Disclaimer: I do not own the original Naruto characters used in this fiction, just the couples' kids.

Parents:

Sasuke & Sakura—Kiku and Daisuke; Neji & Tenten—Cho and Ryuu; Naruto & Hinata—Kitsune and Naien; Shikamaru & Temari—Shikarou, Tomoko, and Takara; Kiba & Ino—Misaki and Shiroko; Itachi & Hana—Katai and Chairomaru; Kakashi & Kurenai—Rei; Gaara & Matsuri—Yua; Asuma (deceased) & Kurenai—Raiden; Kakashi & Rin—Arata; Unknown—Osamu, Manako and Aoko, Soshina, Takeshi, Jun

Ages:

Raiden, Osamu, Arata—all 18; chuunin

Kiku, Cho, Katai, Manako, Rei, Jun, Takara, Tomoko, Takeshi—all 16; chuunin

Daisuke, Misaki, Kitsune, Shikarou, Ryuu, Yua, Naomi, Hayate—all 13; genin


Parenting 101

Chapter 53: War, part 3

It's not over until it's over.

Cho watched the flames around them warily, wondering where Tsuki had gone to. However, she couldn't quite focus; not with Kiku's plan still in her head. "Kiku," she said anxiously, and Kiku turned to look at her. "Are you sure this is going to work? I mean, what if I—"

"You'll do fine, Cho," Kiku interrupted. Then her expression softened into a small smile. "It's you and me, remember?"

Cho took a deep breath and nodded. "Right."

"Ready?"

She nodded faintly. "Yes."

Then Kiku smiled at her again, nodding once, before disappearing.

Once she was gone, Cho took another deep breath, and said loudly, "Tsuki! How about we level the playing field a little?"

There was no response.

She proceeded to untying her Konoha headband from around her neck, placing it over her eyes like a blindfold as she retied it securely. Her hand rested over the scrolls dangling from her hip. "Now we're even. So why don't you fight me?"

Still no response.

Did she go after Kiku instead? Damn it. She knew that this could—

"Your little friend just abandoned you?" Tsuki's voice asked in amusement.

Cho smiled. "More or less."

Tsuki came closer.

"Do you plan on fighting me blinded and alone?"

'So she doesn't know about byakugan?' Cho thought to herself. 'It was just as Kiku predicted…'

So Cho just smiled a little wider. "That's the plan."

"Clever," Tsuki admitted, coming a little closer, "but not thoroughly—"

"Tenryu fu (Heavenly Dragon Winds)!"

Cho quickly released one of her scrolls, stepping back in seconds, and felt the burst of air as the scroll spiraled up and outward, releasing a heavy barrage of weapons. She heard Tsuki curse under her breath as she tried to evade the weapons, landing several yards away, and Cho activated her byakugan, dodging as the weapons rained from above.

"And what did you hope to accomplish by doing that, child?" Tsuki questioned, her tone confident yet suspicious. "You can't even aim."

Cho felt herself smirking. "I don't need to."

Through her byakugan, she caught sight of Kiku standing on a rooftop from over Tsuki's shoulder.

Only seconds later did she feel the burst of heat and smell the scent of smoke as the explosive tag attached to the kunai Kiku just tossed was set off.

Tsuki whipped her head around. "What the—"

She jumped away from Cho and was about to escape.

However, that split second of distraction was enough for Cho to wield out her second scroll. She quickly unraveled it, biting her thumb just enough to run a line of her blood over the kanji, and grabbing the chains and materialized from it in a puff of smoke.

"Tengoku no ryu no o (Heavenly Dragon Tail)!"

She gripped her end the chains tightly as the other ends shot out towards Tsuki, who began flipping backwards to dodge them.

"Katon: Fumetsu no yuwaku seigyo (Fire Release: Immortal Temptress Control)!"

Behind Tsuki, flames erupted once more, encircling around them. Startled, Tsuki turned her back on Cho and towards the flames, allowing the chains to wrap around her arm and lock tightly around it. Tsuki glared at Cho, tugging against her restraints. However, the chakra-infused chains didn't budge.

Kiku landed a few yards behind Tsuki, a small vial in gone hand and a few senbon in the other.

She dipped the senbon into the vial and tossed them at Tsuki's back. Only seconds later, Tsuki's knees trembled and she fell limply to the ground, unconscious.

Cho had her headband off from around her eyes only moments later, still holding tightly onto her end of the chains.

Around them, the flames began to die down.

"That should keep her out for at least a day or two," Kiku said as she capped the vial and slipped it back into the pouch strapped to her thigh.

Cho walked over to Kiku as they stood by Tsuki's body, studying her.

"What I don't get," Cho admitted, "is why she didn't know about my byakugan and your sharingan."

Kiku shrugged. "Maybe they were misinformed?"

"Or just not informed enough," Cho amended. "I mean, considering what Osamu and Raiden and the others told us, Master kept them all pretty secluded, didn't he?"

Kiku nodded in agreement and opened her mouth to speak. However, a scream shattered the air, cutting her off. It sounded close.

"Was that—"

"Rei!"


"Magen: Shinku no namida (Demonic Illusion: Crimson Tears)!"

Katai's eyes flew from Rei to Hankon, who was watching Rei warily. At first, nothing happened.

Then Hankon's face pulled together in pain, his hands flying to his head as he held it and his jaw set tightly. Seconds after that, Rei let out a strained scream as Hankon automatically repelled it back at her. She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her upper torso as if she were cold. Both Chairomaru and Aoko whined uneasily, and Manako held her tightly by her shoulders.

"Is she going to be okay?" Katai asked as he got to his feet, his eyes cutting between Rei and Hankon.

"He only repels back half of what she's doing to him," Manako said, "but if she's using her full potential, she should be in a lot of pain right now, too."

"Then she should stop!" Katai cried.

Manako shook her head. "I warned her of the effects. She decided to do it anyway."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"You can—"

Hankon let out a deep, booming growl. It sounded pained. And, like before, only seconds afterwards, Rei let out a bloodcurdling shriek, her knees bucking from under her.

Katai and Manako scrambled to get her onto her knees, flinching at her shriek and holding onto her even tighter.

Rei shuddered again.

In her mind, everything was red and black.

She stood across from Hankon, the both of them knee-deep in crimson water that stretched on endlessly around them. Around them, it was as black as a starless nighttime sky. The crescent-shaped moon in that blank sky was crimson like the water, however, the reflection it casted on the water was blurry and silver.

Images flashed across her eyes: her mom and dad and friends and family dead before her; Raiden and Arata standing before her and stained in blood, their eyes hallow.

The pain of her own genjutsu was excruciatingly painful—as if her flash and limbs were being ripped from her.

Across from her, she watched as Hankon shuddered, letting out a cry of pain.

And again, she felt that very same pain stab at her, like a blade slicing through her chest.

She let out another scream.

But, even disoriented, she could faintly hear everything going on around her.

"What's happening to her?"

"Why is she like that?"

Kiku? Cho?

"It's Hankon, he's repelling her genjutsu," a voice she recognized as Manako's explained to them. Were they there, too?

"Is there anything we can do?" It sounded like Kiku.

"Manako, what can we do?" Katai asked. "If we attack Hankon, will Rei feel anything?"

"I…I'm not sure. I mean, there's no guaranteeing anything. I don't know what she may or may not feel…"

"What if Rei is sedated so her senses are numbed?" Cho asked.

"That would probably work," Manako said. "Can you do that?"

"Kiku has a serum that can."

"It won't last more than a minute or two."

"That's enough time for me to take him," Katai growled.

"Here, take these. Make sure all of them hit him once he's out—it'll keep him unconscious for at least a day."

There was a pause, in which Rei heard them shuffling about around her. Then after a few minutes, a hand placed itself on her arm. She heard Kiku tell her, "Sorry, Rei," before there was a brief pinch to her arm—a cold needle puncturing through her skin.

At first, nothing happened.

Then suddenly, everything felt blank. The pain extinguished so suddenly, leaving no feeling at all behind. She could no longer hear or feel anything outside of her own mind. However, in her mind, she could still feel the illusion. She felt the crimson water wading at her knees, heard Hankon's pained bit now muffled struggles, smelt the rusty scent of blood. Hankon began to fade in and out, like a bad reception, until suddenly he disappeared altogether, the water rippling from where he once was.

Her senses came rushing back to her, but she wasn't greeted by the same pain as before. Her genjutsu disappeared from her mind, and suddenly, her eyes were fluttering open, her vision focusing.

"Rei?" Kiku was in front of her. "Are you okay?"

"Kiku?" she asked back groggily.

A sigh of relief. "She's alright."

Rei blinked rapidly a few times before she really saw everything around her.

Hankon was unconscious on the ground, bound by chains similarly to the woman who also lay unconsciously beside him—Tsuki, was it? She couldn't quite place the name at the moment. Kiku, Manako, and Cho knelt beside her. Katai stood with Manako and Chairomaru only a few feet away beside the bodies. They were all smiling, relief the dominant feature on their faces.

"Welcome back," Kiku told her softly.

And, for once in what felt like a long time, she smiled as well.


"Hijutsu: Mugen no mure (Secret Technique: Endless Swarm)!"

Naomi held out her palms suddenly, swarms of insects materialized from them, flying outward and quickly spiraling around Tsubasa, who let out another ear-shattering shriek that seemed to echo through the air as it was becoming surrounded by the insect swarms.

Suddenly, she felt something grasp her arm, but before she could react, she was swapping positions with Ryuu.

"Hakke hyaku nijuhachi sho (Eight Trigrams One-Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms)!"

Again, he quickly struck the vines that shot out towards them.

"Ryuu, are you okay?" Naomi asked as Ryuu stumbled backwards, panting slightly.

He nodded. "I'm fine."

"But you're—"

"I'm fine," he repeated, a little more forceful this time.

"Yua would want you to take care of yourself," Naomi argued.

He sighed. "I'll rest once this is over."

She didn't look convinced.

"Our main concern now is Tsubasa," he reminded.

"Don't worry, I've got him taken care of," she reassured, not even sounding the least bit doubtful.

He stared at her. "You're that confident?"

She was smiling a bit smugly now. "My bugs are very powerful. If you don't believe me, why don't you look yourself?"

And, almost as if on cue, Tsubasa let out another shriek, and he jerked his head back up to look at her. She was barely visible through the thick cloud of bugs that swarmed her, though he saw brief flashes of color amongst the black haze, and heard the shrieking clear enough to realize what the bugs were doing to her.

"Katon: Fumetsu no fushicho no iki (Fire Release: Immortal Phoenix Breath)!"

Daisuke breathed out more flames which quickly enveloped the vines and plants that shot out towards them, clearing a path for him and Raiden.

However, before they could reach Chikyu, who let out another pained scream, larger vines shot at them from above, crashing to the ground and barely missing by a few inches.

"We won't be able to get anywhere near her at this rate," Raiden said.

Daisuke made a face. "I know. My flames don't seem to last very long on them. Even the more intense ones die out pretty quickly."

"Do you have anything that might?"

"I…could try," Daisuke offered, but he still sounded doubtful. He jumped forward, dodging another vine, and quickly drew in a large breath.

"Katon: Fumetsu no yuwaku seigyo (Fire Release: Immortal Temptress Control)!"

Flames erupted around them, quickly spiraling around until they formed a circle, the flames rising higher and higher. As the vines shot towards them, they were charred and falling to the ground within seconds. However, as powerful as it was, Daisuke could already feel the flames beginning to die down due to the strange chakra of Chikyu's technique.

"Now!" Daisuke exclaimed. "It won't hold very long!"

Raiden nodded, wasting no time as he darted forward and straight towards Chikyu.

As some smaller vines that ended up on the inside of the circle of fire shot towards him, Daisuke quickly put them out with smaller flames.

He quickly reached Chikyu, grabbing onto her shoulder.

She stopped screaming. "Rai?"

"Yeah it's me," he told her. "You're going to be alright, okay? Everything's going to be fine."

She didn't have time to respond as he quickly wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her and quickly darting back out.

Suddenly, more and more vines burst through cracks in the ground, shooting out more quickly towards them and straight for Chikyu. Raiden cursed under his breath, but before he could deem himself unable to outrun the vines, he saw something—or rather someone—blur past him.

"Katon: Fumetsu no fushicho no iki seigyo (Fire Release: Immortal Phoenix Breath Control)!"

Large flames quickly erupted, creating a wall of fire between them and the vines.

"Daisuke!"

Daisuke winced in pain. "I'm okay. Just took a lot out of me, is all."

"Can you still run?" Raiden asked.

"Yeah," he answered quickly. "Let's go."

Daisuke quickly followed Raiden and the two of them began sprinting towards large circle of fire, which was beginning to thin. As they reached the edge, Daisuke quickly lowered the flames the second that they leapt through, and they stumbled to the ground as the reached the other side, the flames quickly rising higher once more.

Naomi and Ryuu were at their side at once, and helped them onto one of the rooftops a couple buildings over.

Chikyu's screaming faded, and she was simply breathing heavily, drained of all her fight.

Ryuu knelt beside his best friend, who was on his knees, looking just as drained as Chikyu was.

"I think I could finish it off," he said.

Ryuu shook his head. "Don't even think about it."

"I've got it," Naomi reassured, and they all looked back, watching as the swarm that had taken Tsubasa seemed to be growing larger and larger, enveloping the entire scene.

"It actually worked," Raiden breathed. "It actually worked."

"We make some pretty great exterminators."

They laughed.


Takara and Tomoko looked to each other, nodding once, and Takara wielded out her twin fans while Tomoko readied her own

"Futon: Kami no tsuin kama (Wind Release: Divine Twin Scythes)!"

"Futon: Kami no kama genzai (Wind Release: Divine Sickle Current)!"

Tomoko swung her giant iron fan, and a burst of chakra-infused air currents began whipping violently around, as Takara gave both of her fans a toss with the flick of her wrists, creating two chakra-infused air currents that quickly formed individual cyclones.

Arata watched in confusion. They'd heard him, hadn't they? Their own elements would be useless against Ai and Kirai's techniques.

However, as the deadly winds began advancing, they came closer and closer to Ai and Kirai rather than the fire and water that surrounded them.

Ai and Kirai quickly jumped backwards, evading the winds, but the winds continued to follow.

"What are you two doing?" Arata questioned.

Takara was beaming. "You said our winds wouldn't work on their elements, right?"

"Yeah…" he said. "But attacking them directly won't be of any use—they can just keep dodging it."

"True," Tomoko conceded. "But, not unless they choose to defend themselves."

"In that case," Takara continued, "we'll just have to force them."

With that said, Tomoko turned back to Ai and Kirai, who continued to easily evade the winds without seeming to break a sweat.

She reopened her giant iron fan and held it in her hands. Takara smiled, taking Arata's arm and leading him back a few steps, allowing Tomoko the space she needed.

"Fusajin no jutsu (Dust Wind Technique)!"

With another swing of her fan, more violent air currents erupted.

However, this time, Arata noticed something different about them. He couldn't tell it right away, but as he looked closer, there seemed to be something in the air currents. "Sand?"

Takara laughed. "We may come from Konoha, but Suna will always be our home, too."

As the sand-filled air currents collided with the other three, there was an explosion, and winds burst out suddenly all around them. Tomoko, Takara, and Arata dropped to the floor, shielding their faces and bracing themselves against the rooftops as wind and sand whipped everywhere, quickly creating a thick haze.

Only seconds later, something else was added to the mix.

"Kirai used her water release," Arata said in disbelief.

Tomoko smiled. "Exactly."

As the water entered the winds, it too was being whipped around, quickly dissolving the sand.

However, it spread everywhere, quickly extinguishing Ai's flames. Before anyone could react, Takara quickly got up, and her fans automatically flew back to her. She caught them easily and flourished her wrists once more, spinning the fans with her hands.

"Futon: Kami no tsuin kama (Wind Release: Divine Twin Scythes)!"

She tossed her fans for a second time, recreating the same chakra-infused cyclones.

Ai and Kirai let out screams as the currents quickly sucked them in, the sharp winds slicing their skins like blades.

"And they're finished," Takara announced, breaking into a wide smile as she held out her hands. The winds cut off abruptly, the fans gliding through the air and back into her hands like boomerangs. Ai and Kirai's unconscious bodies fell through the air Tomoko and Arata leapt over to catch them, landing on the next rooftop, and Takara quickly followed.

"Nice job, sis," Tomoko smirked, high-fiving Takara as she joined them.

"Right back atcha."

Arata stared at the two sisters and exhaled a laugh, shaking his head. "You two are some scary women."

Tomoko and Takara looked at each other before bursting into laughter as well.

"Well, here's a word of advice our father learned the hard way with our mother," Tomoko told him, taking his arm and smirking.

Takara took his other arm, giggling. Arata arched an eyebrow, an amused smile on his face.

"Ladies don't start fights, but they can finish them!"


"Kori, tell me," Misaki said as she stumbled backwards, landing on her butt on top of the snow. Shiroko tumbled onto the snow beside her, the both of them breathing heavily. It was cold enough that they could see their breaths as they panted, starting to feel exhausted and at their limits. "If this ends well, where would you go?"

Kori paused, seemingly intrigued by the question. Even Osamu, Hayate, and Shikarou seemed interested in his answer.

"Would you go back home?" Misaki asked.

Kori laughed lightly. "I haven't been home since I was a little boy," he reminded. "I doubt anyone would remember me, or that I would be welcomed."

"Would you stay here?" she asked.

He stared at her in disbelief. "In Konoha? After all of this?"

She shrugged her shoulders, but it was Hayate who answered him. "Naruto-sama is a hokage of many surprises."

"He let us in," Osamu pointed out. "You shouldn't count yourselves out yet."

"I doubt it," he said.

"Okay, theoretically speaking, then," Misaki considered, "would you stay if you were offered to?"

He seemed to truly contemplate this option, taking a few minutes before answering.

Then he broke into a smile again. "Yeah, that'd definitely be an offer I wouldn't pass up, if Konoha was as interesting as you guys."

"Believe me, it is," Hayate laughed a little.

"But, I'm still saying," he said, "that the chances are still slim."

"Konoha and Suna live in the present, not the past," Shikarou reminded. "The two villages used to be enemies before, but now look at us."

Kori shrugged one shoulder.

"I guess we'll see how this turns out."


A/n.

Quote from Chapter 54: "Someday, you're gonna wind up all alone, and you'll have no one else to blame but yourself."—from The Emperor's New Groove

(EXPLANATION/DETAILS IN LAST CHAPTER)