back to where Jiraiya stood with the twins. She smiled.
"It's down, you can bring the twins in now. I'm going to find the kitchen, and wash my hands."
Jiraiya nodded and followed Naruto inside.
That night Naruto finished taking down any seals she found, minus the one on the front door, and replacing them and the traps with different seals.
It was probably midnight before she sat down in the rocking chair in her room which she'd claimed.
The chair sat between the cribs Tsunami had helped her get in wave and she'd unsealed along with other things the twins would need.
She'd never been more happy for seals, otherwise it would be near impossible to live on the move with the twins. She'd probably buy another crib set in Wave Country and leave the ones she had at the safe house.
It would be the main place they'd stay, no longer just a safe home but a home away from Konoha.
Looking sharply to her left as she heard the beginning of whimpering from Nariko's crib, she sighed and stood just as the crying began.
This was usually the time of night they began to wake. They weren't quite at the age they slept through the night quietly, she gave it a few more weeks, or months before that.
But they did sleep longer than the first month they were born.
Reaching down, and pulling the raven haired baby from the crib, Naruto was happy to notice Kiyoshi still slept, and she sat back down in her rocking chair.
Slowly she began a slow pace of rocking Nariko back to sleep, humming softly and singing an old whirlpool lullaby under her breath to sooth her.
''Hush-a-bye, little baby, mama's here so be calm. Under the blue moon, the whirlpool drags our emotions of pain away. So sleep in my arms, and know we're safe...''
There was more to the lullaby, she'd found mention of it in Uzushiogakure, and she vaguely remembered it from when she was a baby.
Her mother must have sung it too her just after her birth... how she could even slightly recall it was a mystery but the moment she'd seen it it was like a puzzle clicking into place.
It was mostly just the tune she recalled, she doubted she'd have ever remembered even a sentence of the lyrics if she'd never found them in Uzushio.
Naruto smiled gently as Nariko yawned widely and her blue eyes closed in sleep. Kissing her forehead lightly, Naruto continued to hum and stood in such a way as to not jar Nariko.
"Sleep, Nari-chan," she said softly, and placed the baby back inside her crib and turned to go towards her own bed which wasn't far from the cribs and rocking chair.
Gaara stared at the girl in front of him in a stoic form of shock.
In his life he'd never really had friends, not until he'd gone to Konoha for the Chūnin Exams the year before, and it was during the invasion that he'd made his first friend.
It was rather strange, most didn't make friends by trying to kill them.
The two of them were very much alike. Both hated by the vast majority of their villages, hated for something they didn't have any control over. They both knew the darkness of loneliness.
Naruto had been lucky enough, she'd not let herself succumb to the darkness and pain. She'd striven to prove them wrong, that her existence wasn't to be the demon they claimed her to be.
He had been driven to insanity. He supposed he was lucky to have his siblings though, even if the last year had been the beginning of any sort of sibling relationship between them.
"Naru, are those babies who I think they are?" Gaara finally asked, his left brow raised.
Naruto chuckled and grinned.
"Depends on who you think they are?" she said more than asked.
Gaara sighed.
"You and Uchiha..." he trailed off and Naruto flushed slightly embarrassed as she nodded.
"They're my kids, and Sasuke's." Naruto had them on her lap as she sat in front of him, in the chair on the other side of his desk.
"The girl is Uchiha Nariko, and the boy is Uchiha Kiyoshi."
"Does that mean he came back on his own?" he asked, hoping it was the case.
Otherwise Gaara, the newly elected Kazekage of Suna, would have to question his best friends sanity.
Having a relationship with someone who by all means should already be listed as a missing-nin was not something a loyal shinobi did.
It was unheard of as far as he knew, and if it did happen it ended badly for all parties.
To actually have children with them...well as he'd said he'd never heard of it happening. Then there was the fact Uchiha had almost killed her.
He'd seen her after Hatake brought her back, blood still coming from some wounds and the evidence of a still healing Chidori wound to the chest.
It was obvious who'd inflicted the wounds.
If not for the regeneration that was ungodly for even most Jinchuuriki he knew she'd have died before Hatake even made it to the Valley of The End.
"No," she muttered, sadly. "I know what you must be thinking, Gaara. Sasuke will come back, he promised."
Gaara saw her wrap her right arm securely around both babies in her lap and reach up to a necklace that was around her neck, the necklace had the Uchiha fan on it.
"It's dangerous right now for both of us. Akatsuki is after the bijū, which means me as well. Sasuke is hunting after Itachi, and I think a large part of him is terrified Itachi will come back to finish what he started and this time it wont only be Sasuke, but the twins and myself as well."
Naruto shook her head, eyes meeting his own sea-foam colored ones.
"There is also Orochimaru. He's been after the Sharingan for a long time, and we are both concerned that he'll come after the twins for it. Not to mention if Sasuke did suddenly return with me, he'd come looking for him and find out about them."
Gaara listened carefully at the reasons and couldn't help but see her point.
Both were trying to protect the other and at the same time their children from their enemies.
He still didn't trust Uchiha, but he recalled how broken Naruto looked before he left for Suna after the failed retrieval mission.
"I see," he said. "And why are you here. Shouldn't you be somewhere were you can stay with the twins and train?"
Naruto grinned before nodding.
"I guess that would be the ideal option, but Ero-sennin thinks it's better we continue to move around some. In case Akatsuki come looking. There is also something I wanted to ask you."
"What would that be?" Gaara asked.
Biting her lip, Naruto figured she'd just say it bluntly. She'd never been too good at tact anyway.
"I wanted to see if you'd be Nariko's godfather. I was going to ask Kakashi to be Kiyoshi's. Sakura to be Kiyoshi's godmother and Hinata to be Nariko's godmother."
Gaara's eyes actually did widen this time in surprise, having not in a million years thought that was what she wanted.
A place to stay for a month or so, maybe, but that, no.
blinking, Gaara slowly smiled. It was foreign on him, he didn't recall the last time he'd showed emotion such as to smile.
"I would be happy to," he said, and Naruto smiled widely.
"Great, now do you know anywhere good to eat here? I'm starved," Naruto said, changing the subject so abruptly Gaara had to let out a quick chuckle.
Another rarity with him.
Standing up, Gaara nodded.
"I'll show you a place."
Naruto blinked, looking from Gaara to the stacks of papers on his desk.
"What about your paperwork."
Gaara looked behind him with stoic emotion, but what almost looked like a sneer.
"It can burn – I mean wait," Gaara said, coughing shortly. "I can finish it another time."
laughing, Naruto nodded and let Gaara escort her out of the Kazekage tower.