I'm super sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out! I've just been exhausted and a bit depressed for the last couple months from health reasons (still am, just don't want to disappoint anyone more than I already have), not that it's a excuse to keep you all waiting for so long or for such a cruddy chapter. I might try to speed things up so I can get to the ending soon, hopefully at least some of ya'll are still willing to keep reading. Kiwa finally meets her match in weirding people out in this chapter, from a (probably) unexpected source, so try to enjoy that.

Time: Uncertain. The seasons have changed a few times, but stopped keeping track.

Kiwa was sitting on a flat boulder she polished up into a pretty spiffy bench, eating her lunch, when she heard the sound of footsteps. A lot of footsteps. She decided to ignore them. She had almost doubled some of her stats since she left Maru 'alone' (obviously she sent birds to check on him discreetly every now and then. He seemed happy most of the time.), so she couldn't really see anyone managing to catch her if she bolted for it.

She obviously hoped they wouldn't trash the preliminary shelters she had made for Hashirama and Madara (not that either of them asked her to do it- she just didn't have anything else to do and figured both of them would think they could just do it on the fly once they allied).

She'd rebuild if she had to.

"...Kiwa?" A surprised, familiar voice said once the tamping of feet came near her.

"You kept me waiting, Hashirama. How's Madara and your resident grump doing?" Kiwa asked, not looking up from her rice as she finished chowing down, chucking the wooden bowl to the side. Hey, it was biodegradable, and that was gonna be a garden (or maybe a farm, she hadn't decided) someday.

"Big brother and Tobirama are fine. What are you doing here? ...Were these houses always here?" She heard Izuna say, mumbling the last part to Hashirama.

Wait.

She whipped her head around to looking at the quartet.

Izuna?

She'd already given up (more like forgot that his ass needed saving) on his survival, but here he was, looking healthy and well.

"You're supposed to be dead. Nice to see you still kicking it." She said, standing up and stretching.

"What?" Madara mumbled.

"I figured you dolts would just come marching in once you got off your asses and made peace, so figured I'd build a place for people to live in mild comfort while I found someone who knows plumbing to help me build the real houses."

"You...but why? You aren't part of any clan nor do you have a vested interest in this. Hell, how the hell did you know we'd even agree make a village here?" Izuna asked, bewildered.

Madara patted his shoulder. "You'll stop trying to make sense of how she knows or does things eventually, Izuna." He said with a flat stare in her direction.

"Anyways, does anyone know plumbing or do I gotta go out and find somebody? Because that doesn't seem like something you can just figure out yourself unless you want things to go badly."

"No?"

"Well then, bye-bye! I'll be back to make toilets and baths, stuff like that." She said, before bolting off into the woods.

"Who-what...why?" Someone in the crowd she left muttered, most of them a bit baffled.

Time: Like, 2/3 months maybe? Kiwa lost track of time, okay.

"-and that's how I'll be setting up the plumbing! Any questions?"

"Yes, how the hell did you get in here?!" One of the men that were working on improving the houses she set up before they arrived said. Turned out she actually built a few too many for the people who actually showed up, and they just started building off it while she 'figured out' (grinded) plumbing.

"I climbed over the wall, you all saw me."

"But there are patrols going on, how'd you not get directed to the gate?!"

"Wait, those are your guys?"

"Wait- did you attack the guards?!"

"No, I just slipped past them, I'm not some kind of savage. Wasn't that hard, I'm pretty fast. Figured you all wanted them hanging around for some reason."

"...You know what, you just do what you want."

"Great! I was planning to do so anyways."

"Fucking crazy loners." one mumbled.

"I heard that!"

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO!"

"Fair enough."

More time later.

"So you just...ripped the bandits in half?" Madara asked.

"Yeah, it was a bitch to clean off the site."

"How do you keep slipping past the guards to get in and out of the village without anyone knowing anyways?" Hashirama asked, seeming a little worried.

"Well, usually I just bolt for it. I've got some decent speed even without chakra enhancement. This time they were a bit distracted by the whole 'bandits trying to kill everyone they can' thing, so I just went in through the hole they made. I plugged it up for now. You're welcome."

"You plugged it up with the bodies of the bandits! Seriously. What the hell makes you think that is at all okay?" A grumpy old man Kiwa didn't bother learning the name of grumbled.

"It seemed like a solid plan at the time!"

"It is NEVER a good idea to use whole bodies in construction!" He snarled out. "Bones at least are sturdy and rot less!"

"Oh come on! It's just a temp fix! I could have already moved them and rebuilt the wall if you'd just stop hassling me!"

"Enough! Just...just go fix the wall and get rid of the bandit's bodies, please." Hashirama said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Roger roger! One clean up coming right up!" She said, bolting out a window.

Kiwa showed up at the patch job within minutes, and looked at the ninja either moving debris or gawking at the ten foot tall stack of bodies and mud.

"Hello, ma'am." A voice came from the side, causing Kiwa to look at the person. They looked like a Aburame, so she'd just assume.

"Yes, do you need something?"

"I would just like to thank you for preventing the bandits from making their way in any farther." He said, bowing. Kiwa noticed something a bit...out of place when he straightened up.

"...Are you popping a boner right now?" She asked, bewildered.

"Yes." He said, firmly and without shame.

"...Should I hazard asking why?"

"I...appreciate strong people. Very much so." He said.

"Okay, that's fine and all, but can you at least try and cover it a bit? It's super awkward talking to someone while their pants keep jerking every couple of seconds."

"No."

"What, why!?"

"I like having people look." He said. Holy shit, she did not expect anything like this from a Aburame. Weren't they supposed to be cool headed?! Although he did still have a poker face on.

"You know what I'm just going to go..."

"Very well, farewell." He said, bowing again as Kiwa got to work.

A couple of weeks more.

"Can you just, I dunno, talk to him about it?"

"Why? My clan member isn't harming anyone by helping out at the work site."

"He's harming my ability to work when he keeps popping a boner every time I talk to him or when he sees me doing heavy lifting, okay?!"

"I'll ask him to cover it up somehow."

"Okay, but I'll still know that it's happening and it bothers me! Like, how am I supposed to talk to someone who has no shame throwing out strange compliments or outright trying to convince me to visit his house?!"

"Is it him finding you attractive that bothers you, or is it because of his clan?" The dude asked.

"It's the attractive part. Like, seriously, I regularly get confused for a man, and this dude just comes out of nowhere and sees me ripping people in half and is just like, 'you know what, I'm going to try and seduce that person, because they can break me easily. Sign me the fuck up.'. What part of that seems normal to you?!"

"It's perfectly normal to appreciate things like that. I'm sure if half the people in my clan saw you do that they'd be hitting on you too. It's good for keeping the clan safe to have strong people in it. I, personally, hope he does succeed in seducing you, however awful he is at it, so that the clan can have another strong member join us."

"Fuck, fine, I'm leaving."

"Farewell."

"Fucking weird ass bug users." She grumbled.

"It's not that weird."

"Fuck off and let me complain!"