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Chapter 11: Getting Busy

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"I don't understand- why are you still trying? What's the point?" Gaara's blue eyes were locked into Naruto's.

"I won't let you hurt my precious people." Naruto growled, as he crawled towards the prone form of the other jinchuuriki.

The kitsune rumbled inside the brat's head, "he's down, brat. Unless you are willing to kill him when he's helpless, give it up."

"I will protect all my precious people." Naruto snarled, inching one fingerlength more forward.

The kitsune sighed. "It's not like it matters, does it? What's one human versus another? One lifeform versus another?"

"You just can't understand, you damn fox, the beauty of bonds."

"Is that so?" The kitsune mused. "Perhaps, it is I that has a better view on life- you are the one willing to kill in order to continue the lives of certain creatures. Why should they lose their precious people and you not?"

"Shut up, fox, you are just a damn demon. You can't confuse me." Naruto said, and that was the end of the conversation as far as he was concerned.

"Except, I think I've confused myself..." The kitsune murmured to herself, leaning against the bars.

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Minato awoke with a start, his hand already around a kunai and halfway to the intruder's throat before he recognized the chakra signature. He relaxed somewhat and laid his hand and the weapon it contained onto his chest.

"Sorry, I'm sorry." Musume muttered. "So tired..." She flopped beside him and curled against his side. "Not safe anywhere else, safe here." She yawned and relaxed into what seemed to be a dead faint.

Minato grumbled, pushed at her arm and felt it flop over in the darkness. He sighed and put the kunai back under his pillow, rolled over and went back to the sleep he hadn't quite left.

Sometime later a soft sigh and a leg thrown across his hip left Minato feeling appreciative of the bedfellow. Still mostly asleep he rocked forward and put an arm around the warm toned body opposite him. A feminine murmur responded to his actions.

The next moment entirely killed the mood, however. "Oi, brat, stop moving around."

Minato's eyes flew open. To his embarrassment his initial assessment of a particularly good dream was disproved. He was, in fact, wrapped around one Uchiha Musume in a most intimate way. A way that, had she not started talking about his son, likely would have become even more intimate quite quickly.

As he extracted himself from the sleepily protesting Uchiha and got out of bed cursing, he vaguely recalled what had happened at some ungodly hour of the night. He scowled down at the (hot, half-naked) woman in his bed as he grabbed up a pair of pants and a shirt. How the hell had she even gotten into his house? And why in the name of all that's holy did she think he was his son?

That thought had him kneeling on the bed and shaking the Uchiha until she groggily roused.

"What the hell are you doing in here and what have you been doing to Naruto?" Minato growled.

Musume stared up at him, a confused frown knitting together her brows, as she blinked bloodshot eyes above deep bruised looking bags.

"And what the hell happened to you?" He asked incredulously. Last time he had seen her she had looked fine- at the execution a few weeks ago, he thought.

"You're not the brat." She murmured, looking at her hands. "I'm not the brat?" She continued, making Minato grit his teeth. He only waited because if she was as tired as she looked, then he knew how much higher brain function she had. That is to say, none. "Hn."

"No grunting." Minato said in exasperation. "And more explaining."

Musume rubbed her hands over her eyes and blinked. "I was tired. And I couldn't sleep."

Minato raised an eyebrow at her, eying the pillow and the kunai it was hiding.

"They wouldn't let me sleep." She continued. "Though they were less nice about it than you are." She yawned. "Can I sleep here every night?" She asked, looking up at him hopefully.

"Wha… no!" Minato sputtered.

"Oh." She sighed, rolling over a bit and looking like she was passing out again.

"You didn't answer my question…" Musume rolled over and glared at him with spinning red eyes. Minato slumped unconscious.

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Minato stalked down to the kitchen to find a very sheepish looking Musume and a table set for breakfast for two with tea by the plates. "You attacked the Hokage. That is a treasonous offense." He stated beside the table, ignoring the food.

"I'm sorry." She looked up at him through her lashes and he felt his anger soften. And other things harden. Dammit. "I didn't send you anywhere… unpleasant… did I?" She asked, picking up one of the teas and sipping it nervously.

"No." Minato felt the last of his anger drain away as he sat in the chair and took a bite of toast. The genjutsu had practically been a vacation- he and Naruto were surfing on a beach, under a clear blue sky and crystal clear waters. And it hadn't even lasted that long- he was still on time for his morning appointments. "I forgive you for attacking me, but only if you tell me what the hell you were thinking."

"Er… well… to answer your questions… from before that is… I know how to key into your wards." The kitsune shrugged. "I don't know if anyone else would be able to do it… I can tell you how later." She fidgeted. "I'm sorry for mistaking you for the… for Naruto. Sometimes we would camp out in the woods after training. When he was younger." She sighed wistfully. "He's too old for 'mushy stuff' now, though." She shrugged.

Minato settled back into his chair. Naruto did stay out all night on occasion, a habit he had been trying to break him of since he was able to walk, to no avail. It had become especially desperate after assassins were sent to kill him when he was not quite two, and a crazy woman prisoner had taken him and expanded his chakra coils. Though subsequently Naruto had survived assassin attacks because of said chakra coils, so Minato still didn't know what to think of that day, especially with the woman who did it sitting in front of him. It had been the most terrifying moment of his life- seeing his child nonresponsive and locked in a stranger's arms for hours and hours…

"And why you felt the need to break in in the first place?" He prompted.

"Oh." She sat down and munched on her own toast. "Ever since the executions, I've either been attacked at odd hours or consulted about important clan matters. I haven't been able to sleep, really…"

"Since the executions?" Minato asked in surprise, leaning forward. "That was weeks ago."

Musume shrugged and took another bite of bread. She still looked horrible- the dark bruises had receded a bit, but her eyes were still heavily lidded and her posture at the table was slumped and defeated. "I can only run on chakra alone for so long, then the body starts to break down a bit… and it's hard to keep up the flow at the right levels…" She trailed off, still looking down and thus not noticing Minato's shocked look. He hadn't know it was possible at all to run your body on chakra for any amount of time.

"Is this another handy trait that Uchiha Madara left to you?" He asked gently.

Musume shrugged and started on her second piece of toast.

"You can't stay here." Minato said. Musume sighed heavily. "It would cause a political scandal." He continued. She slumped farther into the seat but nodded. "I will teach you how to put the seals on your own place, though, as soon as you tell me the weakness."

Musume looked up at him with such gratitude in her eyes that he shifted uncomfortably.

"Thank you!" She breathed. Musume happily finished her toast and then snatched a piece off of Minato's plate. He lifted and eyebrow but didn't saw anything, eating his remaining piece of toast in silence.

Musume put down her cup of tea and looked at Minato dubiously. "Will I be able to do the seals?" She asked.

"Ah! That reminds me." He stood up and darted out of the room, returning with a bag that clinked as it moved.

"What's that?" She asked, looking at the bag dubiously. "And you didn't answer me."

Minato waved her off. "Seals will be no problem. You've demonstrated quite a bit of proficiency with them."

"Not really…"

He gave her a long look. "Few if any people could twist the Hyuuga clan seal or slip through my wards without destroying the house and alerting me."

"That's not…" She shrugged.

"Not what?" He asked, curious.

"Well, the Hyuuga seal… it is rather simple, really, if you know how the chakra in the body is supposed to be. You just… shift how it is a certain way." Her nose twitched as she said it.

"Is… that how you healed Kobune?" He asked, stunned. A state of being, he thought wryly, that he should be used to when around this particular woman.

"Sort of." Musume shrugged. "It's hard to describe. And you likely wouldn't be able to learn it unless you felt high level jutsus being used through your body without your control for years upon years." She smiled wryly.

"Which is also how you can use certain power intensive jutsus that do not require precise control, and manipulate elements somewhat." It certainly made sense.

"Sure, but shadow clones only get you so far. And it takes a lot longer to manipulate chakra without the seals."

Musume startled as Minato dropped the bag onto the table with a clunk. "That's where these come in."

"And these are…?" She asked, opening the bag and fingering the necklaces and wristbands made of metal.

"High grade chakra disruptors." He said proudly. "Put one on."

Musume complied, putting it about her wrist. Her eyes widened. "Wow. That's much easier to control." She said looking down at her wrist. "How did you think of this?"

"Well, you melted a good number of holes in our Interrogation department when you were wearing over a dozen of these things. Which is much more powerful a jutsu than I have seen you using since, even if it wasn't particularly focused.

"I do sort of remember that." She muttered, frowning contemplatively at the metal. "These look a lot less like shackles than those did." She added, looking up at him.

"I made them, actually. It's just some inexpensive jewelry with a modified seal put on it. Took me a while to figure out how the seal should work, once I thought of the idea."

"Thank you." Musume said, touching the metal wonderingly, before putting the rest of them on. They looked sort of odd on someone that you knew was deadly, as most shinobi wore little jewelry, but it wasn't completely out of place. She let out a happy sigh. "This is wonderful, Minato." She said, standing up and coming around the table to him, grabbing him in a swift hug.

She stepped back with a cheeky grin and put her hands through a familiar technique.

"Don't!" Minato exclaimed, just as Musume yelled, "Sexy no jutsu!" and turned into a naked, blond version of herself. Minato noted in a small part of his mind the three odd lines on each cheek before his brain shut down due to blood rushing other places. He grabbed his bleeding nose and roared, "Out! Now!"

Musume skipped away gleefully, cackling.

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Musume slunk by the Uchiha main house, checking on her shadow clone. So far it hadn't been dispelled, which meant it had avoided any attacks. And she had given it enough chakra to deal with anything minor that came up and left it with instructions to find a secluded spot and dispel itself if something major came up.

So far, so good.

She transported herself through not-space to a glade she had discovered a while back. The chakra disruptors made the teleport mildly taxing on her readily available reserves, meaning she ended up slightly above where she wanted to be, but not inside anything. Excellent.

She sobered at the thought that she almost hadn't gotten them.

When Musume had regained her fled brain cells and found herself cuddling her enemy, the one that sealed her, she was torn. By this point most of the adult Uchiha had pissed her off enough that she had sealed them, as well as some of their children. Itachi was still unmarked, but he had become much more relaxed and happy since the change of command, even to the point where his little brother yelled at him for seeming to be content with their father being killed. So the kitsune was fairly sure that he would not be able to harden his heart enough to kill his best friend. Sasuke was still a brat, but similarly was not traumatized enough to become the total tool he had been in another life. Probably.

So she had stared down at the peaceful face of the Hokage, the Seal Master, Konoha's Yellow Flash, and held the kunai she had found under his pillow to his tanned throat. He had sighed and almost slit his jugular for her, but she had pulled back in time, heart pounding.

She had thrust the kunai back under the pillow, trailed her hands through his hair and draped her body over his so she could feel his heartbeat, his breathing. So that she could assure herself that he was warm and still alive.

And then she had flung herself out of the bed, totally disgusted with herself, and not just for acting like a human, but a sappy, besotted human, and gone to make breakfast. As something to do to take her mind off of things.

She broke out of her musings about the morning and climbed up one of the nearby trees, delighting a bit in the fact that her feet could now stick to the bark as easily as it should always have been, though the thought made her tremble a bit as her mind looped back to Minato.

She loved the kit- she was demon enough to admit it. It was a twisted, bizarre love that really was a celebration of her freedom, after all. She could accept that. But his father? She hadn't even met Minato in the time loops. Although, she considered, perhaps that was the appeal?

Well, as much as it made no sense, it was also enjoyable. "And no one has to know." She muttered to herself.

And no one did know, although the comment would drive a certain sweating ROOT operative hidden in the tree next to her to distraction and provide hours of fruitless searching for the organization. Had she known, she would have been thrilled.

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A/N: Sorry for the pause! I was determined to get some of my other (HP) story written. And... success! I might do this again once or twice in order to finish that one up before the end of the year (Warping Circumstances, FYI).

So I have a question for you readers- do you think that I should put the next part of the story in a separate story, or continue it as another arc to this one? There are pros and cons either way, but it would be awesome if you all could give me your thoughts. There are 4 more chapters before this part is finished. I'm leaning towards making one longer story, I think. Thanks!