" Sakumo~!" A flurry of brown tackled the Hatake into the ground, "You simply must let me meet the mini-me." The white haired shinobi laughed as the female lifted herself up from the hug and looked down at the elder who was staring up laughing at her.

"F-Father?" A young Kakashi Hatake stared widely at the scene before him. He had literally just witnessed his father, the man he idolized more than life itself, be taken down to the ground by someone who he had seen and sensed plenty of times in passing as a young child.

"Kakashi I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine and fellow shinobi, Emi. Emi, my son Kakashi." The five-year-old could only imagine this was what it would have felt like if he were being sized up by a predator. This has to be what the rabbit feels like while being hunted by a wolf. He thought just as those predator-like brown eyes flickered through various other emotions. Then without so much as a warning he tried to avoid the pounce.

He was unsuccessful.

Not only had the kunoichi managed to wrangle him into a full on hug but she had also made it to where when they landed where he was on top of her and she with her back flush on the floor. The scene was almost identical to the one that he had witnessed as he walked out of his home minutes earlier only this time the Hatake was on top. "You have grown up, sooo much." There was something eerily and comfortably familiar to the young Hatake about all of this, but at the moment his mind was trying to get over the fact that he hadn't been able to dodge the woman. "You likely don't remember this, but I promised to be at your graduation, kid." His dark gray eyes finally met up with doe brown once more and the Hatake saw nothing but pure admiration staring back at him.

There were so many things about her that bothered him, but it was those Kami-awful eyes that seemed to do him in.

Even though she appeared to be a fully grown adult and shinobi if her reserves were any indication... those eyes held more depth to them than he had ever seen in anyone up until that point. It also was almost as if that predatory gleam never quite left those irises, it always seemed to be there muted in the background. At this moment, he could see it as she looked at him in nothing but complete adoration. Kakashi Hatake learned early on that if you wanted to best judge someone at first glance you only had to look into their eyes. They were a reflection of the person, no matter how hard one tried if you only knew where to look.

And the five-year-old Kakashi Hatake did not like that look that hid in the depths of those doe brown eyes. The only person that came close to having that haunted look was the Hokage himself. She had the eyes of someone who had lived to seen the atrocities of the world and may have had to have performed them herself.

And if that wasn't bad enough on top of all of this uneasiness, deep down Kakashi felt a peace with them. At first he thought it was because those eyes, those cold ancient predatory eyes were not being directed towards him... the more he thought about it, though he realized that deep down in his subconscious there was more to it that that. Somehow he just knew that those eyes would never direct all of that hidden malice towards him.

Where that had come from, he had no idea.

"You plan on letting go of my son anytime soon?" Kakashi hadn't even realized that they were no longer outside of the Hatake compound until that very moment. The young Hatake bristled at how he had somehow allowed this practical stranger not only take him to the ground but apparently move him away from home and into the busiest part of the village without his notice. She didn't seem even the slightest bit bothered when he attempted to remove himself from her grasp, instead it almost looked natural the way she shifted him up onto her shoulders and held a firm grip on his ankles.

"Nope." The beginning of a memory began to form in his mind at that single word response. There was something annoyingly familiar about all of this and he had accepted that perhaps this Emi person was a prominent figure in his early childhood. "He doesn't even recognize me yet, so this time I am going to smother him in my scent as to ensure this doesn't happen again." That had practically verified his thoughts, he hadn't bothered to pay attention to his sense of smell but one sniff was all it took for the scent of lilies with an undertone of salted water to fill his senses.

What surprised him most was the blissful calm that overwhelmed him.

Had his father not told him that his mother had passed shortly after his birth and he not inhaled her now fleeting scent as a babe Kakashi may have reason to believe that perhaps this tan skinned female who brought upon this wave of tranquility and sense of safety was, in fact, his birth mother.

Today was proving to be even more informative and eventful than he had originally anticipated.

"You are out of uniform." Kakashi watched the exchange from his perch on her shoulders. His father was looking over at the brunette with a look he couldn't quite put a name to. It was similar to the look he received but different. That was not to say that Sakumo Hatake wasn't an expressive person or didn't care for those around him. In fact, he cared greatly for his village and the people that resided within it. His father was a shinobi and Kakashi quickly learned that with different situations and people his father's expressions seemed...planned.

For example, the looks he received from his father was vastly different than ones his father offered random civilian's on the streets. Actually the closest expression Kakashi had witnessed that was closest to the one reserved for him, his son, were the ones Sakumo shared with his friends and even that was a stretch. Kakashi had chalked it up to him being his son and them being a family then went on his merrily way.

It would seem that there was still a lot he had to learn even about the one man he thought he had completely figured out, his father.

"Excuses." Now his attention was on the unknown in question and his current capture. She freed his right ankle to wave off his father dismissively. "I like the idea that with you guys I can't hide who I am..." She paused, placed her hand back on his ankle and Kakashi had a feeling there was something being left unsaid there intentionally. "Unless, of course, I absolutely had to." Both he and his father were looking at her with an arched brow now. Their sense of smell was not one to be trifled with or joked about. Sure Clan's like the Inuzuka had their dogs but they stuck out and were different beings entirely, the Hatake's were your best option if you wanted to not bring attention to yourself and still have that enhanced sense of smell on the battlefield. "Don't look at me like that." She laughed, "There are even ways to fool those Hatake noses of yours." He didn't know what she had done, but his father looked away and Kakashi was going to act like he didn't see his father's ears flush as he rubbed the back his neck.

There has to be a story behind that.

Kakashi knew that while she wasn't technically his mother Emi could very well be the closest thing to one he may ever get. And it was for that reason that he tried his hardest to ensure that what he felt right now, on top of her shoulders as they walked him to his graduation with nothing but smiles and laughs, was something that he would never forget.

"How can you even read half this stuff." Minato asked from his position at the kitchen table as he waited for his redhaired friend to finish getting ready. He hadn't been there too long, but Kushina wasn't known for taking long to get ready to begin with...so when he had arrived and when she had threatened him from outside her bedroom door to 'sit still and shut up' Minato Namikaze played it smart and did as he was told.

It had been a couple of weeks since he had last seen Kushina during the Chunin Exams. The Exams themselves went about as smoothly as one could hope with heightened security and a war having just ended between the counties. Five more Genin had been promoted, surprisingly enough none had been from Konoha. Minato wasn't sure if this was a political move on the Hokage's part or if it was a good thing that this war had ended...because the shinobi coming up were not on par with the other villages.

It was a blessing to say the least and hopefully a step in the right direction for peace among the nations.

Kushina had been assigned out on an escort mission with another squad and, therefore, he had not had the opportunity to confront her about the demons of her past. There were also the rumors he had heard from other nations shinobi that he would like to discuss with her.

The Big One in question being: Who did she think was the current Kyuubi's Jinchūriki.

He really needed to visually gauge her response to the question before he could solidify his current hypothesis on the matter. It bothered him that something like this hadn't come up prior to now or likely wouldn't have had he not had the privilege of being one of the Legendary Sannin's students. Not that he couldn't understand why something like this would be kept under wraps, but from what he understood -at least here in Konoha- the Jinchūriki had the ability and right to share their unique standing in the village with people they trusted.

It explained a lot, if what he believed were true was. But more importantly, it brought opened up a whole new barrage of concerns from him. It was obvious from the get-go that gaining trust was going to be an issue for Konoha's Red Hot Habanero, she transferred at an odd time from another village that was later destroyed. She stuck out and was bullied for her appearances and differences- luckily she was stubborn and not afraid to defend herself even as a young child. She was kidnaped shortly after the death of her guardian and rescued by not one of Konoha's finest but instead a former classmate who she believed was against her as well. That kidnapping was something else she hadn't talked about, but it had changed her view on a lot of things. She began to open up and just as she did her second sensei turned out to be a traitor and forced one of her teammates to slaughter the other- she nearly had to kill that teammate in order to kill the traitor and his accomplice.

What worried him most was...

Did she truly trust anyone?

Minato shook his head to get his mind away from those thoughts instead choosing to look at the papers and scrolls scattered on the kitchen table. Well, that's interesting. First lost in his own thoughts then by the curious items on the table and not knowing how long it was going to take his friend to get ready, Minato took it upon himself to try and solve the new puzzle laid out before him.

"What are you talking about?" Kushina yelled from her room as she brushed through her hair cringing as she caught another rather nasty knot. Kushina grumbled in annoyance as she glared accusingly at her brush for inflicting such pain upon her. A short fight with her hair later in an attempt to throw it up the redhead growled before running her hands through her hair and allowing it to stay down.

Having not received a reply from her now close friend the sixteen-year-old sighed and made her way out of her room and into the living quarters where her guest was waiting. Finally ready to take on, what was bound to be, a long day.

Knowing that he was going to pick up an interest in seals and destined to become one of the greatest seals masters of his time couldn't have prepared Kushina to find her blond haired friend studying a mixture of her encrypted and non-encrypted notes. Running her hair through her brush she brought out with her, Kushina took a seat across from him and continued to watch as he apparently lost himself in them.

There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he couldn't understand everything he was reading and if the notes written in his handwriting was any indication; Minato had apparently caught on that there were some similarities between the two seals he had on the left side of the table to the supposable gibberish writings on the right.

Tickled by the experience and always up for having a reason to look at her now, though she'd never admit it aloud, crush Kushina watched as he continued to work for the next ten minutes. It was about four minutes in when she noticed that Minato had was living up to his genius reputation, he was breaking down the new language quite easily. Though I'm willing to bet five bowls of Ichiraku's that he hasn't the vaguest idea as to the meaning of what he is breaking down. She thought smugly.

Melody had explained that French wasn't nearly as complicated as some of the other languages she had under her belt. At least for her the language still used just about the same characters she had been brought up to learn. It was just a matter of memorizing what words meant what. Actually, he seems to be picking up things it took me weeks to notice. Kushina thought with a scowl, both proud and annoyed at the idea. I wouldn't be surprised if he would be interested in learning some of her other languages as well.

Even with the changes that came with Melody's appearance Kushina could easily see how her best friend could grow into the adult she had the pleasure of admiring from Melody's memories.

"I see you made yourself at home." She waited until he went to dunk his quill into the well before speaking and successfully got the reaction she wanted. Sure that meant she was down an expansion and storage seal, but those were easily replicable.

"Oh! Ugh, you don't mind, do you?" Violet eyes smiled and shook her head as he rubbed the back of his head and looked anywhere but at her. He didn't lose his situational awareness often, but when he did and she was around- she thrived to use that against him.

"I didn't know you were interesting in Seals."

"Haha, I didn't really know either honestly." The kunoichi leaned back in her seat and arched a brow, glad to finally have him embarrassed instead of the other way around. "I've seen how they could be applicable in battle, heck what little I have seen you use seemed practical." He picked up the French he was looking at moments before, "I didn't mean to intrude, this is obviously coded for a reason. I shouldn't have-."

"I leave things out all the time or fall asleep while working. It adds an extra layer of security if someone were to break in and I forgot to put them up." She interrupted, "Plus I think I found a new reason for continuing to code them."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Did you know you bit your lower lip and chew on the end of a brush when thinking really hard?" He flushed and she mentally cackled triumphantly.

They had a unique sort of friendship going on.

Akihiro stood at the front gate with his arms crossed and bag packed. His team hadn't even arrived yet and he was already done with this mission.

His mind wandered to the C-ranked mission that had not only costed him half his team but opened his eyes to the realities of what it meant to be a shinobi. The first life he ended up taking was that of his own teammate and it quickly looked as if the second life would be his female teammate. His distaste for mind-controlling techniques derived from that battle. From Manabu's death.

It didn't take a genius to know that team five wasn't exactly the best team in the books. Now everyone chalked that up to the fact that they didn't have a sensei for almost a good year and a half into their careers. Now, because of those unfortunate events though, he found himself much closer to his surviving teammate than even his own family. Demon host or not Kushina Uzumaki was the equivalent of a sister to him and it was because of this closeness and that mission as to why he was aware that Konoha's Red Hot Habanero had much more going on in her life than anyone perhaps even the Hokage would have ever guessed.

Firstly: She talked to herself, a lot.

Originally he had found this little quirk of hers quite annoying. Whether it was the muttered witty remarks, her own personal musings or opinions on people- none of it seemed to contribute to anything other than grating on his nerves. After the death of Manabu though Akihiro paid more attention to the things she said and it was through these self-conversations of hers that he came to his next revelation about Kushina.

She knew a lot more than she let on.

Kushina was well versed in the political aspect behind being a shinobi. She seemed to understand the logic behind certain scenarios and had even mumbled events that had caused the mission they were offered. Then when they would sit down and listen to higher ranking shinobi talk about possible options Akihiro noted that whenever the female snarled or scrunched her nose up and they followed through with that plan...things didn't turn out well. People especially fellow shinobi often underestimated Kushina...which brought him to his next point.

Kushina was cunning.

Ask anyone about the redhead and they would be quick to tell you that she is short-tempered, stubborn, violent and annoyingly oblivious to her surroundings. He would have been the first to jump onto that opinion as well, but the truth of the matter was that it was this image that Kushina wanted to be perceived as. Only as they continued to work together and he began to pay attention himself, did Akihiro notice that not many things seemed to catch the female genuinely off-guard. He, like many others, had mistakenly believed that when she was 'caught off guard' and got 'angry' it was because she was oblivious. Truth of the matter was that Kushina was typically annoyed annoyed with the situations they found themselves in. Even after the incident where she severely crippled him and then proceeded to murder two higher rank shinobi she looked more annoyed than anything. Speaking of that incident... Akihiro was convinced that...

Kushina was completely capable of detachment.

Kushina's eyes always spoke volumes about what she was truly feeling. Especially when she was trying to wear an indifferent mask during trying times. Akihiro had been convinced that while she was not as attached to people and naive as Manabu it would surely be her downfall. That idea was completely shot in flames when he watched those detached cold eyes scan the battlefield after she picked herself up from their forced battle. Minutes before when she watched as he burned their mangled teammate alive she was in tears and frantic. Her moves got sloppy and she was a much easier target for the man controlling his body. He was personally terrified that he was going to have to kill her as well.

Then her motionless body lifted itself up on her forearm, she laughed and agreed that she was stubborn before picking herself up and looking at directly at him. There was absolutely nothing familiar about those violet eyes to him. He felt as if he were looking into the eyes of a complete stranger. There was still that familiar fire burning behind them but everything else was wrong. The way she talked, the way she carried herself. Her fighting style was completely different than that of which he had grown accustom to. He thoroughly believed that he was being forced to fight a complete stranger in her she did she did for a purpose. If he wasn't hit by something, sure enough it was because she had that planned for something else.

Kushina was well above Genin.

After she had paralyzed him in place Akihiro watched as Konoha's Red Hot Habanero took down the two higher ranking shinobi. She had taken out their client without so much as a struggle, a sweat. When she fought their false sensei, which he now knew was an S-ranked criminal, bones were broken, mistakes were made and it lasted until the sun went down. He had continued to bait her to allow the demon free- at dusk he got what he asked for and Akihiro's earlier conclusions were confirmed.

Kushina was, without a doubt, a jinchūriki.

Ending Notes:

So that was much longer than I anticipated. Hope you enjoyed!

I wanted to get this out before tonight...I'll be drinking and typically the day after I won't get out of bed. Corrections will be made later

Updated 091215