'Lady Tsunade!' the small frog saluted the doctor, his hind legs rigid for a moment, before they bent in their usual way. The entrance of the tiny frog to the nurse's quarters had been a loud and rather disorganized event. It had appeared in the middle of the changing room, and the nurses, all professionals with lots of bared skin and a rather deadly amphibian hopping around, had predictably stampeded as far away from it as possible. The poisonous frog had pursued, loudly asking everyone on its path for the Slug Sennin's location until the blonde herself had finally showed up. 'Lady Tsunade! I have a message to deliver for you!'

The blonde rose her eyes at the amphibians, as she would have never expected a messenger to get inside her office with such a loud entrance, but then, what did she know. It was a frog, and nonetheless a small one, so it was probably perfect for spying. And seeing what kind of doors it took it was probably one of the Jiraiya's trainees as well. She could only imagine what did he do with those frogs when they weren't on their duty. The sole idea made her teeth cringe a bit.

'What is it?' she asked with a bit more loud tone than it was needed 'Did something happen to the perverted master of yours?'

'Oh, no! We haven't seen Jiraiya-sama in quite a while. We are here on behest of the princess!' he saluted again.

'Princess?' said Tsunade, once again surprised. Funny, how frogs could come up with any title, but then, they usually held more weirder ones for the males. Or maybe it was just because there really hadn't been a sage who was female among the toad summons. 'Is something wrong with Minato-chan then?'

'Not when she employs the Aoi team, my lady! The princess has left us in charge of safeguarding her territory in her absence. We have specific orders to reach you as soon as any intruder is caught and to bring you to it before it expires, my lady!'

'So here I am, informing that our mission has been a success! The terrorist has been brought down swiftly, we await your orders.' Another salute.

'Expires?...' said Tsunade, not very happy at the choice of the words. Did it mean that the intruder was slowly… rotting away?... Killing happened, but that didn't mean she liked it any better when she had to deal with it. As a doctor, her first aid was to save a life, not to bury the dead. 'What do you mean 'expires'? Where is that person and what did it intrude? I don't understand.'

'The princess territory!'

What was with humans and their inability to understand how important was to keep a territory of your own safe and sound. How did they ever feel secure without good protections? 'A terrorist entered the princess territory with ill intentions and we stop it. We were instructed to inform you of it as soon as it happened and before the intruder suffocates.'

'Suffocates?' said Tsunade with raised tone, then she stood up from her chair 'I know that ninja terrorities are private and kept under the harsh watches, but I told the headmaster to stop this ridiculousity with such hard protections… bring him in, I don't want him dead. And report what did you do to him so I would know how to heal him.'

'We touched the intruder extensively, my lady!' the small frog said, the tone obviously indicating how proud by the feat he felt. His next sentence was a lot more sheepish in comparison. 'As for bringing her in… I'm afraid you will have to ask someone else for it. She is far too large for us to carry.'

Tsunade eyed the frog for a moment, like if It said something she wouldn't expect of it to say, then she sighed and moved her hand at the random nurse that tried to stay away from the group of boasting blue amphibians. 'Meroko, go after them and bring the suicidal person in. You can take someone for help. Be sure to not touch him or her or whoever the poor thing is… we will have to do a heavy detoxication. Thank you… what's your name?'

'Ao, my lady, at your service! Please follow me, the boss and the rest are by the terrorist as we speak!' Once the nurse got into movement, it was hard to keep up with the surprisingly fast batrachians. It wasn't long after that Uzumaki was carried in and immediately attached to an oxygen tank. Apparently the four or five injections she'd been given on the way worked well enough if her conscious state signified anything. 'Frogs dog piled me,' she slurred tearfully around her slightly bloated tongue. 'I'll eat them.'

'I'm afraid not.' Said Tsunade, making an injection on her skin to make sure how poisoned she was, though the look itself already said it was something above average 'You'd die from poisoning. Where was your captain when this had happened?'

The redhead suddenly became fascinated with the numerous pointy things they were trying to jab on her arms and mumbled something incoherent.

'…just as I thought.' Said Tsunade and slowly took away the needle to not hurt the patient any more than she had to. 'I'm saying this only because it's my duty, not because you would understand me now… you'll have to stay here for awhile and if you decide to go out of here against my orders it will be only done on your own account and I won't take responsibility for your health then. That's it for now.' And with that, Tsunade walked away, passing the filled needle to one of the nurses and wore a pair of plastic surgeon gloves. 'Now it's time for a little check up of the Mother Nature.' She said and caught one of the frogs in her hands 'Will you volunteer?'

The specimen, a stout, little male made a fist of one webbed hand and held it up in a confidant expression. 'My lady, I'm at your service!'

'Good.' Said the woman and vanished in the laboratory. This seemed to be a day which didn't end with the beginning of sunset. When a few minutes later the news reached Daichi, he was pissed. He showed up at the doors of the infirmary, and even if the nurses tried to stop him, he made his way through and stood just in front of the Kushina, whose skin became much more blueish and at least twice as big as it was before and stared at it, not believing his eyes.

'How could you let something colored like that touch you?' he spat in astonishment, then closed his palms in fists 'You're even more idiotic than I thought you were! Who am I going to punch now when you're laying on intensive care?' And without waiting for the response, he stormed out of the room in a run, already knowing the response: no one. If that continued on, soon enough the school will have to start gathering money for new set of dummy dolls, because he was sure enough that nobody wanted the building to be destroyed. And if the dolls were going to get his full attention just like now, in a day or two he would have to find something more solid to take on with his fists. As far as he saw, the building was the hardest thing that he could try his hands on.

Kushina, who had foolishly enough expected some sort of sympathy from her teammate calmly raised both hands to give his retreating back the finger. Self-centered bastard, she could have died because his ex was a psycho and he didn't even care! She still failed to see what difference made if the attacking frogs were mint flavor or raspberry fresh, but knowing Daichi, it was probably some idiotic Suna rule. It was only when Tsunade came back rushing with what looked like half the infirmary carried bags after bag of clear fluid and connecting them to her veins that she started to get the impression she might have slightly overlooked her adversaries repertoire of comebacks. Especially when said comebacks apparently could kill you unless you got immediate medical attention.

Tsunade wasn't a genius on the field for nothing, however, so Kushina survived the first night between her flesh threatening to burst open from how bloated she became and her tongue turning dark green for chemical reactions that frankly sounded too creepy for her to want to know what the hell they meant. By the time Minato came back from the mission, she was already on the last stages of clearing the poison out of her system, which included feeling like if your piss was made of fire and a incredibly itchy rash that howled in agony if you so much touched any of it.

'Oh my,' was all the blonde said when she took a look at her. 'I see you've met the Blue team…'

'They tried to kill me!'

'Yes, they are very territorial...' Good thing sensei had warned her of what those five were capable of before she thought of getting close with any. 'I hope they didn't cause much trouble, Tsunade-sensei. Good thing I didn't leave the gold team, too... then you would have had real problems.'

At the smile she received, the redhead felt that if she hadn't been strapped to bed to keep her from scratching herself and probably slippery from the salve she had on the rash, she could tear that little blonde's face with her fingers alone. Very, very gladly.

'I can't say I was happy to retrieve the patient either way, but you're welcome, Minato-chan.' Said Tsunade, filling Kushina's card and giving it to her 'This is report about her health for the past days as you asked.'

'Thank you,' the blonde gave it a quick look over, then turned towards the sennin. 'When do you think she will be officially discharged and able to take on a mission?'

'In a few days.' said Tsunade, looking toward Kushina and eyeing her rash that started to vanish, but it was still clearly visible to the time being 'Three to five probably. She has to get out all of the poison out of her system before she does that. So I'd suggest to let her stay for five days, just to be sure.'

'I'll keep that in mind when I accept our next mission.' She carefully pocketed the papers inside her vest, giving the older woman a small bow. 'Thank you for taking care of her, Tsunade-sensei.' She turned towards Kushina 'Uzumaki-san, I'll give you the information on the mission as soon as you are out, please rest in the meantime. If you'll excuse me, I need to have a run through payroll.' Kushina watched her go as she wondered how much would she squirm if she used her own hair to choke her. Die.

Tsunade also gave the girl a look as she walked away, though in her doings it was much more worried than the fierce gaze the other girl sent. It seemed that the training in her hometown once again became futile when training the ninjas to be more emotionally stable. Hopefully, Orochimaru was the last one to rise upon the worst results of their training.

Minato didn't do much during that week. She mostly spent it going through data with the Tsuchikage's assistant, training on her own and helping with a genin team that Sakumo has asked her to look after so he could take a well deserved rest. By the time Kushina was finally out of the hospital she was more than ready to take on a mission, bored out of her mind as she was. To top it, this one sounded interesting. 'I'll be leaving tomorrow at 6AM,' she informed them with the usual report. 'But feel free to not come on this one either.'

The redhead sniffed slightly, her nose still running every now and then despite the antiallergenic she'd been given. She gave the mission a superficial look, then glared at the shorter girl. 'You act like if you don't care if we come or not.'

'I don't.'

'What?'

'I don't care if you come or not.' She explained helpfully.

Daichi didn't even rise his eyes from the card as he scanned through it. 'Don't be so surprised, Uzumaki, she has no idea what a team is.' He said with freezing tone 'She thinks that if she does everything alone it would be just as helpful to team as it is now. She always had problems with seeing what really mattered.'

'I know what an effective team is, Sabaku-sama,' the blonde said, her expression not changing at all from the polite smile she wore before. 'And neither of you can be considered one. Maybe you can be good enough on your own, but together you are a disaster.'

'That's not true!' The older girl replied hotly , cheeks flushing from anger 'We finish our missions!' 'You finish them by chance. You two spend more time bickering between each other or fooling around than taking a mission seriously. You are more a risk for the mission than actual help completing them.'

Daichi shrugged lightly. 'It's not my fault the witch doesn't listen or can't give clear orders when she is in charge.' He said, then turned his eyes to the blonde, once again feeling how his heart clenched at the look of blue eyes 'We are one of the best teams though and you have no idea how we work. You have never seen us in action.'

'The best of team shows up late or doesn't show up at all for its mission? A team can't follow orders, attempts against their own supervisors and can't follow a direct order? ' the blonde's smile turned slightly up in amusement. 'You are two are a bad team that can only do right a thing or two and think everyone should be impressed by it.'

'You-!' this was finally too much for Kushina. Being ignored during the mission, being almost murdered by a bunch of fanatic, toothpaste-colored frogs and now insulted by this midget!

Drawing back a fist, she did her very best to try and break her pretty little nose into a billion pieces that would hopefully lodge into her pink, soft brain meats. Her best effort amounted her to barely catch herself before hitting head first against the tree the blonde had been leaning in.

'Maybe you should rest a bit more, Uzumaki-san?' the blonde was now five or six meters away from her, looking mildly concerned 'I don't think you are too sure on your feet yet. '

'The team tells whole truth about their captain.' Said Daichi calmly, completely ignoring the fact his teammate just almost attacked a tree 'If the team cannot go well against the rules it's captain's duty to make it so. I would do everything if I met a right person to follow and I'm yet to see someone like that. If that's all you're going to say then excuse me, I'm going to train.'

Minato watched him go without answering.

She could have argued that she'd barely spent with them little less than a month, with several of those days not even seeing or crossing words with either of the pair. She could have argued that someone like him would only admit his ever-idolized Kazekage to impart an order and obey it without complaints. She could have even gone as far as to say that the boy she'd called sempai would probably try to murder him for insubordination and being a bad example of what a Suna shinobi was like.

She *could* have said any of those things, but didn't. In the end she agreed with him completely.

'I'll see you tomorrow, Uzumaki-san,' she said, moving slightly to the side to prevent being stabbed by the redhead. 'Please do try to rest'

Daichi, seeing no expected or (what was worse) no unexpected reaction only tsked and walked away. If that was how she wanted to handle him then how did she want to handle them… at all? It seemed that in the end, his last years of stay here would become nothing but a waste of time. Which wasn't something he really felt good about. Wordlessly, he walked away to meet up with dummy doll once again. The rendez vous of such sorts if it didn't help – it never hurt anyone.

'What did you see in her anyway?' Kushina had waited a little while so it didn't look like if she was following, but once she reached the training grounds she engaged in the most therapeutic and channeling activity she knew of. 'Is it the blonde hair? Is it because she's blonde? Because she's very underage? Is it a blonde, underage fetish from Suna?' And nothing spelled sanity of mind like seeing a big panel of bright buttons on Daichi's board and gleefully stomping on them. 'You really slept with her without knowing she was a girl?'

Daichi glanced at the red-haired girl for a moment, not for once stopping his kicks on the peachy colored doll. Then, without the slightest warning, his leg, instead of hitting the side of head of the puppet it landed on the side of the girl, pushing her into the grounds. It wasn't a hard kick, more like a push than an actual battling move, but it held every sign of hostility it could provide if used seriously. 'What are you doing? Want me to bite through your artery?' he spoke with calm but warning tone 'Come on, witch. You know you don't stand a chance against me anyway. Freak.'

'You dated that thing and I'm the freak?' she spat, cradling her side. Daichi might think that wasn't a hard kick, but the bastard usually forgot normal humans hadn't been brought up on a steady diet of iron sand fist for breakfast lunch and dinner, so his perception of a weak hit was a bit different from other people's. Then again, she'd just hit a sore spot on purpose and so far she had all her bones intact. That Suna bastard really must have a soft spot for her. 'Are you going?'

'You wouldn't understand anyway.' Said Daichi, frowning at the words that were shot at him, and turned back to the dummy doll again. He was not going anywhere. 'I'm staying.' He said dully and resumed his kicking. If she didn't want to accept invitation to fight, it was fine. Dummies didn't respond to kicks, but he learned to live with that long time ago. So it was perfectly fine. On the third kick, the head of the doll turned a bit the way it was never supposed to be. So weak they were made these days.

'Then I'm not going either,' the redhead stated, crouching down and wrapping her arms around her legs. 'It's not like if she even wants us there in the first place, so why the hell was she sent here for anyway?'

'Because gods want to laugh into my face.' Said Daichi, though when he said that it was so muffled and clutched by his clenched jaw that it was a miracle if the girl heard at least one word correctly. He didn't toss her a glance but accepted her stay by not tossing her out. Which was pretty kind of him considering how bitter he felt. Maybe he should have stopped being a macho and for once just act like a simple caveman if there was an opportunity presented – went through his head. But with one quick lustration of the red-haired woman it went as quickly as it came. No. At least not in this timeline.

'I don't know, go and ask someone who is responsible.' He stated out loud to deafen all the thoughts that were buzzing near his head like lazy bumblebees. 'Be useful for once.' With that, he executed a harsh block right onto the dummy doll's chest. The material creaked dangerously with a deafened thud. Too weak to crush ribs. Too weak.

'I think it's your fault. You probably did something horrible to her and she just came to have her revenge on you.' Too bad she didn't seem to register Daichi existed or acted like if they'd had a relationship in the first place… Talk about cold shoulder. She thought about reminding Daichi that he owed her to cover her ramen tab, considering it had already been a little over a month that the blonde was still a steady, practically unscratched presence among them, but then thought better about it and kept quiet. It's not like the money she owed Daichi for the same bet wasn't still on the line, and even if her tabs were by far superior to it… She hadn't been able to consume much of it during her stay on the hospital. Better save it for a more plethoric month.

On regards of why she was there in the first place…

'Maybe I will.' One would have thought that with her boisterous personality, her harsh manners and that candy-colored hair, Uzumaki Kushina would be the least capable person for infiltration… and that one would be very, very wrong. Do far she hadn't been able to find much about the girl, nothing more than what little other people knew of her from before she left the academy or what was overheard from Konoha, but she hadn't really been trying, so…

'I don't think they are coming, do you?'

Gonzou gave his brother a look, then looked down (very far down) to the tiny figure of the Konoha girl leaning against the tree. They were tall, even for ninja from Rock, and as such the dark skinned and heavily muscled pair tended to tower over most of the population in the academy. The girl was far from an exception, and skinny enough either of them could provably snap her in two with one hand and yet… there was something positively frightening about the sweet way she was smiling right then.'I don't think so, Namikaze-san.' he finally answered.

'That makes it three, right?' she asked in what for some reason sounded like childish delight, turning to look at his brother. If he hadn't known better, he would have thought that he saw the older man wince. 'Three each of them.'

'That's right, Namikaze-san.' Kazue answered with a curt nod.

'…all right.'

One would have thought that a unit captain that didn't seem to be able to control her underlings shouldn't look pleased by such a fact, but the blonde looked the part. Disturbingly so. 'Please write that down as well, that will be all for now. Thank you for the help."

With a small nod to the pair, she turned around and finally left the gates. For some reason, breathing was suddenly a lot easier. Gonzou wiped his brow.

'What the hell was that?'

'I'd rather not know.' He answered, looking at the quickly retreating figure. All he knew was that whatever the hell was going through that girl's mind, he was thankful for the fact it had nothing to do with them.