Déjà vu no Jutsu

by Vixen Tail

Take one dead, thirty year old career soldier, stick in the body of a child during the Second Great Shinobi War. Add a mini-Namikaze Minato, ninjas, chakra, tailed beasts, and shake well. Is it any wonder she thought she was insane? Second/Third Great Ninja War era SI AU.

21. Dark Paths

Disclaimer : Nope, still not mine.

Rating : M, you know that already. Why check anymore?

Author's Note : Mkay, peeps. This is getting rather ridiculous. I should not have to continually remind reviews that I do not either work for or write for your amusement. The next time I get a nasty note about a point of future canon and this story's future timeline, I will be mean and nasty about pointing out how inanely stupid you are.

For reference; Naruto canon is currently in a corner screaming for his mommy and begging it to stop as he clutches his bleeding asshole. This is an AU, that means if I want Madara to die of a messy and embarrassing heart attack that makes him shit himself before he ever reaches Minato or Kushina during Naruto's birth it will happen that way. Descriptive enough to stick in your head yet? Any more of you want to try leaving me nasty notes demanding I address your so called points in supposedly polite tones?

I continue to get this kind of harassment, I will pull my stories off this site. If it has not been written yet, you do not have the right to get nasty about me not writing it yet. I will allow discussions on features of the Naruto world I try to make clearer, but if you keep trying to nudge and prick this story to go how you want I will stop and laugh as you try to poke me back to writing again or to find what I already wrote.

Now, aside the five morons, we've hit a thousand reviews. I am, probably, only continuing for the rest of you who have made the story into something I am stupidly proud of. Please continue, because you still outweigh the idiots that can't seem to recall they should behave like decent human beings and that makes me want to write more even when I get pissed off.

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Part Twenty-One : Dark Paths

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

- Theodore Roosevelt

---

It was very quiet in the Ame Orphan's hideout as Jiraiya finally stopped talking.

Yahiko looked stunned. Konan had a small frown.

Nagato was the only one who looked thoughtful. "She agreed to do the same for us?"

"You have to understand, Nagato-kun. Neko-chan loves me, enough to report a suspicious assassination mission in your direction all because she thought it might have something to do with me." The Toad Sage informed him dryly, tugging a massive hand though his wild hair in order to scratch the back of his head. "On a suspicion, she sent me out here. For something she didn't know was that important to me, but knew I spent a lot of time in this part of the Hidden Countries and so it might be important even if I never told her or her fellow students what. I asked her to, she'd do it just because I did."

"She… she's died once? She's lived two lives?" The paper wielding kunoichi repeated, looking slightly queasy. "Sensei… are you sure?"

Jiraiya snorted. "You have no idea how much I struggled with that at first. What do you teach a warrior that knew how to kill long before she was even born? What kind of loyalty did she have outside the village? But… neko-chan's other life? It ended thousands of years ago, she couldn't even recognize the landmass our maps show now. Her old home is gone, nothing she could do would bring that back. Everything she once knew is dead and dust, all she has now is Konohagakure no Sato and the life she made herself there. She allowed a mind walker into her head, Konan-chan, he told us the same thing after viewing her memories."

Yahiko worked his jaw silently, still looking shocked.

Nagato interjected before he could gather his wits. "Thousands?"

"She knows a few languages that are no longer spoken, Nagato-kun. The moment I believe her was when my own Toads read it off and commented they hadn't seen the like in ages." The sannin frowned slightly. "I wonder if she still knows how to speak them? Eh… anyways, back then there was less significance put on hiding one's history. Neko-chan will admit she loves history, even if that wasn't something she could indulge more often than not here. They also had records stretching back another two thousand years, which means she knows how quite a few civilizations formed and fell from that. With her intuitive abilities, psychology skills, and that? She's Konoha's best troubleshooter, hands down."

"And… she hates me." Yahiko planted his face in his hands. "Oh kami."

"Neko-chan doesn't hate you," Jiraiya contradicted calmly, "she just wants nothing to do with you now. She said it herself, had it been any other time that letter reached her she probably would've forgiven you that. You were just trying to protect your teammate, she does respect the point in it. But… that was also around the time the one man who didn't know about her reincarnation and treated her as a daughter anyways died. Sakumo meant a whole lot to her, and she probably realized that if I hadn't been out here with you I would've gone on that mission and at least kept my friend alive. They only barely just managed to kill him, Sakumo and I together probably wouldn't have lost half the team in the end."

The orange haired ninja cringed. "That doesn't help me out any, sensei."

"Good. That was a stupid thing you pulled on her. I was shocked you tried that on her."

"Yahiko's moments of stupidity aside," Konan interjected smoothly, "she did agree to help us as well, if only just for Jiraiya-sensei. I think we should be thankful for that, and if she wants I'll keep our idiotic leader from bothering her."

The older shinobi grinned at his second female student. "Neko-chan insists on any further letters coming from you, Konan-chan. I'll take that back and she'll probably write you first. If you see a big spotted cat, it's one of her Summons."

That seemed to please the blue haired kunoichi, painting a small smile on her face. "I would be delighted."

Jiraiya nodded, rising up to his full height and scowling when his head hit the top of the dugout hideaway he had helped his other students build. "You want to know something amusing?"

"What?" Nagato asked as he and his teammates followed the white haired sannin out into the late afternoon drizzle.

"She'd come out here more for me, you, and fishy than Yahiko right now."

"She who?" Kisame grumbled as he rose to his full height when they reached where he had been waiting for them.

The former Kirigakure jōnin was on probation, but allowed to wander where he pleased until Konoha needed him for the Kage Summit. After that he would be an Amegakure no Sato jōnin shinobi instead of a former Kiri one, with all the rights that entailed. For the time being the former Swordsman of the Mist seemed rather content at helping the rebuilding process, once he heard the story of the fight between Hanzō the Salamander and the Ame Orphans with Jiraiya the Toad Sage as backup.

Hanzō had originally attempted to lure the Ame Orphans and the rebel Akatsuki out into a dead ended valley, but Jiraiya stopped all over that with his Toads to help. Half of Amegakure ended up saturated with poison from the former kage leader of Rain, forcing the remaining Ame-nin to tear down and rebuild as the frequent rainfall washed the ground clear again. That didn't account for the damage the Toad Sage's Summons had left behind, gigantic amphibians had very poor depth perception when it came to buildings, or what damage the heavy jutsu use left scarred into the ground.

The Village Hidden in the Rain citizens were still living out of tents for the time being. The race was to put up buildings before the frequent rainfall turned to icy sleet and froze the ground for the winter, and secure the food stores again so they would be able to eat through the non-growing seasons.

It seemed to be possible, half the major buildings were up since the fight took place and the other half might just get finished in time with the thanks of Kisame's strength added to Jiraiya's. They were bare wooden constructs, but better than nothing.

"Nara Natsumi, one of my other students. The one that arranged it so you could come here." The sannin pleasantly grinned at the shark shinobi. "The strange one that you hit a few triggers on and got yourself protected by."

He had been left outside for the story, Kisame still didn't know of Natsumi's past life. Jiraiya wasn't going to be the one to tell him just yet, a few weeks of traveling and rebuilding did not give him enough time to take the other ninja's measure, even if the assassin in question had allowed the possibility if he wanted. He was a little confused over why his oldest, all total, student had offered that as well, but the news she trusted him if he spread it to those he thought needed to know was appreciated.

That didn't mean big and blue wasn't confused over the kunoichi herself or had questions.

"Why did she do that? I still don't understand."

"You hit the same thing that allowed her to get attached with a fellow orphan, who asked for her help, back when she was still shocked numb over a few things." Jiraiya's pleasant grin turned a touch sharp. "You were brought to her by some of the ninja she trusts, and then you told her you didn't know what to do. That made her want to arrange it so you'd get what you want, even if you didn't know what it was you want. She respects you for what you did, realizing something was screwed up and doing what you could about it even if it was just leaving your former village. She ever loses that respect for you, fishy, you won't live to regret it."

Kisame scowled fiercely, edging away from the sannin slightly. "I didn't ask for anything from her."

"You didn't have to. That trigger has gotten more than just you her assistance, I know a pair of Sunagakure shinobi that think the world of her for what she did for them when one hit that." The oldest shinobi there huffed, slightly irritated but mostly fond. "She gets attached to the strangest ninja sometimes, but refuses to deal with a few I know are trustworthy and respectable."

"Like who?"

"Fishy isn't enough of a strange shinobi?" Jiraiya asked Yahiko archly. "Killer B of Kumogakure, oddly enough. Damned if I know why that one, but probably for the kenjutsu fights they've gotten into over the years and a bit of flirting he did with her. She refuses to hear anything bad about him, insisting he's just funny even when we know he's the jinchūriki of the eight-tails."

Konan blinked a few times. "Flirting?"

"Flirting." He confirmed dryly. "Once right in front of her husband, too. Neko-chan still laughs over that. Even if B did it to buy himself time or to distract them, it was still flirting and she appreciated it… after the fact, anyways."

"So, why me?" Nagato questioned after they had a long moment to process that. "I have had little to do with her so far."

"But you made her hime ecstatically happy. You didn't have to write Kushina-hime, you didn't even have to acknowledge the fact you have a cousin at all. You did it anyways when I told you why neko-chan caught the assassination request. That bought you a spot on her network of contacts and important figures she'd screw half the world over for, probably just above fishy himself and the friends of her own friends."

\V/

Natsumi growled at the paperwork spread out over her lap, as if that would scare it all off. "I'm going to have to give something up."

Shikaku looked over at her, where she was situated in their study with both the academy paperwork and ANBU's spread out around her. "Well… probably. You didn't plan on holding onto the academy long term, wife mine."

She had held on because it was an almost tailored made distraction for her. Children and teaching? She loved going to dig into the academy's structure and help out, especially when her husband was gone or something was going wrong in her life.

"I… I want to, hubby dear. I want to hold on to it."

There wasn't any real reason, the last of their friends had finally gotten a genin team made up of the names Natsumi recalled from an alternate storyline that had somehow become her life.

Mikoto would get Mitarashi Anko, Umino Iruka, and Tenzou to teach.

It would take another ten years for the next generation of names she recognized to pass though the academy, and by that time the children might end up vastly different than before.

Neji was… not going to be sealed, for one, and hate his cousin for the first decade of their lives because of it. Hinata? Err… might not flinch from people without that egging her on. Maybe.

Naruto might not lose either parent with this new Kiri twist to things. Sakura would have a mother entrenched into a kunoichi tea party circle, and probably would be taught not to fan girl long before it could become a problem. Sauske would have his clan, if at all possible.

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji?

She wasn't Yoshino; Inoichi might have given up looking for a suitable wife one of the times she called him three different kinds of idiot for thinking about doing it; Momo… well, probably would've ended up with Chouza anyways.

She loved them, those good old Akimichis. Solid and dependable no matter what.

Natsumi didn't know what problem Kiba had with Shino, but with Shibi Hana's godfather that might change drastically.

Maybe… that actually may end up a problem. What if Kiba had thought Shibi was Hana's father and refused to acknowledge it?

That was kind of a touchy situation. Natsumi might tease Tsume about Shibi being Hana's father, but that was something the assassin really hoped wasn't the case.

If it was true, Shibi still needed an heir for his clan.

If the two trackers were in a relationship then Tsume couldn't be the kunoichi to bear him one. Her clan had a very firm view of what the children they produced did after five years of age, they got their dogs, but Aburames were given over to the kikachu to become hosts. That differentiating viewpoint on any of their children wouldn't end well for Natsumi's favorite pair of trackers. Even more, Tsume had the loyalty of a dog. If she was in a relationship with the Aburame clan head, she wouldn't accept another kunoichi or woman bearing Shibi a child when there wasn't any physical reason she couldn't.

Well… something more to watch for.

Natsumi frowned, studying the academy paperwork Shikaku handed to her the moment he reached it in his own mess of work for the clan.

Maybe she didn't need the academy, as a full or part time position. It would help, during the pregnancy and occasionally sometimes after, but it wasn't something that needed her oversight constantly anymore. She had trained the instructors rather well, or scared them enough to be afraid of her wrath, and there were Naras there now. Everything they couldn't fix or ran into blindly would eventually reach her, anyways. Without two Village Elders trying to screw it up, that should be safe enough with only occasional oversight once or twice a year.

Natsumi would have to give up the academy in order to run ANBU for Minato.

"Well crap. How rude."

"What?"

"Add this to the list of shit my kouhai needs to pay me back for." The Leopard Summoner informed her husband dryly. "Right next to chakra control lessons that nearly dented my head; the hime's kidnapping and getting slapped for reckless behavior; learning fūinjutsu even if it scarred me up; being a test subject for his stupid hiraishin seals; that chakra expanding exercise to the point of nausea; feeding the gaki and his girlfriend for three years; learning to Summon with him; being his best battle partner; arranging his genin team; telling him stories of my last life; and agreeing to run ANBU for… you know what? He owes me his firstborn, damn it all."

Shikaku practically fell over backwards, laughing at her.

(ooo000ooo)

"Anko-chan, I'm pretty sure you're not allowed back here."

The freshly graduated kunoichi trainee squeaked a bit, whirling around to give the jōnin kunoichi who overlooked the academy a bright and cheerful grin. "Natsumi-sama! Err… you're back early."

"Yeah… that tends to happen when one runs out to fetch another lunch to eat when their own becomes contaminated with paint." Natsumi informed the young girl dryly, leaning against her office wall in the academy itself with a carton of food in one hand. "Can I ask what you're doing, or will I get a bullshit answer?"

Anko smirked sheepishly, shrugging and batting wide brown eyes in fake innocence. "I was just looking."

"The genin teams are already formed up, the list aren't here anymore. You also won't be able to find out your jōnin-sensei's name just yet." When that didn't even make the new kunoichi flinch, the older woman rolled her eyes. "What is it this time?"

"Umm, I heard a rumor?"

"Of?"

"You might be leaving the academy?"

"True."

Anko squawked, flapping her arms as if she thought if she did it enough it would keep the Nara where she was. "But Natsumi-sama! You're awesome, why would you leave? You tell us war stories and you always talk to us when we need advice. You can't leave."

"Anko-chan, you're leaving too. You won't be coming back to the academy yourself, why do you care?"

Natsumi would admit to the war stories, but she normally told them when one of her Nara instructors faked sleeping instead of picking up whatever lesson after sparring practice. Teachers or not, Naras were lazy enough not to want to try corralling a group of hyper children bragging about who beat who. Those war stories also held pointed examples for why they were required to do things taught in the academy, mix ups and just awkward happenings the assassin had witnessed over the years of the Third War when those regulations had been either ignored or done wrong.

Advice? Well… that could be done by any instructor, not just Natsumi.

"It won't be the same without you."

"And again you're registering yourself as a genin kunoichi so you won't come back to the academy after being assigned a genin team, kiddo." She ruffled the girl's short purple hair with a smirk. "Here's some advice for you, nothing good lasts forever. If you think something is awesome, Anko-chan, it's normally because it's either rare or fleeting. If you can, hold onto that."

She pouted under her hand, ignoring that her short locks fell out of the pins that kept it up. "It's still going to suck."

"Yeah, I didn't really want to give this up either." Natsumi sighed, then looked at the takeout container she had to fetch when paint somehow got into the food she brought from home. "So since I, for whatever reason, have a lunch and two desserts unmarred by stuff that normally goes on walls, want some sugar Anko-chan?"

The younger kunoichi blinked brown eyes innocently up at her. "I wonder how that happened, Natsumi-sama. I would love to help you out with that, though. Do you have any tea?"

(ooo000ooo)

Mikoto took a few deep breaths, recalling what Natsumi had told her about picking up her genin team but getting distracted a bit before she could open the door she was standing in front of.

She was getting her own genin team. To train and watch grow for the village's future, as both a guide and as a role model for them to rely on.

The genjutsu mistress had known the thought had been foolish, her assumption that even Natsumi was slighting her and sidelining her somewhat. That foolishness had made it rather difficult to approach and talk to the assassin about it. Mikoto had her pride, being wrong was a bit damaging to it.

When the Nara had, tiredly and apologetically, warned her about her years' time limit to take one on, she had thought she misheard at first.

Natsumi's confusion at the topic had simply highlighted how wrong the Uchiha's Matron had been in her assumption.

She had probably been a bit silly, in the relived realization that she wasn't slighting her intentionally. The other kunoichi had just wanted to prevent heaping too much on her.

Mikoto couldn't be sorry about it, she had been way too happy at the time.

Though, she did wonder how she came up with that assumption. The Nara's Lady had later given her a copy of an old treatise between the Second Hokage and the then current head of her clan, one that stated Uchiha MPs were not required to take on genin teams unless they specifically request one to show they had the time for teaching. It spanned everyone from the lowest beat walkers to the Head of the Military Police, if they didn't request one from the academy they wouldn't be assigned one.

Most Uchiha shinobi ended up working as MPs, it was just convenient for them and fast becoming a point of pride for the clan.

Mikoto technically wasn't the Head of the Military Police, which was why Natsumi had given her the warning.

That had caused more than a little confusion in her own clan, the paper hadn't been recorded in their library but it seemed as if some of the point in it were still in use.

Her clan had been wondering why they weren't getting genin teams to teach, that reason had been a little humbling to learn of. They had done it to themselves, and then forgot and wanted to get irritable about it. That had not been a bright moment for her clan, though luckily Natsumi hadn't really blinked at helping them correct that.

Furthermore, when picking out her own students she somehow picked one of two students involved in an S-ranked secret. Natsumi cautioned her that it might not be possible to get him, but somehow arranged it all as she wanted anyways.

Mikoto now possessed an S-ranked secret, one that had nothing to do with the Uchiha clan or the Military Police. The ANBU captain, assassination specialist, and paranoid jōnin kunoichi that was Nara Natsumi trusted her enough to let her in on it when she only just mentioned wanting something to do with it.

It had been a little horrifying to learn of, but still something she took pride in being trusted with.

Sometimes she wondered what she had done to deserve the reincarnated woman's regard. Mikoto wouldn't argue, it was flattering that such a woman with that much experience in life thought of her as a friend, but the woman herself could be intimidating.

Then she acted like a child and made the Uchiha wonder if that intimidating kunoichi was alright in the head.

Mikoto huffed a small laugh at her own thoughts, turning back to the classroom door between her and her perspective students.

She was the first Uchiha to take on a genin team in nearly ten years, she shouldn't be afraid of meeting her students.

She had picked them herself and it was the last team Natsumi would assemble for the academy as it's head.

How could that go wrong?

\V/

"He proposed!"

Natsumi coughed a few times, patting Kushina on the back weakly. "Well… ow, about time. Hime… I kind of need to breathe."

The redhead only pulled back after another rib cracking squeeze, leaving a wheezing assassin to nearly collapse on the ground. "I… I'm getting married."

"Yes… yes, that normally happens after you are proposed to." Natsumi took some deep breaths, trying to get the spots in her vision to go away. "Remind me to stand behind Minato the next time you feel like celebrating."

"I'm standing behind you, sempai."

"I know. Your point?" His future ANBU General accepted her future Hokage's support, cradling her aching ribcage and just leaning up against him. "You are marrying the woman, you deal with it… congrats, by the by. About time you made an honest woman of her."

Minato smiled, fond and pleased and stanchly ignoring that last quip. "Thanks."

There was a sneaking suspicion in the back of her head that he had delayed proposing in favor of telling her about his future job as Hokage first, then sprang the proposal in when Kushina was still gaping at Minato beating her to the hat. She had to admire that if it was true, ninja being sneaky in the face of womanly wrath was hilarious.

She'd get the truth out of the hime later, then harass him over it with her. She wouldn't be his sister if she didn't, and that would be amusing in spades.

Natsumi only half listened to Kushina babble on, rather content to just recover her breath instead of wasting any to talk with only to be ignored.

Until the other kunoichi made mention of what kind of ceremony they would have. "Wait… WHAT!"

The Whirlpool Princess realized too late she had told the assassin what kind of marriage ceremony she had wanted years ago. "Err… well… there is a war going on…"

"Keep talking, that's no reason to do a civil ceremony." Natsumi observed icily, a very sadistic grin on her face. "I know of two others getting hitched who are going all out for it."

"They're clan heads?"

"And you are my dear friend, hime." She jerked a clawed thumb at the blond cringing slightly next to her. "Not to mention my brother. Try again."

"…we don't have the funds for it."

Natsumi blinked a few times, then shook her head with a chuckle. "You both are morons. I told you a house was expensive."

Minato winced, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Yes, yes you did sempai."

The assassin frowned slightly in response, staring up at the winter sky over the Nara training grounds for a long moment. "How much is the bride price?"

"What?"

"Hime?"

"Err… that was like… ten thousand ryo… almost twenty years ago, I think. Why?"

Natsumi did some rapid calculations in her head, the shrugged. "I have… about twice that, from ANBU mission pay collected over ten years and rarely touched. I'll pay the bride price, kami knows I raised you both enough to count as a kaa-san. Use that to get hitched in style."

Kushina gaped at her. "But… but that was back when the Uzumaki clan was enormous! Natsumi-"

"And my brother is either marrying in or taking you out of it." Natsumi spoke over her loudly, rolling her eyes. "Think of it as a wedding gift if you have to."

"Sempai-"

"You argue, I will double it."

Minato shut his mouth, blinking at her.

She arched a challenging eyebrow in return.

It lost it's effect when Kushina hit her like a runaway bull and knocked her off her feet with a teary hug.

Natsumi despaired over the state of her ribs and just hugged the jinchūriki back as they both lay on the icy ground.

\V/

When Fugaku, Tsume, and Shibi returned to Konohagakure and Hiashi's division didn't immediately head out with him in late spring, the all the major clans knew something was up.

Shikaku might know somewhat, and he told his teammates what he knew, but even he didn't know the full story. Natsumi hadn't informed him she had possibly been the next Hokage, she merely told him she would be Minato's ANBU General. The only ones that knew were the twin Bear-samas, Hiruzen, Minato, and herself still.

The Council of Clans convened with all clan heads attending, the first time in nearly two years. They were unsurprised at the subject matter, confirming Minato's candidacy as Hokage to be with minimum fuss raised. It had probably been the shortest clan council session in the history of Konohagakure no Sato.

When the shinobi corps realized the jōnin were returning without another set of them getting deployed to replace them, they then knew something was up.

There were over two hundred and fifty jōnin, around three hundred tokubetsu jōnin, nearly eight hundred chūnin, and almost a thousand genin that called the Village Hidden in the Leaves home.

At the moment, there were no tokubetsu jōnin in the village but all two hundred and fifty or so jōnin were crammed inside.

The only place large enough to fit them was the arena, the place the elimination bouts of the chūnin exams took place in.

Natsumi cast an eye around at the seating arrangement as she helped a visibly pregnant Misaki to a seat, a little bemused. It was one thing to know you had that many coworkers, it was another entirely to see all of them occupying the same space.

What did all of their jōnin shinobi occupying the same spot in the middle of a war look like?

Half of Konoha's jōnin probably rarely saw one another, and the war had split that further into three distinct social sections. She amused herself in picking out which ninja preferred which ninja, who were still friends and who heartily disliked each other, and which clan shinobi had a lover in another clan. The location had probably been deliberate, the seats were built into the stadium and allowed the highly paranoid and suspicious ninja there to pick their own spots and set their comrades at their own backs in a very interesting triple daisy chained pattern.

The assassin herself was unsurprised she was a converging point for quite a few clan shinobi, Naras ringed by the Yamanaka and Akimichi clans' jōnin and the Hyūga clan's only for Misaki's presence at her side. The Inuzukas lingered in the back with the Aburames, directly behind them.

You could tell a lot about an organization or place by the people that made it up and their preferences.

Even when Mikoto joined her, running slightly late but not too much, the clan shinobi around merely shifted a bit to allow the Uchiha clan jōnin to have the other side of the group away from the Hyūgas.

Natsumi wanted to put her face in her hands and laugh.

She didn't, only because Shikaku was down in the arena with Minato, Jiraiya, Hiruzen, and the rest of the clan heads. Natsumi had to be the Nara's Lady right now, not a kunoichi assassin that liked screwing with heads. She gave the Uchiha Matron a lazy grin instead, brushing off the hurried apologies with ease and the reassurance that they knew she now managed a genin team, but even with her husband home to manage the Military Police for them it had to take up a chunk of time she couldn't plan for. That didn't include managing a whole clan between them or anything else that the clan needed.

How in the world did she have the time and energy to do it all? Those brats took up a lot more time than most realized, and did she have any problems with them yet? It was around the time they started grating against each other, once the newness of being genin wore off.

Those that heard her and held some kind of disproval for being late and not early for the Uchihas readjusted their view of it quickly.

The only ones that were forgiven for being late as well? The medics that came in at the deadline report time, led by Tsunade.

The Hospital had to be in the middle of a panic, with all the jōnin medics here and not pulling doctor shifts.

The Slug Princess detoured to where Misaki was as her agitated looking medics picked spots for themselves where they wanted, no one said no to the medics' wishes for seating, probably because she was still in medic mode and pregnant kunoichi could be paranoid about their health. Checking the four month pregnant kunoichi after she slid through the Hyūga clan knot of jōnin was easy for her, as they all immediately and politely shifted away from her path to allow her the space to check their branch head's wife's condition. Then the sannin nodded, to ensure the kunoichi and Hyūga clan jōnin knew she found no problems, and jumped down to join Jiraiya behind their teacher.

Hiruzen waited only long enough for the sun to slip behind the massively thick walls of the arena.

"Jōnin of Konohagakure no Sato, my elites. I have called you all together for one reason. I have served you as Hokage for years… but it is my time to step aside and allow another to lead you through the next decades as the Fire Shadow of our Village Hidden in the Leaves. I present you my candidate to succeed me, Namikaze Minato. If any of you have concerns of his ability to lead you, speak now."

(ooo000ooo)

"Oh… this will be short." Natsumi informed her fellow jōnin idly as the major leaders of their village stepped aside to let the sole challenger step forward.

"How so?"

The assassin grinned at the Uchiha clan Matron. "Minato can get past my kinjutsu, Mikoto. He kicks my ass regularly when we can fit in a spar."

"Your kinjutsu is a Yin Release." The genjutsu mistress thought aloud. "That would give him a large amount of experience dispelling illusions or discounting them if he can not."

"There is also that senjutsu sensing he can do." Natsumi tacked on pleasantly. "You have no idea how annoying that is when fighting him. My kouhai instantly knows what's real and what's not when we fight genjutsu users. I have to be perfectly correct in an instant and prevent him time to think if I want to trip him up with that."

Kurama Murakumo was going to get his ass kicked. She didn't know why he was trying this, if it had something to do with her or not, but he was still going down.

The head of the Kurama clan might be a jōnin level genjutsu master, and he might have a variation of the clan's kekkai genkai like the bastard of his clan, but it wasn't going to help him any.

Minato specialized in fūinjutsu, true, as the hiraishin seals and his speed in the art could contest to that. He also specialized in fuuton and katon ninjutsu use, and sparred against clan heads, a sannin occasionally, and an ANBU captain to refine it all.

That didn't include his Summons, his picture perfect memory recall, or innate sense for natural chakra and what wasn't supposed to be there.

Natsumi almost wanted to look away, her dislike for that clan or not this would be embarrassing for the Kuramas.

Unkai, the branch head, followed Murakumo down into the area seemingly telling the younger jōnin something as they waited. Then the older Kurama backed away and the two shinobi who would be demonstrating how exactly Minato was fit for Hokage exchanged a few words.

Whatever the Kurama clan head told Natsumi's kouhai, it pissed him off.

Most others might not be able to see it, the assassin was far enough away not to be able to use his face or body language for it, but when he went from gusty hot breeze in her chakra sense to frigid gale she knew.

Fighting a pissed off Minato? Someone had a death wish.

Her guess had been correct, the fight was over with fast. The blond jōnin ignored any attempts to alter his view of the world and flicked a hiraishin kunai out to pass the minor clan head. Murakumo probably didn't know exactly how Minato fought with those seals, he treated them like any kunai and merely evaded.

Minato flashed behind him in a streak of yellow, a kick to the head knocked the other jōnin out of his senses.

Natsumi had to wince, Minato's kicks hurt.

(ooo000ooo)

"So… what was that all about?"

Shikaku gave her a glance as his wife joined him and a few clan heads in the arena while the rest of Konoha's jōnin shinobi left the stadium in droves. "They attempted to barter their approval for his support to take you out of the Nara clan, wife mine."

Natsumi came to a sudden halt, blinking more in shock than irritation. "Did they do no intel gathering on me before trying this crap? Why the hell did they think that would work?"

"Natsu, you practically disappear out of Konohagakure frequently to most shinobi." Her husband dryly informed her with a shrug. "We might know, but only because you let us know what you were up to. Everyone else? You were in the academy, disappeared; joined Team Seven, learned kenjutsu for a few years but still disappeared occasionally; showed up as my wife and then disappeared again for stretches of time; suddenly threw the academy into revolt and took over a genin team, then disappeared for even longer stretches. You see a pattern yet?"

"To most of Konoha, you two have an on again off again friendship." Hiruzen put in, looking amused at this entire discussion. "He might just call you sempai out of habit, and you might just annoy him occasionally because it is your habit."

Jiraiya patted the assassin on the head condescendingly. "You aren't the easiest kunoichi to tail or get Intel on, neko-chan. It makes me proud, it does."

She batted her sensei's hand away from her head, frowning. "Still… if you put it that way, I sound like a ghost."

Shikaku snorted, snickering and trying to seem like he wasn't laughing at her at the same time. He failed miserably.

"Well… you are, sempai." Minato accepted Jiraiya's hand up, once Tsunade was finished healing whatever he did to the leg he slammed into Kurama Murakumo's hard head. "A very cheerful one, and sometimes a scary one, but still a ghost around the village. I can usually hear what you were up to pretty quickly because of all the gossip that starts up when you wander around."

Inoichi about choked on his air. "Konohagakure's Hyo no Yurei. HA!"

Natsumi blinked at him blankly. Leopard Ghost? "I get stuck with that, I'll kill you even if Foxy pouts at me for it."

\V/

There were no records made of the Kages' Summit.

They were held, numerous times since the first one, but no one knew exactly how many times or what had been discussed in any of them. It was fully possible they had never been held in the same place twice, nor over the same subject more than once.

Except to the kages themselves, but that was probably something they would probably take to their graves.

A kage of one of the Great Shinobi Nations was allowed two bodyguards during the Summit.

Five kages, ten bodyguards, and a tiny room. A bit tense, in any estimation of the word.

This occasion the room was located in the Land of Iron. It was supposedly neutral ground, the ninja weren't supposed to enter or work within the borders of the country held by samurai. Panther had done an assassination here once, though. That didn't always mean it was neutral ground to shinobi.

Natsumi had a few bad moments, true, getting through the border and into the wintery tundra that marked Iron out from Fire Country.

Hiruzen and Minato had no issues, they probably didn't kill a visiting noble and escape in the ensuring aftermath. She found that a little unfair.

She did know a few of the bodyguards, amusingly enough. Han from Iwa, B and Nii from Kumo, Zabuza from Kiri, and Sasori from Suna.

Such a gathering of who's who in the Hidden Countries, it was a good thing they had a traditional total amnesty set for a week for this.

When the bodyguards were ensuring they approved of the little meeting room the most powerful leaders of the Hidden Countries would use to meet in, there was another bad moment when Jiraiya showed up with Kisame in tow.

The pint sized Yagura wasn't pleased at all to see one of his former shinobi standing in front of him. Old Ooniki accused Hiruzen of trying to sneak more ninja into the summit.

A and Satoshi merely watched.

The Toad Sage sharply bit out he was Hoshigaki's bodyguard for the duration of the summit, so all the old people please calm down. It wasn't good for their hearts. The sannin even tapped the hitai-ate he wore, which bore the oil symbol for Mount Myōbokuzan instead of the Konohagakure's leaf, claiming he was here as envoy of the Toad Summons and not as a sannin of the Leaf.

"Which brings us nicely to what I've summoned us together for." Hiruzen finished for his student, gesturing to the table their bodyguards had finished checking over repeatedly. "If we can be seated, this will take less time from running our villages."

Minato and Natsumi took up positions behind their Fire Shadow, mimicking the ninja the other kages had brought with them. B gave the Leopard Summoner a thumbs up as everyone else moved into positions, she rolled her eyes and pinched Minato when he glared in response. Sasori merely looked over at the movement, Han pinched his eyes closed for a moment. Zabuza just glowered at his former leader, she was pretty sure that was a default expression on him.

"Kisame-kun, since it was you who brought this problem to light for my shinobi, would you please report what you told us once before?"

Hoshigaki Kisame, who looked a little bluer and a whole lot better than the last time the assassin had seen him, nodded sharply once and only looked a bit bemused at the affectionate tag coming from the Fire Shadow.

"I was formerly a Kirigakure jōnin. Just before my defection, Yagura-sama requested to speak with me. He commended my loyalty, but given I had just killed several of my fellows and only one of who had been a traitor to the Mist, I was rather skeptical of the praise. Then I met someone who claimed to control-"

"This is a farce, Hokage." Yagura interrupted sharply, giving the Fire Shadow a pink eyed glare from Water's corner of the room. "I am not being controlled."

"I find that statement fascinating, Mizukage, given that Kisame-kun had yet to claim that you were the one being controlled." Hiruzen observed pointedly. "So we are not the first to hold suspicion of your state of control?"

There was a beat of silence.

"The shinobi that claimed he controlled Yagura-sama claimed to be called Uchiha Madara." Kisame continued, almost in spite of the interruption. "Who had red eyes, and the Konoha shinobi I talked to had me confirm it was a sharingan I saw with one of their own Uchiha clan members."

"I've spoken to the current head of the Uchiha clan myself." Hiruzen added on, turning back to the other kages assembled. "He informed me there was only one way a sharingan could do that, and the last member of his clan that was known to have that feature was the founder of our village that betrayed us in the end. Someone saved Madara after our honorable Hashirama put him to death, that someone had let loose a shinobi who probably at this point is insane on our world."

Natsumi did a bit of thinking while the kages digested that and kept an eye on the pink eyed and now pinked faced Yagura.

Fugaku had been appalled at the possibility of Madara being alive. His interest in chakra natures and jutsu use had eventually ended up in an interest in how his clan's sharingan worked. The whispered rumor of another stage after the three tomoe development had just enticed him more.

His findings had disgusted him.

Fugaku was a family man, through and through, the mere thought of murdering his own family just for power insulted his pride in his clan. He was a stilted, stiff man, true. A bit arrogant, but most noble shinobi clan ninja had that in some amount.

Mikoto loved him though, enough to break a friendship that had begun back in her academy days for her best friend questioning that. As a genjutsu mistress, the Matron of the Uchiha clan was very good a picking up subtle clues and making a solid and, more importantly, correct convictions out of them. She was convinced her husband loved her and their child.

Fugaku's pride in Itachi's abilities was just that. Pride for his talented son expressed in a slightly stiff manner that made it seem awkwardly arrogant sometimes.

Natsumi had poked that enough to be as sure as Mikoto in that.

He could see a use for his dōjutsu's final evolution, in the tragedy of life and death sometimes people died. That didn't mean the mere idea of someone specifically going after the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan by murdering their own family instead of gaining it when someone else murdered said family hadn't made him irate.

The head of the Uchiha clan was convinced the Mangekyō Sharingan was a thing of vengeance… and Fugaku had no need of vengeance.

Why should he? His clan and family were healthy and protected, his heir was widely acknowledge as a prodigy, he had a difficult but rewarding job entrusted to him, and the next Hokage counted him as a good friend.

Natsumi had been tickled pink to hear it, but she would still like to know who was trying to mislead the Uchiha so she could beat the stupidity out of them and slit their throat afterward.

"I refuse to take this insult to me or my village." Yagura spoke contemptuously, drawing himself up and standing from his chair. It didn't change his height much, and Natsumi pitted his child-sized body for that. "I am leaving."

"Go then. I find you suspicious and possibly compromised." Hiruzen countered calmly, gesturing to one of the many doors leading into the meeting room. "Know we will not rest until the truth of the matter is known."

The Mizukage glared in response, but swept out as haughtily as he could. Momochi gave Hoshigaki a confused look, but did follow his kage with the other bodyguard Natsumi didn't recognize.

"Hiruzen?"

"My apologies, but we do find this series of events suspicious." The Fire Shadow told the Wind Shadow in a pleasant tone of voice. "As the Tsuchikage can tell you, attacking Fire Country border posts is harder than it sounds. However, every month five to twenty Kirigakure shinobi attack one of our land bound posts. They are neither well equipped enough to succeed nor try to find different ways around, and they could easily using the coast if they wished to invite our wrath turning on them. Why it is done is something not even the shinobi we took hostage can tell us."

"Punishment?" A suggested dryly with a shrug of his massive shoulders.

"They can't tell us, Raikage. All they know, every time we try to investigate, is that they are to kill all the Konoha shinobi they find."

That got even Ōnoki's attention. "Can't or won't?"

He would know, Yamanaka clan had probably given him a migraine in mentally screwing over every Iwa-nin they could reach.

"Can't. By the time they reach us, they no longer know themselves." Hiruzen shrugged slightly himself. "I called us together to inform you all of the problem we may have before us. We, Konohagakure, will attempt to investigate ourselves if the Mizukage is no longer himself or never had been, and this sighting of one of the former founders of our village. As one of my best troubleshooters pointed out, if this is true and it gets out it may cause the nobles to become paranoid and the civilians to fear us even more. If it happened before it may happen to their own countries, they might try to systematically destroy the Hidden Villages before such a thing can reoccur if this is as bad as it seems. It might not happen, the longer we go without such a challenge the less likely it becomes. We would like to void it from ever happening regardless."

Satoshi inclined his hatless head in agreement. "We shall assist."

"Never liked the bloody bastards anyways." Ooniki grumped, glaring at Hiruzen from across the table. "If it'll get you off my doorstep, I won't interfere."

A merely shrugged again, pulling at his goatee thoughtfully. "You are closer, Hokage. We will only allow refugees to brave our shores unless your concern becomes groundless."

The Fire Shadow nodded once. "Then I call us to a close."

(ooo000ooo)

"B!" Natsumi grinned up at the jinchūriki, bouncing on her frozen feeling toes and ignoring her sensei snickering in the background. "My husband wants me to flirt back the next time we see each other, just so you know."

The rapping Kumo-nin laughed, clapping his hands and rubbing them together… probably just for the warmth. "Sounds like a plan little neko-chan. But warning da B before such a scene probably wasn't so much of a thing as it seems."

"It'll be a few years at the earliest, we're trying for a kid." The assassin shrugged and clutched her arms to keep in what body heat she had. "You may just forget and I'll get you back for it that way. I still can't believe I fell for it."

"Aww… break my heart, even over a lark." B even clutched the spot over his heart, pouting at her. "Was almost wishing you'd agree then get free and come run away with me."

She grinned back at him after a delighted laugh.

"We need to go, sempai." Minato cut in loudly, gripping Natsumi by the upper arm and glaring at the rapping ninja over her head. "Say goodbye to B-san, hopefully for the last time. Yugito-san, always a pleasure."

The assassin rolled her eyes at him, but waved the Raikage A's bodyguard goodbye as she followed Minato back to where Hiruzen was waiting for them and the rest of the Konohagakure party.

Nii Yugito looked rather confused over the entire thing as B cheerfully waved back.

\V/

Minato had to wait six months for any further challenges for his position as Hiruzen's heir apparent before he could start training to take over for the Sarutobi clan head. Most of the shinobi that had reservations about him either corrected that in face of what he did to his first challenger or intended to get a private spar that wouldn't embarrass the hell out of them later.

In that half a year the jōnin ranks would reconvene again, but to vote at that time. If Minato didn't lose any of his challenges, or didn't withdraw himself from the candidacy, he would be confirmed as the future Yondaime Hokage and trained by the Sandaime to take over for him.

Within as little as a year and probably within two at most, Minato would be their kage.

This was a bit awkward, because this method had never needed to be done before. The first two Hokage had died in office, passing on the hat with only a few words given. Hiruzen was retiring, not dying, war or no this was the way the First had wanted the hat to change hands. Minato could change it later, if he wanted, but this had to be done at least once before Konohagakure would accept not doing it as the honorable Hashirama wanted it to go.

In the meantime Natsumi helped plan two weddings, one single one and a double.

Momo had hers and Mayuko's well in hand, and given the former ANBU espionage captain was a little bewildered at everything a clan head apparently went through to get hitched that was probably a good thing. The Nara clan's Lady merely allowed herself to be accessible for a part of her day so the civilian could get second opinions from her easily.

Kushina's and Minato's was what she spent the bulk of her time on.

Even with a hefty bride price paid by Natsumi to help offset the cost, the Whirlpool Princess eventually decided on a small wedding.

Neither the bride to be nor the groom had any immediate family in the village, just friends, so it worked for them.

Hiruzen was touched to be asked to officiate, Jiraiya and Tsunade would stand in as parents of them both, Inoichi would be best man, and although Mikoto and Kushina were talking again Natsumi got asked to be the Matron of Honor.

It might have been a small wedding done in the middle of war, but Kushina ensured it was as elaborate as she wanted it to be. She blew a good chunk on a wedding kimono alone and half of the entire bride price on reserving a location near the Fire Temple to hold it.

Natsumi didn't really give a damn, she had done it so Kushina and therefore Minato would be happy. If she thought it would help even more, she would have given the two of them the rest of her horded ANBU pay. Hammering that it wasn't really touched a lot through Minato's head might have been a little tricky, but explaining she never really used it unless she wanted something herself worked a bit.

She wanted them happy, their future Yondaime would just have to deal with her fussing over him and his bride.

Oddly, that made her brother shut up about it.

"You know… I kind of wonder what Fiona would think about this." Kushina told Natsumi softly as the assassin applied her makeup the morning of her wedding.

"Err… what I do."

They were in a small chamber off the entrance of the Temple itself, connected to the room they had slept in the night before. It was bare and minimalistic, but starkly beautiful in a way.

Natsumi's ass would still appreciate it if she could sleep in her own damn bed tonight. Ninja might be able to sleep anywhere, and on anything, but she preferred her own bed.

"You know what I mean. I wish I could meet her."

"You can."

Kushina went stock still and stared, the Leopard Summoner only noticed when she drew back to check the eyeliner she had applied.

"What?"

"You can do that?"

"What part of Kurama bastard child and reality affecting illusionary copy jutsu did you not understand?" She shrugged awkwardly. "I can make a copy of Fiona you can meet, but she's me so it won't really be her enough to actually be her and not me… if that made sense."

The Whirlpool Princess stared for another long moment, then carefully flailed her arms so she didn't knock her small store of makeup around. "What? Since when could you do that?"

"Umm… always? I mean… I learned about the Kurama thing when I was about fourteen and knew I could do the copy thing for sure about a year or so ago." Natsumi tugged one of her own braids, tucking it back up into the elaborate twist her heavy hair was in for the ceremony. "I just… I almost did it for Sakumo-taicho, but I decided against it because that would only hurt me in the end. It wouldn't be him, after all, only a fictional copy I created. That way lays madness, so… no. I might do it for Midori-chan, if she ever asks what her otou-sama was like… and no one else has asked me, so yeah…"

"Can we?"

"What?"

"Meet her, Fiona, you, whatever."

She blinked a few times, bemused. "Sure? It gives me a headache, though. After the ceremony."

"Minato too. And Jiraiya-sama. Inoichi might want to meet her, and your husband."

"She won't be real, remember. Fiona was dead then turned into me, you can't really meet her." Setting the makeup down, the assassin shrugged again and got up to help Kushina navigate around in her wedding kimono. "But whatever you want, hime."

Kushina nodded as she was hauled upright, blinking a few times to keep her makeup from getting streaked with tear tracks. "You are fantastic, Natsumi. Like the best kaa-chan, ba-chan, baa-chan, and nee-chan all rolled into one person."

"Thanks… I think." Natsumi informed her dryly, checking to ensure the Uzumaki was assembled properly. "I've a question, however."

"What?"

"Are you becoming a Namikaze or is Minato becoming an Uzumaki?"

The redhead blinked, then smiled softly in pleased remembrance. "Did we never tell you? I am remaining an Uzumaki but our children will be Namikaze. There's a bit of a precedent to it in the village already, honorable Mito-baa-sama kept her clan's name when she married into the Senju clan but her children held her honorable husband's name instead. Minato is considered to be the head of his own clan now that he's probably going to be Hokage in as little as half a year. I would rather my children grow up Namikaze and decide for themselves later if they wished to uphold the Uzumaki name either instead or as well."

The ANBU captain only nodded, gesturing to the Fire Temple's chamber door for Kushina to proceed her out. Namikaze Naruto, then, at least at first.

She could see it, the only thing the Uzumaki name had given Kushina was a few kidnapping attempts and occasional thinly veiled suggestions that she should give up being kunoichi entirely and rebuild the clan for Konoha. Those had always made her either irritable or depressed, depending on who said it. The woman was proud of being an Uzumaki, true, but she probably didn't want her own children to have to struggle against that expectation to become their own ninja or person.

Namikaze might inspire fear now, in Iwa if nowhere else, but it didn't cause nearly as much as Uzumaki did through the Hidden Countries.

There would still be kidnapping attempts, either way.

(ooo000ooo)

The Fire Temple had great walls that enclosed it, even on the three sides that faced the mountains it was protected by. There was a field on the southern face, ringed by trees that started the famed Hashirama tree forest that protected and sheltered the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Kushina chose a spot in the field closest to the forest, the temple behind the wedding party and a nearly ancient Hashirama tree that might have actually been the first one grown by their First Hokage where Hiruzen stood.

It looked more like a pine tree that had maple leaves than a maple tree that didn't care if it was bitterly cold or snowing, which was why Natsumi thought that.

Hashirama trees liked to defy winter and laugh in the face of fall. It was why they were known as the Village Hidden in the Leaves and not the Village Hidden in the Woods.

The wedding was over with quick, the Sandaime might now have a successor but he was still their Hokage for a little while longer yet and had his own work to do.

The ninja that had gathered in the field left shortly afterward to change out of their finery and then either left to return to the village or lingered a bit longer with the newly wedded Namikaze-Uzumaki couple.

From Minato's rather confused look, his hime probably hadn't informed him what Natsumi offered to do.

His face when Fiona's image appeared before him amused the assassin.

Then she blinked and took another look.

Screw Mayuko looking like a female Minato, Fiona looked like she could be his mother.

The soldier's image, dressed in American military ACUs because she had practically lived in them for almost ten years before she died, stood only a few inches shorter than Minato. She also had short cropped blonde hair, if you ignored that hers was a sandy color and his almost acid yellow they both looked to have the same texture, and green eyes instead of blue. Their facial features alone, though, made one think they were related and not two strangers that lived in times vastly different.

Minato and Fiona had the same eye shape, if not color, and similar cheekbones.

"Huh…" Natsumi blinked a few more times, ignoring the throbbing sensation starting up behind her right eye, but the soldier's familiar features didn't stop looking like a feminine Minato. "Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, meet Hanson Fiona."

Shikaku studied the image, giving her a strange look. All she could do was shrug, because that was Fiona and her brother did look a bit like her.

The Toad Sage looked between an almost shell shocked future Yondaime and the image of a dead woman, then threw his arms around the both of them and only slightly jerked when the image moved with his motion. "Aw… it's almost like a family reunion."

Fiona suddenly blinked, causing the white haired sannin to release her quickly.

Then the dead woman smirked and looked straight at the assassin's brother in all but blood. "About time you made an honest woman of the hime, kid."

Natsumi snickered, pressing the heel of a hand to her right eye.

Minato spluttered, still staring, as Jiraiya gaped.

Fiona crossed her illusionary arms under her chest, standing hipshot like she had when listening to the lower ranking soldiers she had worked with. "If I were real, I'd smack you for taking so long in getting hitched. I blame your father, he was never really good a paying child support on time either and fuck knows he never proposed."

Jiraiya burst out laughing at the dead soldier's quip, smacking the future Yondaime on the back hard enough to stagger him forward somewhat.

"Alright… I can see you in her, sempai." Minato blinked a few times, but kept on staring at the dead woman.

"That's… very detailed, Natsumi."

The assassin shrugged in response to Inoichi's observation. "It was me, once upon a time. I can't know Fiona's mannerisms any better than I already do. It makes it easier in a way."

"Are you alright?" Shikaku ignored the alternate image of his wife, as it was an illusion and the real version looked to be in a bit of pain.

"Mmm… I can't do this for long, hubby mine. Copying Koharu-sama for just an hour gave me a migraine for days, but I won't keep her here much longer."

"Just a bit longer, Natsumi." Kushina asked quietly, taking a deep breath.

Then she lunged at the soldier's image, hugging the copy around the waist.

Natsumi blinked a few times, then Fiona returned the hug. "Take care of him for me, hime."

"I will, thank you."

"I'm not the one you should be thanking." The dead woman replied, sounding amused.

Kushina laughed a bit wetly, backing away once she was let go.

Fiona looked at a much recovered Minato. "What, no hug for me?"

"This… is awesome, sempai." He finally spoke, shaking his head and giving the copy a hug anyways. "Creepy, but awesome."

Natsumi and her alternate image shrugged at the same time.

"Well, yeah. She's dead, Minato."

Fiona shrugged again, as if to imply she didn't care she was creepy or dead, then saluted everyone and disappeared.

The assassin blinked a few times as the pain behind her green eye subsided into an aching sensation.

That last shrug… the salute? That hadn't been her controlling the image, she let it go after Minato released the copy and she reminded everyone that the woman was dead.

Fiona had moved on her own.

\V/

Natsumi found it exasperating, how little time she had to herself lately.

Yeah, normally she loved socializing with her small circle of friends.

This though? Was ridiculous in spades.

She would very much like the time to herself to ensure she hadn't be hallucinating Fiona moving on her own, thank you very much, but no one wanted to give her the time to do it in. She could have been wrong and it was just half forgotten habit that Fiona's image had shrugged and saluted by, but she would like to know for sure.

It was entirely possible old habits had just made it seem that way… right?

Though she had no idea what to do if Fiona wasn't quite as dead as she had believed her to be.

Herself to be?

Err… one of those two.

Natsumi had a husband that liked lazing about if he had nothing else to do; soon to be fellow clan head wives asking for her opinion on a wedding; a brother going through the mini fighting part of being newly married; four chūnin to manage; her own ANBU captain's work and sometimes a part of the Bear-samas'; the academy's next head to train up; and all the rest of the little details she had to manage or the issues that popped up and she gave attention to.

She was almost tempted to pop smoke and disappear for a few good hours, but that would alarm the Nara clan, ANBU, and the Uchihas all at the same time. Stag alone would hunt her down in under an hour, Minato had given up trying to keep up with her after the Danzō situation and had inked a hiraishin seal to the back of her left shoulder blade he would use if Shikaku ever asked.

Trying to find the time to figure out if a dead woman was really dead or not shouldn't be this hard.

Mebuki was the latest person through the Nara clan head's home's back door, and the blond former kunoichi threw herself into the assassin's arms. "I'm pregnant!"

The jōnin kunoichi in the kitchen blinked. Sakura. "Really? I told you a bit less stress would help."

"Yeah, I know. Thank you. I had almost given up on having a kid, we've been trying for two years." Mebuki cradled her lower belly, ecstatic and pleased all at once. "Kizashi keeled over, he was so surprised."

Natsumi snorted at the mental image of the redheaded trap specialist jōnin hitting the ground pale as snow. "Men. Ah well."

"Oh… you're going to have to finish teaching Gai-kun your kaa-san's taijutsu. The medics want me to take it as easy as I can, especially since conceiving was this hard. Teaching a chūnin that might get a lucky hit in isn't their idea of easy, apparently."

The assassin winced and mentally added it to the list of things she had to do still. "Will do… but damn if I can figure the time for it… fuck. Tell him, the next time you see him, to meet up with me an hour before dawn. I do my conditioning then, I can teach him instead for a month or two every other day."

The blonde blinked at her a few times. "But… you're a Nara."

"I go back to sleep afterwards, more often if my husband is home than not."

Mebuki nodded with a relieved little smile, as if that corrected whatever was wrong with a Nara getting up before the sun.

Natsumi rolled her eyes. She was not that lazy.

Jiraiya stuck his head into her open kitchen window. "Got a moment, neko-chan?"

The assassin huffed a laugh. "Possibly. Mebuki?"

"I'm good. Thank you, again. Both for the advice and letting me talk your ear off whenever I want." She grinned up at the jōnin that nominated her out of the Chūnin Corps and then bowed slightly to the other kunoichi's sensei. "Jiraiya-sama, excuse me."

The Toad Sage actually had to go around to the door anyways, as good as he was he couldn't get through a half opened window over the assassin's sink, so the blonde former kunoichi managed to leave before the sannin handed over a letter to his former student. "Konan-chan would like your advice on something."

She thumbed the letter open, rubbing her right temple in exasperation. Natsumi didn't mind the letter exchange the two kunoichi students of Jiraiya's had started up earlier in the year, Konan sounded like a slightly reserved kunoichi with a sadistic side she would love to actually get to know; but she also had the habit of asking a few questions about rebuilding Amegakure no Sato that teased the Leopard Summoner's interest in why that was needed.

The Ame Orphans were building a Hidden Village from almost scratch, which was fascinating to her. The occasional updates about how Kisame was doing were interesting too.

"I'd advise the former option rather than the latter, if she has to pick between them. The former will be there for years, the latter will disappear in a few months and probably never go back to Rain. Might be lean for a few, but it will help longer than the latter option."

He nodded, wandering back out probably to write that down and send back with his Toads. Natsumi still had the rest of the letter to read before she wrote a reply herself.

"Natsu?"

Shikaku blinked when his wife whirled on him and brandished a letter under his jaw like she would a sword.

"No, you know what? Go get a job, damn it. I'm tired of being the only one working most days."

He huffed, mouth twitching up to a grin as he used the doorway into the hall as a backrest. "Bit busy, wife mine?"

She sighed heavily, tossing her partially read letter to the kitchen table. "This is… just a bit much."

"It'll get better, you know it. In a week or two you'll be despairing that no one ever visits you." Shikaku drew her into a hug and patted her on the back. "Not what I came in for, though."

Natsumi knocked her forehead into his collarbone. "What?"

"Do you want to go out to eat lunch? I don't think you'll actually get time to fix it yourself today, wife mine."

She snickered weakly, rubbing her face into his chest as he started kneading her tensed back. "We go out, Momo will know in an instant and insist on us eating with them."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Three… no, five words Shika. She's. Planning. A. Double. Wedding."

"That was technically five and a half."

"Whatever." Natsumi drew back far enough to smirk up at him. "I noted you didn't insist."

"Well… after suffering through Kushina's planning I'm just happy we got it out of the way years ago, Natsu."

"You lazy ass."

"You married me, I'm your lazy ass."

She opened her mouth to reply to that, but one of the compound guards knocked on the back door. "Natsumi-sama? Misaki-sama went into labor, you said you wanted to know the moment we heard."

Natsumi blinked and nodded to the young Nara, then glanced to the calendar Minato bought her every year and she stuck somewhere she saw most days.

The third of July was Neji's birthday, apparently.

"Do I have to?"

"Have to what?"

"Get a job." Shikaku clarified, freeing a hand to rub his scruffy jawline. "I have one, right?"

She was silent a long moment, thinking. "Taicho hated leaving Eri-kaa-chan and Kashi-chan, Shika. It was probably one of his biggest regrets, going back to active duty three months after his both of his children's births. I would dearly prefer you home and able to witness any of our children's firsts, husband mine, not out stalking some target for Intelligence. You don't have to, true. I'll have what amounts to a twenty four hour, seven days a week job that probably can be done from anywhere in the village just as well from the look of it."

He hummed instead of commenting.

"Go ask Shikai-tou-sama, see what he says. I won't demand it, because it would probably make you resent me and I want you to be happy, but…"

"You would be happy with me home more often." Shikaku finished for her when she trailed off.

"Yeah… I'm a selfish, jealous bitch. I want you, I want two children, and I want us all together for as long as possible." Natsumi thought about it, but shrugged in the end and tacked something else on. "And our friends think I'm a moody bitch right after you and your team leaves. You stop leaving me home alone and they might just worship at your feet for a few years."

Snorting, he squeezed her lightly. "There's motivation for just about anything if I ever heard it, wife mine. I'll think about it."

"Thank you." She pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw.

"We're going to have to brave Momo-chan's frantic wedding planning, aren't we?"

"Well… yes. If you wanted me to make you lunch, you should've avoided distracting me."

Natsumi glanced back at her calendar, thinking, while Shikaku went to fetch their sandals. She had the time to think, if only a few minutes, so she thought over the things confusing her while she waited.

Fiona was… not quite dead. Possibly.

Well… she had to be dead… right?

The injuries she sustained alone were lethal, Natsumi knew that personally from frequent nightmares of how the soldier had died.

Fiona had to be dead.

However… if she had only just be dead physically then…

Komushi's throw away comment about having two spirits looking through her eyes might not be as funny as she thought it had been at first.

Summoning an image of the dead woman hadn't helped any of the times she had tried for the short moments she could. Natsumi's own expectations were getting in the way of that to the point creating a copy illusion was just giving her both a headache and a migraine trying to get an illusion to talk against it's will.

If it had will, that was.

The question, since that wasn't an option that would work, was if Fiona was her or not. She had the soldier's memories, some of her skills, and a few tics unique to her. That didn't necessarily mean the soldier wasn't her, but it didn't mean she was either.

It would explain Natsumi's quirky Yin Releases, if the dead soldier was a symptom of her Kurama blood.

Fiona could probably control that, what would she do if she didn't agree to what she was doing?

Wow… that didn't remotely make sense.

…was Fiona an alternate personality formed because she held a version of the Kurama kekkai genkai or was as real as Natsumi had assumed for years?

She wanted to believe the latter, simply because of an alternate version of her life Fiona knew of and she used to help navigate this world. The former was possible though, and the clan itself admitted it easily enough if asked about it's kekkai genkai. Alter egos that could affect reality were symptoms of the Kurama blood limit, Natsumi had known she could do the reality affecting but wrote her reincarnation from Fiona off as just a quirk of her bastard blood.

However, according to that story she knew Minato had been Hokage for a year before Madara came after the hime and her child. It wasn't going to be in her life here, Naruto would be born only half a year or less into his father's reign as the Fire Shadow if everything went to plan. Was that caused by something she did?

…was she affecting the reality around her to coincide with an imagined storyline?

There was a sharp pain that suddenly throbbed behind her right eye, enough to make Natsumi wince as a rather vicious headache started up.

Apparently Fiona didn't like that idea.

The ANBU captain snorted at her own foolishness, rubbing at that ache behind her eye probably caused by worrying the same problem around her head for months and abusing a jutsu she swore she wasn't going to do on Sakumo's grave.

There had to be a limit on the Kurama kekkai genkai, there wasn't any way one person could affect multiple things across something as big as the Hidden Countries. Within that range, there had to be another limit on what one Kurama could do. They hadn't taken over the world or anything yet, which if they could manipulate the world at a whim they would have done it already just because humans could be that foolish and greedy.

To top it off, what she told Shikaku years ago was still true. If Fiona was imaginary her life wouldn't have been as occasionally dull or ended as painfully as it had. Even a child didn't have the imagination to dream that up in complete detail like Natsumi could recall, and she could recall it well before she became aware enough of the world around her to mimic or copy things. Certainly well before she could understand it all even with her intuition pulling it all apart and putting it back together. There had been completely separate languages she had pulled from that, that wasn't an elaborate quirk of her mind.

Inoichi had been convinced, and he had been trained to investigate things like that well before the first and only foray through her head.

No, Natsumi didn't believe she was insane. A bit crazy, yeah, but that was forgivable in her personal opinion.

She was, unfortunately, a bit more of a Kurama than she ever wished to be.

That alternate story she had? That was already shattered into little pieces and stomped on repeatedly. For the kami's sake alone, the war with Iwa started two years late. It probably ended a bit early too, and they had Sakumo for most of it even if both he and Orochimaru had been killed in the time the worst of the war spanned.

Sunagakure were staunch allies of Konohagakure as well, Sasori still wrote her letters and whacked Komushi upside the head to do the same sometimes.

There was probably a lot more Leaf ninja alive this time around, too. With only one front of the war to focus on, because Kumo decided to wait it all out, there had to have been less deaths overall even if you discounted the suicide run through Grass into Earth.

For the million ryo question, would Madara brave that again if the Leaf wasn't so hammered or war weary and Konoha was attempting to pry into Kiri after him?

Natsumi rubbed her face with the palm of one hand, staring out at the late summer sky over the Nara forest visible from her kitchen window.

Possibly. She wasn't going to sit on her ass and let him, though.

She was an elite kunoichi assassin that specialized in security seals, the more lethal the better. The sharingan could copy jutsus in a whirl of red color, but she was pretty damn sure fūinjutsu was a bit outside that eye's copying capabilities or the entire Uchiha clan would have that as a specialization. Even if Natsumi was unable to lay a seal down herself that still left Minato, Jiraiya, and Ibiki available to ink any seal she created for a certain hime's birthing process.

Now, where did her fūinjutsu supplies get to?

No, she didn't know why Shikaku came back with her ninja sandals and warily eyed her smile either.

\V/

"This is the last time I can go with you, Mongoose. Make it count."

"Will do, taicho." The saboteur hesitated instead of immediately darting off, tilting his mask in her direction. "Thanks Panther-sama, for all of it."

"Go."

The captain watched her rookie silently disappear into the compound's streets with nearly complete ease.

Sarutobi Koichi was seventeen, ANBU saboteur more than halfway through his life expectancy, and would qualify for ANBU captain or another career change in as little as three to five months.

Panther couldn't take him any farther, the rest was up to him. This was her last ANBU mission.

\V/

"I'm sorry!"

"Momo, calm down."

"But… but your husband's plan."

"Momo, calm down. Shika's plan is still on, don't worry. It's not good for the baby."

Chouji was a very impatient Akimichi, apparently. Conceived out of wedlock, too. Momo's parents were probably appalled.

Natsumi really tried not to smirk over that thought, she did. After all the grief they gave Chouza's future wife about her former living arrangement, though?

Sucks to be them.

"We have half a year, me and Mayuko, to catch up. We already gave up our birth control, there is still time. Relax, Momo. It's fine." The former assassin joined the former spy in patting the civilian on the back, as if the patting would prevent any more panic from coming out the soon to be Akimichi. "But… we should maybe hold the wedding before you get too big for your kaa-san's wedding kimono."

Momo looked horrified at the mere thought, and clutched the Nara's kitchen table in a desperate grip.

"Autumn is a very traditional season to get married in." Natsumi hurried to add before the poor girl burst into more tears. "I got married in the autumn, Momo. We can hold it on my anniversary and celebrate together every year, how about that?"

Mayuko nodded rapidly in agreement and tried a gentle hug instead of continuing to pat. "That sounds lovely, Natsumi, thank you. I like the idea of an autumn wedding. What about you, Momo?"

"Really? Can we?"

"Of course, I would love to share that day with the two of you. Just know Shika's a bit lazy, it takes a bit to get him out of the house even if it is our anniversary."

"Well… your husband is a Nara, Natsumi." Momo patted her on the hand, as if she needed to give the newly retired ANBU captain sympathy before she burst into tears.

Even Mayuko looked bewildered at the sudden mood swing from almost blind panic to comforting girlfriend.

Natsumi could even feel the three men listening in from the hallway to see when the coast was clear practically radiate their confusion over it.

Pregnancy hormones, they baffled even other women.

\V/

"What the hell, woman?"

Mikoto winced and gave a sheepish looking smile. "Sorry?"

Natsumi drew a hand down her face and sighed, exasperated.

Did one of Koichi's fellow if foreign saboteurs screw up the anti-pregnancy pill stock the Hospital had or something? That was Tsume and now Mikoto down this month, the kunoichi around her were dropping like flies.

Sasuke apparently didn't like the idea of his mother teaching a genin team.

Kiba apparently just wanted to screw with his mother, Tsume was stumped at how she got pregnant again even with her birth-control still being taken. It wasn't even the medics that caught Kiba's conception, Kuromaru had to tell Tsume she was pupped again. The Inuzuka alpha swore she was giving up men after Kiba's birth.

"Okay… look. You have an option of giving them up, but you probably won't get them back as is if you come back to teach them afterwards. Otherwise you need to arrange another jōnin to take over for you while you can't do ninja work."

The Nara scowled at her own desk, she had been only weeks from giving up the academy oversight position to one of her chūnin Nara instructors. Tenzou couldn't afford getting passed around like that, or the attention this would heap on him.

"I used Tsume for my first deployment, but Minato opted to have Kakashi lead when he left them that first time. Given that one student you have," the Uchiha genjutsu mistress nodded when Natsumi paused, "you can't afford those options. So… do you want to keep them?"

"Please."

Well, that made this tricky. "You have, what, three months before you are restricted from chakra use?"

"Four, actually. A second pregnancy is easier than the first."

She sighed, wracking her mind on how to help her manage a genin team and her pregnancy at the same time. "Arrange secondary specializations with the other two for the last five months. I'll handle Tenzou-kun's secondary, body guarding with a shinobi I know. But you'll need someone to lead missions for all of it, Mikoto."

Anko and Iruka were what? Precision throwing senbon specialist and a trap specialist.

"Poisons and probably… what's Iruka-kun like?"

"He's very sweet, but has a bit of a temper and a troublemaking side to him."

He became an academy instructor in another life, right?

"Send him to Intelligence, my Ibiki will take him on a bit for you."

Psychology, always useful.

Mikoto gave Natsumi a relieved smile. "I was almost afraid this would prevent me from keeping them."

"Those gakis are yours, Mikoto. Until they make chūnin and you decide to let them go or you die. They'll never have another jōnin-sensei quite as special as their first one."

"That… sounds nice, actually. A bit morbid, but nice."

"Remember what you're talking to."

A former assassin with a bleeding heart. Natsumi was a bit morbid in nature, apparently.

\V/

She thought, at first, she had gotten the flu or just a cold.

It was the start of the winter season, it was possible. Ninja didn't get sick often, they had very healthy habits and when it came to the immune system they tended to be stronger than civilians' were, so what did knock them on their asses had to be serious or sabotage in the shape of poisons.

Morning sickness her ass. It was more of an every night for two weeks sickness and a generally crummy feeling all day that made her grouchy.

Hence the confusion over the flu.

Shikaku argued for Shia to come around and check her after the first week of feeling sick, Natsumi had an intense dislike for bothering medics unless it was necessary and snapped that she didn't have to. Minato had to come around and fuss at her to go see a medic the second week, and the man was insanely busy learning the ropes of being a Fire Shadow even if the voting was still a month away. Then Kushina volunteered to get a checkup too, why not? She was here and it needed to be done anyways.

She had rolled her eyes at all of them but caved in and the Nara clan head went to fetch the former assassin's favorite chūnin medic.

Natsumi and Kushina learned they were both pregnant at the same time.

Shikaku fell on his ass gaping at the smug Shia who announced it.

Minato palled and almost fell into the Nara's book and scroll case as he staggered.

Kushina almost screamed Natsumi's ear off before lunging for her husband, but that didn't even budge the shocked bastard Kurama.

She returned to reality sharply when Shikaku seized her and lifted her up in a rather desperate hug. "I'll get a job, I swear."

"I'm pregnant." Repeated the kunoichi Nara a little inanely, a small smile starting on her lips. "I'm pregnant, Shika! No wonder I'm so tired all the time, the gaki's a Nara."

He looked a cross between stunned and smug, a rather stupid looking smirk on his face. "Well… yeah. Didn't anyone tell you all Naras are lazy?"

Natsumi laughed, more out of a shocked kind of hilarity than any real amusement, then looked around.

Shia was missing, probably gone to spread the news of the Nara clan's new heir. Kushina was all but bawling into Minato's chest as the blond hugged her back fiercely.

The former assassin turned back to her own husband, feeling a creeping kind of thrilling happiness seeping through her. "You poor, poor man. I'm not really sorry, but holy hell."

Blinking, Shikaku looked down at her. "What?"

"That's me, the hime, Momo, Mikoto, Tsume, and I'd lay good odds if I'm pregnant than Mayuko either is or will be shortly." Natsumi patted him on the chest, snickering even with this thought running through her head. "Six pregnant kunoichi, sitting in a tea party. Seven, if you want to count Mebuki even if she is retired. You… I love you dearly, husband mine, but when I hold a tea party you might want to make yourself scarce for a bit longer than you usually do."

"Wife of mine, that is mean." He shoved a hand through his hair, snapping the tie thoughtlessly. "I… can I beg you to change where you hold those? Please? I'll do anything."

"Anything, huh?" She teased, threading her own fingers through his now loose hair. "Mmmm, wonder what I should do with that? You know if I change up where we meet, the other men involved might not appreciate it, right?"

"I'm fully aware I'm throwing them to the wolves, yes." Shikaku dropped to his knees and kept hugging her, this time looking up at her instead of her looking up at him. "Don't care. Have pity, Natsu. I'm your beloved husband and I love you."

"And the mother of your child."

That made him grin like a fool all over again. "And the mother of my child."

"Fine, I'll suggest it. That won't mean the next one or the one after will be elsewhere, but if I offer to bring the tea they might accept." Natsumi kept combing his hair with her fingers, unable to rid herself of her own stupid smirk. "But I will be calling in that promise of anything, hubby mine."

"At this point? I really don't care, Natsu."

She snorted, then had to release her husband to accept Kushina's ecstatic hug next.

The redhead drew back, beaming enough to crack her face wide open. "Be godmother?"

"Me?" Natsumi rapidly blinked. "I thought Mikoto-"

The Uzumaki kunoichi smiled a bit less at that reminder, rubbing some of the tear tracks off her face. "We're not quite there yet, she can have the next kid."

Blinking, the Leopard Summoner could only shrug. "If you'll have me, then yeah. Minato owes me his firstborn anyways."

Kushina blinked herself, giving her husband a questioning look over one shoulder.

Minato rapidly waved his hands in front of him in denial, only to pause in confusion. "I do not! I swear… I think. Sempai?"

"I will accept this in lieu of actual baby, sure." She grinned at his exasperated sigh over her antics. "Now to complete this sappy moment, godfather?"

"Always, sempai." Even he had to grin at that.

(ooo000ooo)

The second thing Natsumi did, after getting Minato to swear to cut her off from the hiraishin seals because teleporting when pregnant didn't even remotely sound like a good idea, was Summon her Leopards into her backyard.

Kenta, her beloved first Summons she trained up herself, was appalled. "You're breeding? Since when is this allowed?"

She had to snicker at him. "You idiot. Kenta, I have a mate. Breeding usually happens after that."

"You've had a mate for years. You didn't do this then." He poked her in the stomach with his nose as he sniffed a few times, then slumped down to her feet in a feline version of a mope. "You are breeding, great. Another kitten that will try for my whiskers."

"Tou-san, enough." Akira bumped her father away from their Summoner, crowding him out to smooth the side of her muzzle against the kunoichi's hand. "Congratulations, Natsumi-sama. I hope the cub will be born healthy and strong."

"Thanks, Akira-chan." Natsumi scratched her youngest Leopard behind the ears, amused at the purr. "I need volunteers, I won't be able to fight or Summon while pregnant. So I need a guard or two."

The Contract they had signed might use her chakra to maintain a teleportation spot open in both Natsumi's location and their home territory, but that was ambient rather than intent based chakra use. It was allowed, in other words, according to Tsunade. She had the chakra regeneration for one or two indefinitely, but not the reserves to Summon then support them all for an hour.

Ling-Ling looked sorely tempted to linger around for the Summoner's kitten's birth, but she had her own kittens to tend to and teach. Tsuyoshi looked a little reluctant given the position of his furry ears, he was more comfortable fighting than guarding.

Jin technically wasn't one of her Summons, he was only there to report back what was going on with the Leopard's Summoner and why she would be missing another of her contracted teaching jobs. This hiatus was already covered though, long before when Natsumi first signed their Contract.

Kenta heaved another sigh, ignoring his daughter batting at his tail in response for giving their human grief about her pregnant state. "Natsumi-sama, you are lucky we love you."

"Yes, yes I am." Natsumi scratched him behind the ears too, partially in thanks. "But you know my mate, Kenta. Our kitten might end up as lazy as he is."

"Or the kitten might just end up as mischievous as you." The oldest of her Summons retorted quickly, not jerking away from the contact even so. "We've already seen that in the shiny kittens."

"Well… that's not entirely my fault. They're the Dog's puppies."

Akira clawed at Kenta's ear, ignoring his hiss for drawing blood. "Give us a few hours, Natsumi-sama. Then Summon me and tou-san again. We will guard you."

Natsumi nodded, leaning back against the backyard porch as her Summons dismissed themselves to spread the news to the Leopard Clan.

Shikaku would be missing for a few hours, he had gone to fetch Shia and pull his wife from the active duty lists. Minato had taken Kushina home, and would probably be distracted for a few himself removing Natsumi's access to his seals all around Konohagakure.

She had a few minutes, at least, before Shikaku got back or her in-laws stormed the house.

Natsumi snickered at her own thought, hugging herself around the middle.

She was going to be a mother.

\V/

"This… cannot be normal. Or healthy." One irate Leopard Summoner turned to the medic that had just finished inspecting her health and the infinitesimal baby in her. "Tsunade-sama, I jiggle."

"Yes, yes you do."

"I have a belly! I'm not supposed to have a belly yet!"

"It's cute, like the little potbelly on some of the civilian women."

Natsumi glared in return for that observation.

"Little shadow, it's healthy. You are healthy. You're even ten pounds lighter than I'd want you to be at this point." The medical specializing sannin shrugged, smirking and not bothering to hide it. "You've got a small frame, though. Obviously all that weight had to go somewhere, and on you it just turned into belly fat."

The former assassin whined in the back of her throat, turning back to the mirror in the examination room.

She had nearly kicked Shikaku in the head for mentioning she was getting heavy, but it turns out she owed him an apology for that.

Natsumi was fat, and her belly wasn't supposed to be showing yet. It had only been a month since Shia told her she was pregnant.

"Neko-chan, relax. You'll lose it again when the baby is born, for now just put up with it." Tsunade patted the physically younger kunoichi on the back and handed her back her tank top. "It's normal and healthy, you lose it before I say you can I'll be annoyed with you enough to demand weekly checkups."

Sighing, she pulled her tank top back over her stupid overly sensitive chest. That felt weird, in spades. "It's… disturbing, though. That didn't happen to me before this. Jiggles. Eww. I mean… my chest bounced a whole lot when I didn't bind it, I got used to that. My belly though? Thighs, they're doing it too!"

"Your belly shouldn't be bouncing, little shadow. Not taking it as easy as a pregnant kunoichi should. You haven't been jumping roofs, have you? The jolts caused on impact isn't good for you or the baby. Moderate exercise, or I will put you on bed rest."

"It bounces when I run, Tsunade-sama. Sometimes when I walk."

"Mmm… I see your point." The Slug Princess still shook her head. "Keep the belly, medic's orders."

Natsumi huffed, snagging her kimono like clan jacket off the medic's stool to put on again. "I thought the body image issues weren't until much later."

"Surprise, you've got them early." Tsunade checked over her notations to the ex-assassin's medical file, snorting at the blackouts that marred most of it. "Little shadow… I would like it if you came in at least twice a month for checkups."

"What? Why?"

"Can you tell if you're hungry?" Asked the sannin archly, writing out a prescription for prenatal vitamins and folic acid Natsumi recognized from Tsume and Mikoto's first children. "I would like to be paranoid and have you and your baby be healthy rather than not and you lose it. There is no telling if the cravings, damnably confusing things those, will hit to tell you that you need to eat a bit more or not."

She froze, a trickle of horror sliding down her spine. "Is that a concern?"

"You've been good about eating now that you realized you weren't occasionally, true. But still."

"Alright then."

Tsunade blinked at the easily given agreement, suspicious. "Really?"

"I'll even let you tell Shika I need to. Tsunade-sama, I want this baby. If that means bugging your medics even when I don't think I should have to I will."

Natsumi was a bit notorious for avoiding medics.

Both sannin knew of her inability to keep track of dates, only days, and knew if a reminder wasn't spoken to her she tended to forget. Half the time it was the Leopard Summoner not realizing she should have gone in to the Hospital for a double check and half because she got an ANBU medic to do it instead and either failed to inform the original medic that healed her in time or forgot in the press of things she did daily once it was taken care of.

The Slug Princess had allowed that to continue because it was half her own medics' damn fault for not giving that reminder and half ANBU itself that caused that problem.

Tsunade fiddled with her pen for a moment.

Natsumi was distracted enough to linger a bit, wishing she knew who had reinvented the ever so lovely pen so she could kiss them. Even if Shikaku might kill them for her doing that.

"How's the little experiment gaki doing?"

Blinking, the kenjutsu specializing kunoichi gave the other medic kunoichi a confused look. "Tenzou-kun? Okay, I guess. A genin team isn't quite what he thought it was going to be, but he maintains that it's better than he ever expected he'd get."

Tsunade grimaced. She had supported the assassin's argument against sticking both survivors of Orochimaru's experimentation into ANBU the moment they were even partially trained, even if she couldn't really look at Tenzou full in the face.

Natsumi was suspicious she wasn't the only one harboring a bit of guilt over that.

Orochimaru had been the Slug Princess' teammate, Tenzou had ended up with the Senju clan's Mokuton kekkai genkai because of it.

"Tell him, if he wants, I'll agree to give him the Senju clan name. He's earned it in a way. Jiji-sama always wanted to pass it on, but baa-chan's Uzumaki genes surpassed his."

The ex-ANBU captain gaped at the offer. "Tsunade-sama, you can barely look at him."

"I'll get over it, avoiding the problem isn't helping." Snorting, the sannin threw the updated file closed and onto the desk. "He'll be mine if he agrees, mine and Jiraiya's."

Natsumi had to sit down quickly.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. The pervert agreed to it."

"That's… okay, so not the problem." She rebooted her mind, even if it had been blown. It had been nearly six years since Tenzou and his sister/fellow experiment had been found, she hadn't ever expected this. "Are… are you sure? I mean, I helped raise them. They're a matched pair, practically. Tenzou-kun won't agree without Naomi-chan. Ito's not going to be happy, he's practically their tou-chan."

"I know. At the time, I just wanted to forget that rat bastard did anything like that in the first place. It wasn't bad enough he had used some of my own medical techniques, but robbing my jiji-sama's grave?" Tsunade gripped one of the ponytails her hair was in, scowling at the wall rather fiercely as she tugged her hair and then let go. "I know I won't be their kaa-san, I'm pretty alright with that. But I can help you protect them, from the attention what that asshole did to them."

Huh… Tsunade had an avoidance problem, didn't she?

Natsumi probably should've expected this somewhat.

Still…

"I'll tell him, but it's up to him and Naomi-chan."

"She wants to be a medic, doesn't she?" Shrugging again, the sannin gave the former assassin a slightly bitter smirk. "I can help her there at least. Jiraiya might have to deal more with Tenzou-kun than me at first, until I know I won't flinch."

She nodded in return, getting up and wandering out when Tsunade waved her as free to go.

Was this… because she had arranged Tenzou some time as a genin, or in spite of?

Both sannin had to have caught glimpse of him a few times, it had almost been a year since the Mokuton user got his team under Mikoto. D-ranks were done all over the village, it was pretty easy to spot the genin teams laboring under a jōnin's sharp eyes.

(ooo000ooo)

Tenzou's face went alarmingly blank for a long moment.

"Do you not want us, neko-taicho?"

Natsumi winced as she realized how that sounded. "I want you two for as long as you want me. Tsunade-sama said she knew she wouldn't ever be your kaa-san, you don't have to worry about that."

Humming now that her initial fear had been dealt with, Naomi looked at her older brother's face once her eyes left the former ANBU captain that had led the squad that saved them.

Mikoto had the easy job here, lurking in the back like a proper jōnin-sensei. Available for advice but not directly in the line of fire. Kenta and Akira allowed the young genin and academy trainee to dig fingers into their fur for the comfort.

"Is this because you and sensei are pregnant?" Tenzou asked instead of answering the offer.

"Probably somewhat influenced, yeah. Tsunade-sama probably gave up on children a while ago, having nearly all the clans producing the next generation almost at the same time had to affect her somewhat." Natsumi scratched the back of her head, making note to file her nails yet again. "It won't be like you'll never see me, you'll both probably be able to see me even more this way. But this will protect you both a bit better than even I can manage on my own. Sensei agreed to be the supposed tou-chan, which alone would make it rather obvious you know me. Nawaki, who would be your ji-san, is on my chūnin team and yet another person you both would know me through."

Which she had to decide to give up or try leading along with running ANBU.

Koichi was going to bitch at her for weeks.

Gai was about due for a jōnin promotion, Ibiki could probably get his now. It wouldn't be like she would be replaced.

"This will mean we can be there? For the baby's birth?"

Natsumi blinked at him. "Err… possibly? My husband knows you and what happened, he probably won't mind."

Tenzou looked at her belly, then at Ito. Kenta didn't seem to care his ears were being tugged sharply. "Do you mind?"

"Kid, I didn't mind five years ago. Why the hell do you think I care now?" The ex-bodyguard shrugged uncomfortably, shifting on his wooden leg grown specifically for him by his adopted son. "I'll always be the one that raised you, this is just more cover for it. You could probably claim me as a friend of the family that raised you in secret for most of your life. It's true in a fashion."

"That is the explanation we're going with, if you do this." Added the former assassin with a touch of amusement. "Ito and I were the ones to keep you both out of the lime light, for my sensei and the medic who saved his life. The time doesn't really match up well, but Ito will be considered to be added in later after the mission that lost him his leg and I do a lot of babysitting when there are children of my friends that need to be."

Finally, the oldest of the Orochimaru experimentation survivors looked at his sister. "Naomi-chan?"

"I wouldn't mind." The pseudo-Uzumaki grinned lightly at her older brother, hugging Akira around her neck. "Tsunade-sama's well respected, I would love to get to know her a little."

The two of them had come a long way from two barely out of toddler year children who flinched from a Nara medic's touch.

Tenzou weighed that in his mind, finally turning back to the older kunoichi with a firm nod. "We accept, then."

\V/

"Excuse me, when did I become the rally point for Cell Nine?"

Koichi grinned, a little sharply for the news she had given them a bit ago but still mostly fond, and handed her half of a popsicle. "Why taicho, don't you love us anymore?"

"Isn't there a tree we picked for this crap? Not my backyard?" Natsumi snatched her half of their treat, giving him a stern look he just shrugged off.

Jiraiya had shared popsicles with his Team Seven, Natsumi and Minato did the same with their own teams. She wasn't surprised she was getting treated to some, but really…

They could be less cheap about this.

Ibiki snorted, splitting his own before handing Gai half because if the taijutsu user did it half would go flying. "Nope, she's abandoning us for a baby gaki."

"Well… she's about to be a kaa-san, you can't really blame her for that." Nawaki split his own, offering Kenta half at first. Natsumi's oldest Summons just snorted and returned to being her lap warmer, so the Senju heir offered Akira the other half after. She licked it twice before deciding she didn't want it. Nawaki discarded that half with a slightly disgusted look for her manners. "I'm not surprised."

"Not quite. I'm abandoning you all for my baby and the ANBU General position." Licking the frozen stick of grape juice, she pointed it in Koichi's face. "What are you planning? You're almost done with a year, and you give me gray hair every time you leave without me."

"I don't see any gray hair, sensei!"

"Thank you Gai, shush now."

The Sarutobi heir sighed, thinking. "I… probably won't continue in ANBU, taicho. It's not quite… what I thought without you there."

"There is a kami!" Nawaki whooped, throwing up both hands and ignoring that his popsicle went flying behind him. "I don't know why you did it, Ko, and I'll be much happier if we can get jōnin together."

Koichi smirked at his best friend. "The same reason your nee-chan went for medic and kicked in the teeth on everyone that sniffed at her for it. To see if I can do it, out of my otou-sama's shadow. My own mark, even if very few ever know I did it."

"Oh…" Scratching his cheek, the Senju chūnin shrugged awkwardly and grinned with good natured humor at himself. "Well… that makes sense."

Ibiki grumped, scowling. "Why didn't you pick that up, idiot? You're diplomacy, aren't you all supposed to be good at that crap?"

"Doesn't mean I can't be wrong. People can be confusing sometimes."

"I hear that." Natsumi bit off the tip of her frozen fruit juice, chewing the ice instead of allowing it to melt. "The rest of you. Gai and Ibiki, you're cleared to try for the jōnin spar. Nawaki, you need a few more missions to run but so does Koichi as soon as he decides to go back to scouting or not."

"Probably." Said former scout chipped in around his own stick of icy fruit.

"Sensei, are you sure?" Gai queried uncertainly, lowering his own nearly finished popsicle. "I have not finished learning the Mesuji style taijutsu, should I not wait until you can finish teaching me?"

Loose screw taijutsu style? She smirked at that, Minato was going to bitch at her next. He had been trying for years to give her a name she would use for it.

"Gai, the style was unfinished before even I learned it. What there is finished is all Mebuki's efforts. Finish it up on your own."

"Fūinjutsu or interrogator?" Ibiki wondered aloud, discarding his bare stick in Gai's weapon pouch. Asshole. "Which one?"

"It's up to you, either or is good. A fūinjutsu specialization will require you to take on a student, though."

Natsumi stuck her still sticky and cold popsicle stick down the back of his shirt for Gai's revenge, then grinned sharply in the interrogator's face when he glared at her.

Akira grinned just as sharply beside her, purring at the antics she was watching.

"Right, we need a new topic." Koichi repeated the jōnin kunoichi's oft repeated excuse to change the subject dryly, smirking a bit himself when Gai snuck the stick in his weapon pouch out and snuck it into Ibiki's. "What else is up?"

"What did your tou-sama want to talk to you about last night?" Nawaki asked before anyone else could chip something in.

Natsumi's old ANBU rookie almost choked on the last of his ice. "Not a good topic, next."

"No, wait. What is this about?" The kunoichi interjected before someone else could say something, suspicious of how fast Koichi tried to change the subject again.

"Taicho, do I have to?"

She batted her eyes at him. "I'm a pregnant kunoichi practically left out of everything but gossip at the moment, humor me."

Koichi genuinely sulked at that, something she hadn't seen in a few good years. "Otou-sama asked if he should arrange a marriage for me with either a girl I liked or someone he could pick. Explaining to him that I actually prefer men more than women was a bit… awkward."

Oh… ouch. Natsumi ensured her face didn't twitch. "What did he say?"

He glared at her. "He was pretty shocked at first, but asked if I was going to give up the heir position to Asuma-kun instead of taking over for him in a few months. I don't think he cared much other than that."

"He probably doesn't, Koichi." Patting him on the back, she gave him a shrug. "Hiruzen-sama's seen a whole lot over his life by now, what he did through your and your otouto's childhood was so he could ensure you have somewhere safe to be happy in. Helping you figure out what to do now to ensure you remain that way is probably something he's keenly interested in doing, as it's something that might make up for missing a whole lot of your growing years in his view of things."

"Yes, well… still awkward, talking to your otou-sama about your love life. So, if we can change the subject?"

Ibiki wasn't going to be much help, at the start of the subject he had to bite into his forearm in order not to laugh his head off and invite more vengeance on himself.

Gai was probably in the middle of thinking about what it would have been like trying to explain the same thing to either his late Hiroshi-ji-sama or someone like Hatake Sakumo. From his face, he was having issues even with his rather talented imagination.

Nawaki was apparently somewhat similar to the interrogator in humor, the Senju heir was trying very hard not to laugh without the biting.

Kenta was flatly ignoring them, Akira purred a bit louder.

"You all fucking suck, just so you know."

"Koichi, really." Natsumi threaded her fingers into his scruffy hair, tugging a bit. "We're sympathizing with you. I swear. Just… it is a little amusing, and you'll laugh in a few days about it too."

He huffed under her hand, crossing his arms to go with his sulk.

"What are you going to do, anyways?"

"I told him about what you said about the brothel, but he looked a bit green at that idea. He said he'd arrange something for me and we stopped talking about that."

"Well… they are whore houses. You can pretty them up as much as you want, but the girls there are still whores. Sometimes very nice ones, I know a few from sensei's contact network that are honestly nice, but still." Natsumi had to shrug herself a little as she combed her lap cat's scruff with her claws. "The only really fancy geisha houses would probably honestly bear an heir for you, one of the less popular or trusted ones would probably ensure a girl was pregnant then pass it off as yours. Then, of course, you have to think who else has been with one of the girls before you, and that just gets a little-"

"Taicho, please shut up. Otou-sama said he'd arrange it, end of story." Koichi interrupted quickly, looking rather green himself now. "Please, please can we change the subject?"

Ibiki had given up, he was pounding the frozen dirt he was now doubled over with a fist as he laughed hysterically. Nawaki wasn't even sparing his best friend's dignity, he had one hand cradling his face as he snickered.

Gai still looked a bit confused as he pondered over his imaginary scenarios, and probably wasn't paying attention enough to follow the conversation in the first place. When he trusted his comrades as explicitly as he did his teammates on chūnin Cell Nine, he left them to be aware of the surroundings when he thought something over. Normally it helped the team, sometimes it was just a recipe for social embarrassment.

"Gai-kun? Are you going to make me a baa-san anytime soon?"

The taijutsu expert actually turned an almost magenta color when that permeated his stalling brain.

\V/

"Natsumi-sama…"

"I see her, Masao. Go see if you can hunt my husband down, please. Tell him I'll be back home in as little as an hour."

The Nara watchman frowned, but nodded after Kenta slunk closer to her side to take over guarding the pregnant Nara Lady.

Natsumi rolled up the scroll the two of them had been working out of, a rather comprehensive map of the Nara forest and it's terrain, then tucked the roll of paper under one arm. "Uroko-san, not entirely sure if this is a pleasure or not."

"Um… Natsumi-sama. Forgive the intrusion." The Kurama clan member spoke softly and kept her eyes on the ground between them. "But… is that offer you made still good?"

"Only for a place to stay, your clan problems are your own."

Shuffling her feet a little, the chūnin slumped and sighed. "Please may I take you up on that, Natsumi-sama?"

The former assassin was a little suspicious of her, but eventually shrugged it off. She had offered, and even if the girl had tried every damn time she saw her to call her cousin for the last year she had probably finally accepted Natsumi didn't want to be related to her. "Fine. I'll take you to where you can live for however long you want to stay."

"Thank you." Uroko almost sounded defeated, and although it twanged off Natsumi's conscience she wasn't going to invite Shikaku to get even more annoyed at her on this chūnin's behalf.

That first time she had been lucky, a repeated offense might actually get him irritated with her.

"Come on, we'll need to get you there and me back before nightfall or my husband will get vastly annoyed with us both." She checked the southwest corner of the Nara forest, to be sure she could leave it for the night without any of the deer herds stumbling into anything injury causing, before turning away and following the inside of the compound's walls to the gate.

"I'm… not staying with you?"

"I'm pregnant, not stupid."

Kenta hesitated, cocking his head a moment before slowly continuing to follow his Summoner.

"Ah… congratulations?"

Natsumi blinked, then looked at the other kunoichi over her shoulder. "Thanks?"

What the hell was wrong with her? The one time the kenjutsu specialist had talked to her for a good amount of time she seemed to have a bit of steel to her spine, but this was an almost broken kunoichi.

…though, she probably had just defied her family and clan and lost them both in as little as a few hours.

"Uroko-san, are you alright?"

She started, blinking up at the Nara in surprised before switching her stare to focus on her linked hands. "I will be, Natsumi-sama. Thank you."

There wasn't much she could say to that, she still avoided the Kurama clan and any sympathy from her would not only sound forced and hollow it would be in truth.

Natsumi finally shrugged it off and kept her eyes forward.

Kenta smoothed his shoulder into her leg when he had the opportunity, earning himself a pat.

When the two kunoichi reached the Nara clan gates, the watchmen gave the probably former Kurama kunoichi a suspicious look. Probably because Shikaku had banned any more of that clan from being allowed in once Unkai had made an ass of himself trying to get back in after the first time.

Natsumi signed herself out for once instead of leaving them to do it, giving the clipboard over for Uroko's mark.

Once the two kunoichi were past the gates, the former assassin waited a moment longer.

"Natsumi-sama?"

"We're waiting on Akira."

"Who-oh." Uroko took a few steps back when the other Leopard slinked past her.

"I saw no further problems in the forest, Natsumi-sama." Her Summons informed her, shooting the younger kunoichi a look. "Who is this?"

"Uroko-san, Akira-chan. Another of my Summons. You've seen Kenta already."

She looked a bit unnerved, which made Natsumi want to plant her face in her hands.

What the hell was up with that clan? Was Uroko really afraid of Summons?

The poor girl seemed to have a mess of problems, it made her itch to poke them to see if she could figure them out.

"Come on, you'll be living in the apartment complex the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clan maintains for clan members that don't want to live in the clan compounds."

Uroko skated around the two Leopards in order to walk a bit closer to the older kunoichi. "Are… will I live there long?"

"Until you decide if you want to keep the Kurama clan name or discard it, yeah." Natsumi shrugged once again uncomfortably. "Not that I'm unsympathetic or anything, but you're still probably a Kurama clan member officially and this will at least prevent me from actually having to deal with them just yet."

"Do you really hate us-them so much?"

The Nara's Lady forgave the slip, it was probably just the newness of this situation that caused it. "Not hate, I just want nothing to do with them. The more they try the more I get annoyed, so give it a few years and I might just hate them for being annoying."

Natsumi knew the area pretty well, not only did she live just down the street and past a gate but Komushi had lived in the apartments once and the farmer's market was a few more streets down.

She also had a bad habit of taking shortcuts outside of where the normal Uchiha Police patrols reached when she wanted to be quick about going somewhere but didn't want to use Minato's hiraishin seals.

The prick of something stabbing into her upper arm was probably all her fault.

Natsumi snarled, whirling around and scoring four bleeding and probably deep slashes down Uroko's face in retaliation. "WHAT THE HELL?"

Kenta shoved himself forward, growling his irritation at the chūnin as his Summoner unsteadily fell back against a brick wall.

"I'm sorry, but they said I could remain in the clan and not marry Murakumo-sama if I do this." The Kurama chūnin dropped the senbon needle, and clutched her bleeding face with her right hand. "I am sorry, cousin."

Didn't Natsumi recently think of senbon specialists and poisons a few months ago? Why the hell did she give the brat her back?

She might need the wall to remain upright, and it had been a sedative in that needle's hollow point, but she was also a jōnin kunoichi… who once killed people for a living more than normal shinobi did.

"Little mouse, I have a kill count higher than five hundred. You are going to be added to that."

Uroko blanched, backing away quickly only to trip over Akira's less than amused form. Unkai might have saved the chūnin from the Leopard Summoner's felines and their claws, but it would not matter in the end.

"Natsumi-san. You will stop being so difficult."

The highly pissed off jōnin bared her canines in a disgusted snarl at the Kurama clan's branch head. "I believe we told you to go fuck yourself. Do so, and I might not allow my Leopards to eat you alive."

Illusion specializing clan or not, Unkai apparently had more experience in brawling than his clan head.

He grabbed Kenta out of the air and snapped the big cat's neck before he could sink his teeth or claws into either Kurama.

Natsumi went cold.

Kenta, her first Summons. Who was growly and snarly but didn't mind being called on more to make up for Ling-Ling's intense dislike of being Summoned or for kitten duties until there were more than enough Summons for their Summoner to rely on.

Killed in front of her and his own daughter.

"I'm going to ensure you are killed, given a traitor's grave, and your name and efforts mocked for the rest of time." Natsumi dug sharp claws into Akira's ruff to keep her other Summons from getting herself killed in her rage and grief for her father's murder, the most she could muster the effort for. "You will not live out the year for this."

"If you wish to continue being difficult, your fingers can be removed." Unkai informed her blandly, dropping Kenta's still form to the ground. "You will not need those for what the clan requires of you, Kurama Natsumi."

She merely growled in return.

"Neither the Uchiha clan nor the Nara clan will find us, stalling will not save you." He continued in a nearly pleasant tone of voice. "You will also not be a priority to search for, a retired kunoichi who has stopped running missions is not as important as anything else needed to be done in a time of war. If you continue to stall, that sedative we gave you will harm the Nara spawn you carry. Cooperate, and we might just allow you to birth the gaki before anything will happen to you."

"Keep thinking that, it'll amuse me."

"My patience is running out, girl. Behave or lose your child."

Natsumi gritted her teeth and put her mind to work.

She had… nearly nothing to bargain with. She might be jōnin, but she was fading fast and soon she couldn't get any remote chance of an assurance her baby would survive this. Minato's seal on the back of her left shoulder wasn't going to help, cut off from the seal as she was she couldn't use it as something to pull the blond's attention to her. He was way too busy as it was, having been confirmed as the Yondaime and in the middle of training under Hiruzen to take over.

Unkai was correct in that they were far enough away from the normal MP patrols that it wasn't likely one would stumble across them. ANBU would look to see if she was signed out of the Nara gatehouse before getting worried.

There was still forty minutes or so left of the time she told Masao to give her husband.

Natsumi didn't even have her sword, she had left Sakumo's katana at home because all she had been planning on doing was helping with plotting out a few new clearings for the deer herd.

Crouching down, the former assassin put her mouth near Akira's ear. "I need you to run a few messages for me, please. I will give you his corpse to play with, once this is over."

"I will hold you to that, Natsumi-sama. My tou-san deserves that much."

Unkai and Uroko blinked at her, probably misunderstanding what she was doing. They had treated the Leopards like animals that couldn't understand, the chūnin had been unnerved by the presence of them alone, and the Nara's Lady was going to use that to ensure their deaths.

"You need to take him back, Akira-chan, I cannot give him the respect I should right now. Not with their deaths to ensure."

"I will."

"Good. First, to the Toads…"

---

AN#2 : Not entirely sure if I'm being this mean because of the harassment or not, but guess what the next chapter, the second intermission, is going to be about? I have votes for the major clan heads', Hiruzen's, the Bear-samas', and Stag's POVs, anything else you all want to see? Mind you all, it will have to be limited to between 20-25K words so if you don't vote for something in a review it might end up being cut out.

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