Author's Note : Right, so onwards to the finish line! ...hopefully.
Canon Cast meets Mesuji-verse, Part Seven
Against some baffling expectations, Natsumi didn't have a great sense of smell. Not like Kakashi or Midori, who could track the strong to mild scents, or any decent Inuzuka worth their clan name, who could track everything else.
However connected to the Hatake clan she was, or however animalistic she had become due to her Summoning Contract, tracking by scent wasn't something she could do beyond the bare basics any living human could do.
On the other hand, as both a kunoichi and an assassin no matter how retired, she knew the scent of blood very well.
Especially when the scent came with other odd tinges, like cooked meat and the sourness of offal.
Natsumi knew that well enough that even a hint of the scent had her head snapping up, more than a little worried as she wondered where that was coming from.
Alarmingly, it seemed to come from the hallway she had left her son, godson, their teams, and various other Konoha shinobi within guarded by one of her own seals.
Behind her, Stag plural didn't seem to mind the sudden increase in pace. Natsumi reminded herself of her failure to get the bodyguard she knew well to complain even a little about her ridiculousness and rethought that.
Neither version of the same man complained, which really was all she could tell about the former and not-so-former members of Ne.
Natsumi slid to a halt right outside of the limits of her seal work, which was still active for some reason. Eyeing that warily, since she wasn't sure if there should be any continuous effect or not, the former assassin took stock of the dead body and the ninja safely behind the seal.
Kushina gave her an unimpressed raised eyebrow from beyond the seal's limitations, tilting her ruby-red head in the direction of her orphaned son then to the skeleton clad in ragged and still steaming flesh.
The ANBU General blinked back at her blankly. Why would Naruto be upset at the death of someone that hated him enough to set off her seal?
The hime narrowed her eyes, so the former assassin dropped her mismatched eyes to her seal work to see what was going on. It didn't take long, even if the fūinjutsu was active not all of it was so tracing her and her son's chakra signatures back to what was still looping was easy enough.
Natsumi was fascinated that the dead body had remained upright enough to wonder if that was because it had once been alive or if any 'once living' object introduced would set off a seal. If they could, given some of her seals needed unconscious thought to activate.
It was morbid, but she was a rather morbid creature in nature.
Unraveling the still active parts of her seal made the corpse finally crumble to the floor, Natsumi rather absently rearmed her fūinjutsu and crossed her seal lines to close the distance between herself and Kushina. "Okay, so who was that?"
"Someone named Kabuto." The wife of the Yondaime informed her lowly, enough blandness in her tone to alert her husband's ANBU General something was wrong with the situation beyond the obvious.
Said kunoichi blinked slowly at the redhead, then blinked again when the name given kept on ringing a rather alarming bell. "Kabuto?"
"Yakushi Kabuto." Naruto interjected glumly, scuffing one of his ninja sandals on the floor and not looking up at either of them. Since it was the orphaned version of her godson, the retired assassin finally felt a tiny pang of guilt for maybe actually killing a friend of his.
Tiny, that was, because that name was still ringing the previously mentioned bell really hard.
"His name was Kabuto?" Natsumi repeated, probably a little inanely.
She had been looking for a Kabuto for nearly twenty years. Now that she had maybe, sort of, possibly found a version of the guy, she couldn't recall why she wanted to find him. It was bugging her something fierce, to tell the truth.
Why had she been looking for someone named Kabuto, anyways?
"Natsumi?" Kushina queried, a faint line creasing her brow as the assassin continued her mental backtracking.
"The name means something to me." Twenty years ago was when she had been getting into the academy, when she started looking for someone with that name, and when the Village Elders were trying to screw with said academy. Something about that was involved, but not directly. "Not Yakushi, because I know that's the clan name of one of Tsunade-sama's medic-nins. Kabuto means something to me, but not a good something…?"
Shikaku picked himself up off the floor, ambling over to his wife's side. "Why would you know the name of a ninja we don't have a copy of?"
Kushina wrinkled her nose at him. "What?"
"He said, just before getting rendered into chunks, that there wasn't a copy of himself running around." The Jōnin Commander pointed out, still watching his wife chase a thought around her own head. "Meaning we don't have a Yakushi Kabuto in Konohagakure."
"R-right… uh, before… he got 'sploded, he said he was an orphan." Naruto chipped in, edging closer to the adult shinobi and regarding his 'aunt' figure with wary eyes.
Natsumi snapped her clawed fingers as she finally remembered. "Orphan. That's where."
"You took over the Shinobi Academy via guerrilla tactics using the students, not any of the orphanages." Crossing her arms under her chest, Kushina gave Natsumi a tight-lipped smile. A non-verbal warning to start making sense soon or she'd force the issue. "How, exactly, is this all connected?"
The retired assassin hesitated, considering her knowledge bases and trying to figure out if that was something she could talk about or not. Honestly speaking, she really couldn't remember what she knew from… other sources and what she knew from legitimate ones.
"Natsumi…"
Well… fuck it. Fake most of it, she could twist it slightly… right?
"Do you recall what I was up to the months after my taicho's death?"
Shikaku jerked slightly, still confused given his expression but with a slowly growing suspicion. Kushina merely looked blank for a long moment.
"I don't." The Whirlpool Princess informed her flatly. "All I knew was that you spent the bulk of your time with the Hatake clan or under Hiruzen-sama on an internal issue. Why?"
"That's connected to how I know the name Kabuto. Kind of involved in something the Sandaime told me to keep my mouth shut on, though. We're going to need Minato… or Hiruzen-sama's going to have to give his say so."
"Consider it given, whatever it is." The Yondaime informed the group, walking down the corridor and giving the pile of what had once been a person a sideways look. "I really hope you have a ready excuse for this, sempai."
"…here?" Natsumi questioned quickly. "I mean I have one, I think, but there are a couple S-ranked secrets involved. And, you know, genin are about."
Apparently being dimensionally displaced absolutely ruined any and everyone's eavesdropping skills, everyone from Hiruzen to every genin not distracted by staring at themselves were doing it shamelessly.
Minato paused mid-stride as he thought about that point. "Alright. Us… Naruto-kun?"
"Aa… tou… chan?" Orphan Naruto responded, as if trying to taste the word.
"Do you want to know?"
"…yeah."
Minato flicked a glance at the other version of his son, who shrugged. "Not really, for me. I don't know the guy."
"I kind of have to tell Hiruzen-sama about that situation, anyways. Something else related came up not too long ago either." Natsumi chipped in before her kage could make up his mind on who would be let on to one of the secrets she held.
Minato nodded absently then knelt down to the genin's eye-level. "Naruto-kun, I'm going to get the story out of your Sumi-ba-chan then I'll explain it to you. Since she's got something else to tie into it, she probably has to go in more depth than you'll want to know about."
That at least got the rather stubborn look out of his son's eyes, and the neglected version of his son actually gave the proposed situation some thought. "…I still want to know."
"Noted." Minato informed him with visible amusement, ruffling his untidy hair then looking at Natsumi. "Who else?"
"Kashi-chan, the…" The former assassin trailed off, made a face, and then grabbed the version of Kakashi who lived in a variation of their village with a certain Village Elder alive within. "This one."
One-eyed Kakashi looked highly amused at her method of sorting him and himself out.
"And Hiruzen-sama." Natsumi tried hard to sound neutral about the suggestion, but Minato knew her too well.
He gave her a long look, she could only shrug slightly.
Fair enough, he wasn't any more of a fan of this version of the Sandaime than she was.
Kushina shooed the clingy version of her son off to rejoin himself and the rest of his team, before glancing at her husband. Minato very obligingly planted a foot and set the version of Natsumi's privacy seals he had learned inside and out for occasions just like this.
"Alright, I know the name Kabuto from sorting through Danzō's paperwork." Natsumi started off bluntly, striving to keep her tone level. Even years after the fact, she still deeply hated the once respected Village Elder for her taicho's death. "It was a codename for a spy he had been thinking about training up."
"Anyway to confirm that from here?" Shikaku asked before anyone else.
His wife could only shrug. "I don't think so. I only know the very basics of what a spy codenamed Kabuto was for, and with a living version of that elder able to tweak or repurpose said spy into different rolls…? I don't know enough to say."
"I trust Danzō." Hiruzen informed them all, almost as if that would matter.
Natsumi very slowly turned to face him, working hard to keep her expression neutral. "You also have a traitorous snake that infiltrated and messing with your Chūnin Exams, you made Minato's son's childhood a living hell, and I just, not five minutes ago, came across a Ne plant I know of in ANBU ARMOR. Quite frankly, Hiruzen-sama, I don't care much who you trust."
"Natsumi." Minato's voice wasn't reproving, or even mildly irritated. However, with his tone he was telling her to leave it alone.
Unless she hid under her Panther mask, Natsumi had long since lost whatever restraint she had for pure bullshit. She'd try to hold it in, though, and hopefully Minato wouldn't hold a failure to bite her tongue against her.
"Then don't say anything." He pointed out idly as if he had read her mind, waving her back a little. The Yondaime faced the stony-faced alternate version of his predecessor squarely. "While sempai is a little more… forthright than I would've preferred, she does have a point Hiruzen-sama."
"As I have told your wife, Minato-kun, the situation-"
"BULLSHIT." Natsumi snapped viciously, trying not to vent her ill-humor on a very detestable version of someone she highly respected. "The fact you're still making excuses for this shit is sickening. There are always other options, and while some of them might not have been palatable at least then you wouldn't have dumped the whole nasty mess out on a damn newborn's head. Who couldn't defend himself, couldn't understand anything of the risks, and who never should've borne the blame in the first fucking place."
Minato shot a look at Shikaku, who gripped the retired assassin's arm above her left elbow. "Natsu, let's go deal with that Ne plant you mentioned."
She shot him a venomous look, but snorted and turned sharply to leave the little group.
Shikaku lingered a bit longer, but gave a parting shot over one shoulder. "For what it's worth, I agree with my wife."
The Yondaime sighed heavily, and turned an expectant look on his wife. Kushina merely shrugged it off. "Hey, what do you think I was doing while you two were off handling random things? Hiruzen-sama already knows how detestable I found his actions."
Kakashi with a sharingan eye was suspiciously quiet, but when Minato turned to see what he was up to the scarred up version of his student was inspecting the floor.
The hitai-ate he wore over that sharingan eye was tilted up more than it had been, however.
With another sigh, this one probably a touch heavier, the Yondaime returned his attention to the Sandaime. "If sempai was in a better… mood, she would probably inform you that you may have been in power too long. The village is… err… was? Three times larger than it was when you first took the office of Hokage. A bit after I first took office she, you, and I went through and shifted things so the Hokage wasn't in direct control over large parts of non-essential portions of the village. Which reduced the paperwork I am responsible for by half and frees me up for more essential duties and tasks."
Hiruzen inspected him closely, gnarled hand gripping the bowl of his pipe twitching then only sign that what Natsumi spat at him had any effect on the elderly shinobi. When the Sandaime kept his silence, Minato shoved a hand roughly through his messy hair.
"Let's just… shelve this for now. I'm not sure what long-term use of this twisted seal will result in, so we need to hurry up and start untangling it. After… correcting a couple things." The Yondaime eyes his predecessor thoughtfully. "You may wish to know Kakashi and I… and himself, have located Orochimaru."
Hiruzen slowly pulled the stem of his pipe out from between clenched teeth. "Orochimaru… Minato-kun, I don't know what help I may be in that."
"It's still your version of Orochimaru." Minato pointed out almost gently. "Technically, since he's already dead to us, it's your order that we need to make it above-board."
"Forgive me, but… 'above-board'?"
The Yellow Flash blinked a few times, then shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry, one of sempai's sayings. I mean legal."
Remaining silent a few more moments, the man known as the God of Shinobi heaved a heavy sigh of his own. "Minato-kun, I know I probably don't have the leeway to ask for a favor…"
"You can. Just… please do something about my son's living situation in return." Minato was still going to write Jiraiya-sensei a very nasty worded letter if they couldn't figure out how to arrange a face-to-face meeting, but any and all strings he could pull would merely help that.
Thus, why he didn't say anything when Natsumi suggested the orphaned variation of his son's sensei.
Someone with full knowledge would know if Hiruzen was violating Minato's will. Again, because the man himself could not believe he would leave his son orphaned and with such a burden to struggle under. Even unwillingly.
(ooo000ooo)
"Wow… Sumi-ba-chan's pissed." Naruto observed rather inanely. "Haven't see her that ticked off… since we tried following her that one day."
"Not our best idea ever, that." Shikamaru with mismatched eye coloring admitted sourly, tugging at his ponytail.
"Um…" Sakura's attention wasn't on the argument the collection of jōnin and two kages were silently having out whatever issue in the middle of the corridor, her attention was more on one of the side-rooms. "…should someone separate the Nejis? They look…. Hostile."
Her alternate, the more healthy version of herself, glanced down to the same mini-confrontation happening. "Hinata-hime? Your… cousins? Are… not behaving."
"Leave it be, Sakura-sans." One of the Hinatas informed the two versions of the pinknette serenely, still clutching close her more timid variation. "It is an internal clan matter, and my Neji-nee-san will deal with it."
That Hinata looked serene, but Naruto not wearing so much orange privately thought the little princess of the Hyūga clan was just as ticked off as the Lady of the Nara clan was. Angry Hinata was… intimidating to deal with. She looked completely blank too, which was just not fair. Everyone knew when Naruto was moody, he'd kill for that kind of self-control.
His gaze fell to the nearly shattered girl clutched in her arms, and his mouth flattened into a thin line.
Something was sour about this whole situation, and privately he really just wanted to go home.
"This is so fucked up." One Kiba grouched to his Akamaru, who yipped in agreement.
"Slightly fascinating, actually." Shino informed his teammate blandly.
"Dude, you and yourself have done nothing but trade bugs this whole time." That same Kiba, and Naruto dearly hoped that was the teammates of the more put-together Hinata version. The entirety of the doubled Team Eight were grouped close enough to have mixed everything up, hopefully someone had kept that straight. "How would you know?"
"We have also been exchanging details of our respective villages. How? By the variations of development our insects have to them."
"Why? The added information of different variations will prove invaluable to the others community hive development." Other Shino, and there wasn't any way to tell the two Aburame heirs apart other than just labeling one 'one' and the other 'two', spoke without a change to the monotone both versions of himself typically tended to use.
One Kiba pulled a disgusted face at his teammate, but the other turned to face the two bug users squarely. "Really? What've you got?"
"One village seems to have more water-resistant variations. Why? Combat in more humid areas was likely to have occurred recent enough the resistant variations are still popular traits in personal hives."
"This other village seems to have more heat-resistant types. Again, why? An increase of possible combat in more arid regions for longer stretches of time."
"So one village went to war with Ame, Kiri, or the likes and another went to war longer with Iwa, Suna, or those countries?" Said Kiba who was actually interested suggested with a sniff. "Well, we know who's gone to war with Kiri last. That was us. But why the hell would we go to war with an ally?"
"Kiri was an ally only after the fighting." Shino who commented on the arid development of other Shino's bugs offered. "Suna may not have been an ally for a time."
"They were not." Other Shino confirmed, then tilted his head at himself. "Yours was loyal for the entirety of the Third War?"
"Indeed. Natsumi-sama took on a Sunagakure fūinjutsu apprentice, which merely strengthen the alliance still."
"You know," Kiba who was tolerant of his bug using teammate spoke up slyly, "it keeps coming back to Sumi-ba-chan. And if everyone's still claiming she's just some kind of troubleshooter…"
"We already know they're not being entirely truthful with that, dumbass." Naruto informed his dog-brother irritably. "If you can't put a guess on what else Sumi-ba-chan is, shut up."
"And they've already informed us she's one of the major differences, if you two would recall the beginning of this mess." Shikamaru told the both of them tiredly, turning back to the shogi game he had been in the middle of against himself in truth. "Stop making us go around in circles."
"What's wrong with going around in circles?" Kiba shot at his back, huffing when the Nara heir ignored him.
"Well… those of us that aren't totally canine inclined don't particularly like chasing our tails." Naruto offered idly.
"That explains him, he's always smelled of cat." Kiba pointed out tartly. "What about you?"
"My godmother Summons really, really big kitties." That version of Minato son offered easily.
"Seriously?" The other Kiba blurted out, turning to his alternate version incredulously. "How the hell do you put up with that?"
"Really, really big kitties." He informed himself with emphasis on the 'really'. "Like, bigger than Kuromaru."
"Bull."
"Seriously! Guys, back me up on this."
"He's right." Naruto admitted with a nod. "Tsuyoshi, Sumi-ba-chan's main fighting Summons, is easily bigger than Kuromaru by a head."
"As combat training for me an Akamaru, you can't get better unless it's kaa-chan and Kuromaru." Kiba informed himself excitedly. "She's also got another two, Akira and Ling-Ling. Then there's Jin, who she Summons more often than Ling-Ling. But then I can get in a two on four spar, like with nee-chan and the Haimaru Brothers instead."
"I want that Summoning Contract." Shikamaru spoke up with a sigh.
"How far are you from getting it?" One of the TenTens asked, pulling away from herself to refocus on the son of the Leopard Summoner.
"Kaa-chan said almost, so maybe in a month or two."
"Why Summons?" Shikamaru asked of himself, escaping the trap he had been trying to set for himself by preemptively moving a lance before he could get stuck.
"You can do more with a single Summons than with any other B-ranked jutsu." The purring, and that really couldn't be highlighted enough, version of himself responded easily. "They're also free-thinking, and trainable. Kaa-chan trained all of hers, so when I get the Contract I'll train up my own."
"Sounds like a drag."
"Not quite." The grin he gave himself was pointy, more of a half-snarled smile than anything else. "As they're not just messengers or fighters but instant backup when needed."
Shikamaru allowed himself to absorb that fact before continuing.
"And," he flashed the totally troublesome clawed nails he had since forever, "something's gotta balance this stuff out. I have the Marks, might as well have the reason for it."
"Marks? Is that what that is?" Ino asked, inspecting the differences between the two Nara heirs.
"Marks of the Leopard Summoning Contract." Shikamaru confirmed, then jerked one of those sharp nailed thumbs over to the dual Kiba-Akamaru combo. "Same as what makes all Inuzukas look interchangeable with their dogs."
"Hey!"
"Or why Kakashi-sensei's nose is so sensitive, as he's got the Dog Contract, or why Asuma-sensei has the fangs of the Monkey Contract without ever signing on." Naruto continued with a couple sage nods, before he paused. "Um… the… other…? Asuma-sensei? Did you sign on to the Monkey Contract?"
"Nope."
"Alright, so…" The son of the Yondaime who was actually raised as such coughed lightly into one fist then turned back to the woefully undereducated version of the Yamanaka heiress. "There's Kisame-san-"
"WHAT?"
All of Team Ten snapped their heads around to the version of their jōnin-sensei that spluttered that out, then exchanged looks between themselves.
"What, what?" Kurenai in tight pants asked in concern, eyeing that version of the Sarutobi shinobi.
Asuma coughed a couple times, having inhaled wrong when he heard an S-ranked nuke-nin being given a semi-respectful suffix from the son of Minato. "J-just… Kisame-san?"
"Yes…?" That version of the genjutsu mistress repeated cautiously. "Kisame, Hoshigaki Kisame, who visits now and again for kenjutsu spars against Natsumi-sama or Kakashi. Former Swordsman of the Mist, blue skin and hair? Currently an Amegakure shinobi?"
"That's… um," Kurenai in a dress told herself cautiously, swallowing rather hard, "is much different from our version of Hoshigaki."
"…anyways." Naruto spoke into the ringing silence that occurred after that tidbit got unveiled. "Kisame-san hold the Shark Summoning Contract, which is why big and blue is… well, blue. And has gills on his face, which means he can breathe underwater."
"There's a Hawk Summoning Contract in my clan." Sasuke offered, and half of the group there would never get the mental image of a non-broody version of the last Uchiha out of their heads after this. "I am mostly sure the Cat Summoning Contract is somewhere in our possession as well."
"And thus, your clansmen all are sharp-eyed, light-footed, and totally overly concerned with appearances. Fussy much?"
Naruto bolted behind his team's version of Sakura, who only sighed when Sasuke gave chase. The two boys on her team ringed around her a couple times until she stuck a foot out and tripped up the son of the Yellow Flash.
That Sakura looked merely bored, while her other self looked horrified, as the two of them engaged the other in an impromptu game of who could put the other in a head-lock first.
"Continuing." That same version of Sakura continued for her teammate, looking back at a weirdly hurt-looking Ino when she apparently didn't react to some girl-undertones correctly. "There's the Toad Contract Minato-sama holds that Naruto-kun has the Marks of, his fingers are all double-jointed. It extends up to his elbow, that Mark, and prevents him from incurring disabling injuries to the hands or arms."
"Really?" Orphaned version of Naruto blurted out, shocked out of his funk by another bit about himself he hadn't known.
"Come here, I'll show you." Sakura held out her hand, and when he carefully gave one of his own she bent his forefinger back to nearly touching the backs of his palm. "This should hurt, by the way."
"But… it doesn't."
"Jiraiya-sama, who holds onto the actual Contract, has more Marks. He can spit oil like the Toads, jump to a phenomenal height without chakra assistance, and is pretty impervious to the wet and cold climates naturally. If you sign on like your otou-sama did and don't ask to be exempted from the Mark exchange, you'll be able to do that too. This is just how far Minato-sama took his own Exchange." Sakura quirked a small smile for the ragged version of her teammate.
Naruto flexed his fingers in front of his face, then bent another back like she had done for him out of curiosity.
"That's… kind of disgusting." Sakura with raggedly short hair informed her teammate quietly. She wasn't really sure what to think about her teammate now, because dead-last or not… he was still the Yondaime's son. Which was terrifying in it's own way, because how did that detail go hidden for so long?
"And Gai-sensei." Tenten offered up, much to her alternate's surprise.
"Wait, Gai-sensei has Summoning Marks?" Lee's heads shot up, in stereo no less, and both variations turned to the jōnin in question.
The taijutsu master gave his disciples a thumbs up and a wide smile. "Indeed, our most Youthful of students! We Summon the Tortoises, and in that Exchange we received mighty, but tiny, tortoises shell plates that armor our bare skin!"
At the crash of waves that sounded, without said waves nearby to explain where they came from, most attention was suddenly redirected to the version of Gai that was inspecting his hands intently.
"It… doesn't look like Gai-sensei has… tortoises shell plates in his skin." The Tenten that hadn't known that bit about her jōnin-sensei told her alternate version.
"Why do you think he's so sparkly?" That version of herself sighed, tilting her head to the side in thought. "It's… they're almost buried into his skin, almost kind of retractable? His are the most understated Marks I know of. It's only when they catch the light does something seem a little less than… err… well, not normal per say…"
"Oh trust me, myself, I understand."
Tenten's quip to herself was almost drowned out by one Gai's shouted exclamation of triumph.
"I have FOUND THEM!"
Out of sheer self-defense, everyone else but the other Gai and the two Lees redirected their attention elsewhere as the sparkles started emerging and the shouting got louder.
"There's more, like Tsunade-sama and the Slugs. But," the other Sakura shrugged lightly, "Summoning takes a massive amount of chakra to do in combat situations. If you do sign on to one, you'll need both that chakra and then some to keep on fighting. Hence why it's taking Shikamaru-kun so long to get his kaa-chan's Contract."
"I'll get it eventually." The Nara heir insisted stubbornly.
"So what do the Summons get?" Shikamaru asked out loud, because this was information he hadn't heard of before.
"The ability to walk on two legs, paws, whatever… and opposable thumbs." His purring alternate informed him easily. "There aren't any like that in the Leopard Clan yet, although kaa-chan gave them a massive boost with her own Mark exchange and Contracted forfeit, but almost all Toads have them."
"Toads also have a more similar physiology to humans." Sakura pointed out. "They already had the features, they just didn't use them that way. That's half the reason why they're a Noble Summons Clan even with only one Toad Summoner accepted per generation."
"Naruto." Minato's voice attracted everyone's attention, and the Yondaime looked to the orphaned version of his son. "I have that explanation you wanted... if you would like to hear it."
\V/
"Deep breath, Stag." Natsumi told a version of her long-loyal bodyguard, and when the man shut his eyes she sliced the majority of his tongue out.
Rin instantly clapped her glowing green hands on the Ne infiltrator's jaw, to prevent him from drowning in his blood or loosing too much.
The ANBU general allowed herself a quick look at the seal webbing the back of Stag's tongue, but didn't waste more than a moment noting the differences before using one of the recently inked seal tags she had prepared to pry up a bit of the non-Stag chakra permeating the design.
It wasn't a big seal, nor was it able to draw on much of Stag's own chakra, so after it imploded a smaller bit than it had for her own version of Stag Natsumi handed the muscle back to the medic-nin so she could reattach it.
Hopefully without the taste issues his other self had.
"So… wife of mine." Shikaku spoke up from the corner of the room now that Natsumi didn't need her full concentration to fiddle with fūinjutsu. "Exactly when were you going to tell me about this?"
"Three words, hubby mine." She informed him apologetically. "'Sandaime', 'gag', and 'order'."
The Nara clan head pinned his significant other with a less than amused look, then glanced to the bodyguard he hadn't before held any doubts about. He had a couple now, but most of them were probably unfair of him.
"I'm going to have words with that man…"
"Shika, our Hiruzen-sama isn't this one. We can't, absolutely cannot, hold things one version of our people did in different lives against them." Rubbing her face tiredly, the former assassin allowed herself to drop back into the seat she had been supposed to be working on fūinjutsu designs in. "While I would love an opportunity to punch this Sandaime in the face…? I can't. And… Mina's going to be mad at me as it is, for telling this Hiruzen what I think of him."
"You were a naughty, naughty girl." Shikaku informed her in a deadpan, a wry smirk twisting his mouth up on one side. "There, I've chastised you. No need for more dressing downs."
Natsumi snorted.
Rin coughed delicately, dropping her hands from Stag's unmasked face. "Natsumi-sama, Shikaku-sama? Is it really that bad?"
The Jōnin Commander sighed through his nose, eyeing one of his medics thoughtfully. "There is a version of your teammate, Kakashi, who isn't the Hatake clan head. From all appearances, he also has your fiancée's eye in his skull. Who doesn't have a nee-chan, no clan, not even his jōnin-sensei."
Rin's normally cheerful features twisted in distress, and she bit her lip. "I… think I should go find my teammate. Excuse me, Nara-samas."
Natsumi watched her leave, then turned back to the recently freed Stag version. "Well?"
The fake bodyguard, because this one didn't have a Panther to follow or hold fast to and try reinventing himself, moved his mouth around as he tested the medic's reattachment.
Then he opened his mouth.
"Da… n… zō…. sa-a… ma…"
Natsumi crossed her arms over her chest and waited.
Stag seemed to consider the fact he could say the Village Elder's name now, then looked back to the alternate ANBU General. "…haa-ss b-b-bet-tr-ray-e-ed… the-e L-l-le-eea-fff… t-to t-t-th-e s-s-snn-ak-e."
She sucked in a breath, then looked at her husband with wide eyes. "Well… fuck."