When Ikemoto-san called them all down for dinner, Regina waited for Sasuke to run down the stairs before entering Naruto's room and shutting the door. She took a deep breath.
'It looks like the work of a highly localized typhoon.'
The stuff from the boxes was everywhere. Blankets and cushions and decor and books and… 'a fucking kunai on the floor? Not okay.'
He was organizing his marker collection on the bed. With legs crossed at the ankles and incredible intensity, Naruto carefully moved the colors into an order that apparently made sense to him.
"Naruto?" She tried to get his attention.
His nose twitched. But he didn't look up at her.
"Naruto." She walked up to the bed, skirting any sharp things on her path. She put the kunai she'd seen on top of the dresser with a wince.
He still didn't really seem to notice her.
'I don't think he's ignoring me though. He's just not accepting outside stimuli at the moment.'
So she crawled onto the bed on both knees and put her head on his little shoulder.
"What?" He startled, one arm collapsing and the other curling protectively around his markers. "Kaa-chan, I'm working."
"I know." She said, looking at the boxes of markers from his perspective. Evidently he was trying to go by gradients of color. "But it's time for dinner, and I need to talk to you first."
He dropped the markers in his hands, and she leaned back. He turned around to face her, bright eyes wide open.
"So I hear you're having some trouble with your homework." She said conversationally. "What's going on?"
His shoulders tensed. He didn't deny it.
"I know you can do your homework. You're very smart and fast at learning." She patted his leg. "But if there's a problem, I need to know. Can you tell me what's happening?"
His lower lip stuck out and his eyes scrunched in his very distinctive 'skeptical' face. It was pretty cartoonish, even by kid standards. Regina restrained a laugh.
"No!" he said, after a moment. "I'm not having any problems. Ask Iruka-sensei or Mizuki-sensei. All my homework is done."
"Umino-sensei." She corrected, trying to sound vaguely stern about it. Umino Iruka was pretty young and an affable person, but someone else might be pretty damn mad about that kind of disrespect. "... and I've been hearing that maybe Sasuke is not just helping you with homework. Is he trying to help more than he should?"
His jaw snapped shut and he closed off.
She waited.
'Shit, I hope that didn't come off too badly. He's very sensitive about the idea of being inferior, especially to Sasuke.'
After a minute or so of waiting, she tried again.
"It's not that I think Sasuke's better than you." She inched a bit closer to him again. "Or that if you do good work then Sasuke had to have done it. That's not true at all. You're a very smart boy."
His mouth and nose twitched, and his shoulders lost some of their tension.
'Good sign. Okay.'
"But I have to check sometimes when I hear things like that, because I love you." She reached her arm out, and he allowed her to take his hand in hers.
'Yes. Little steps. This is good.'
She tried to make eye contact, but he wouldn't let her. That was fine. "I know you're going to be a great shinobi, and you'd be good at anything you wanted to do. But doing your work at the Academy is really important. The things you learn there will help keep you safe."
'Not categorically true, I'm pretty sure the propaganda is making them 1000% more gullible.'
"Many of the things you learn there." She corrected herself. "And they can't be faked. Shinobi who can't do their jobs well get hurt very very badly."
He leaned towards her and lifted his other arm. She took the cue to lift him into her lap, and he rested his head against her collarbone as she wrapped her arms around him.
He was so small.
"I don't want you to get hurt." She said, very quietly. "So I have to check."
She felt more than heard the affirmative little grunt into her chest.
"So are there any problems at school?" She asked. "Is this something I need to be worried about?"
"No." He said softly. "You don't need to worry."
"Good." She squeezed him tight. He wiggled his arms out to give her a hug around the neck.
They stayed like that for a moment, and she breathed him in. She was hoping for that sweet scent that mothers seemed to always talk about, but he mostly smelled like dirt and sweat.
'I'd say this is a ninja thing, but I'm guessing it's a kid thing, exacerbated by the ninja thing.'
"You need a shower." She said lightly, wrinkling her nose. "If you weren't so cute, I'd put you back on the floor."
He giggled. "I'm too cute. You can't resist."
She wriggled a bit to escape his freakishly strong child arms, but she couldn't.
"Stop resisting." He said, giggling and grinning. "I'm tooooooo cute." He gave her a sloppy kid kiss on the cheek. "No one can tell cute kids no."
"Noooooooooo." She faked disgust, covering her face.
"You're powerful, kaa-chan." There was a pause as he pulled himself closer. "But I'm stronger."
"You're too cute for me..." She faux-wailed. "I can't stop myself." She flung her hands down to wrap them back around him and kissed his forehead multiple times.
He let go and scrambled off the bed. His forehead was covered in her lipstick.
'Lol.'
He rubbed at it with the back of his hand, which only really served to smudge it all over.
"So, everything with Ebisu-sensei going well?" She asked, watching him continue to fail at scrubbing it off.
"It's ok." rub, rub. "He's weird but he's good. I think I understand what I missed, now."
That was a good sign, but- "And can you do your current homework and classwork ok?"
He stopped and grunted. "Yeah. I can."
"Okay!" She jumped off the bed. "I'm glad." She leaned down and plopped one big kiss on top of the mess on his forehead.
He grimaced.
"If you have any problems or anything, you have to tell me right away, ok?" She asked, leaning down to force eye contact.
He nodded with a little smile.
"Okay." Regina held her hand out. "Let's get your face cleaned up, then we'll eat."
Regina ate her chicken and fresh vegetable salad with more relish than she'd anticipated, giving the boys each a hug before she had to flee for a quick check-in with Danzou-shishou.
"I love you!" She called from the genkan, waving at them. They stood in the kitchen doorway, flanking Ikemoto-san. Sasuke was pouting. "I'll be back at about nine."
"Love you too." Sasuke and Naruto responded, because she had trained them to reciprocate. But with varying levels of enthusiasm.
Then she left, shutting the door behind her and walking out the gate.
Danzou-shishou's house was pretty near the Hokage mansion, so it was only a few minutes' walk away from Nakayama-sensei's home.
'I should be on time to make it to chadou, as long as shishou doesn't decide to wax poetic about philosophy today.'
Shishou was outside today, sitting on a bench in his garden.
Well, mostly a lot of sand that had been raked, with a few rocks. To be fair, he didn't seem like much of a plant person.
"Danzou-shishou." She bowed.
"Rejina-hime. Please sit." He gestured to a small bench nearby. "I wish to discuss some things."
'Oh fuck. I'm gonna be late. Gai or somebody is gonna ask questions, and fucking Hyuuga-san is going to live for my suffering in public.'
"Of course, shishou." She moved quickly and rigidly, sitting with a tall spine. Regina tried to look as professional and regal as possible.
"I assume," he said heavily, "that you have carefully considered the information that I gave you last time, as you returned it already."
Regina nodded. "I feel comfortable with the material," she said cautiously.
Danzou nodded. "The Jounin Commander is…?"
"Nara Shikaku," she answered.
He looked unimpressed.
She pressed her lips together for a moment and tried again. "An assigned position, answerable only to the Hokage. The Jounin Commander debriefs and manages all Jounin personnel, including recommendations for mission assignments, psychological recommendations, and advising the Hokage on any matters of concern for Jounin shinobi."
"What about the man?" Danzou pressed.
"Nara-san is a capable and intelligent individual, able to recognize patterns and his Jounins' weaknesses and strengths relative to their abilities. However, he lacks personal motivation and demonstrates few leadership capabilities. His preferred approach is less direct, avoiding giving orders and relegating all final decisions to the Hokage."
'My personal opinion is that he sucks. But that's partly motivated by my impulse for revenge against people who help to make me miserable and, more importantly, grudges against people I consider mildly incompetent. His handling of overwork issues is terrible.'
Danzou-shishou's face looked much more neutral. That was fairly positive.
"The Head of Torture and Interrrogation." He stated, looking down at the folders in his hands.
"A fairly self-explanatory position- this person is the director of the department. The department manages captured enemy personnel and interrogates or tortures them for information beneficial to Konoha or detrimental to Konoha's enemies. Morino Ibiki is the current holder of the position."
She took a short pause, to evaluate her mentor for any feedback. His face hadn't moved an inch.
"Morino-san is serious and relatively severe in character, due to a past experience as a prisoner of war, among other things. He is also very pragmatic and reserved, preferring to observe and evaluate. He is not particularly given to adopting new processes or untried methods for any aspect of his department, preferring to trust in proven results and long testing periods before any implementation. His thoroughness is demonstrated through the stability and efficient bureaucracy within the department."
He actually hummed.
Then he flexed his hand on his cane. "What did you think about the meeting on Monday?"
She temporarily felt her heart stop beating.
"It was… very informative." She tried not to move too much. He was definitely watching her every reaction.
He leaned back, pursing his lips ever-so-slightly.
'Oh no. Displeasure.'
She refused to backtrack. That would look even worse than her non-answer.
"I meant regarding your opinion of the issue regarding favoritism and nepotism." He said frankly. He was still staring at her face.
She stared back.
"I do not believe that nepotism is an effective way to ensure proper governance." She said, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks.
'Ignore it.' She thought to herself. 'You don't know whether you actually change color. You can't control that. Don't squirm.'
He lowered his eyelids slightly, in the way that she was tentatively labelling "mild approval". He seemed to pause for a moment.
"Surely, you do not believe that my appointment to the Hokage's Council or your hiring were mistakes on behalf of your Kage?" He sounded suddenly harsh.
'Ah. Yeah. If I'm not careful I could be accused of light treason for questioning the Hokage's decisionmaking. Makes me wonder why the clan heads had the gall to do it, even in a group.'
"I believe that the Hokage makes the best decisions possible, given the circumstances and many factors at play." She said, trying to not commit herself to any real opinion.
He eyed her.
"Do you believe that their accusations against you had merit?"
'Christ, this is a grilling. What's his goal here?' She smiled pleasantly. Or tried to.
"I understand that my father is Hokage-sama's former student." She tried to watch him for any reaction. "And that there are many factors that led to my employment in the Hokage's office, for which I am very grateful. I endeavor to do my best in my position for the good of Konohagakure."
She felt like her heart was trying to make up for stopping by thrumming along like a motorcycle engine.
'Don't you dare sweat.' She threatened her traitorous body.
"A politician's answer." He dismissed. "Tell me your real thoughts."
"I understand their perspective." She said slowly.
He grunted.
They sat in silence.
He eyed her again, and then huffed in apparent amusement.
"Very well." He reached into a pocket and produced more dossiers. "These are your assignments. Have you memorized the others?"
She accepted them with both hands. They were surprisingly heavy this time.
"Yes, shishou."
Regina put them into a seal and tucked it between the folds of her obi. "Is there anything else, Danzou-shishou?"
He waved her away. "Not for today, thank you. You are dismissed."
She stood and bowed before walking away into the night.
A few minutes later, Regina took her seat in tea ceremony class next to Gai and pretended she was unaware of the tittering her presence seemed to inspire at the end of the room.
'It might not even be about me. Don't blow this out of proportion. Very little is actually about you, Regina.'
The thought made her almost want to laugh. It sounded similar to something her mother used to say.
'You don't rule the world, Regina.' she mocked. 'Boo to her, I'm mildly important even if embattled, I'm a fucking princess somehow, I have friends and an awesome house and never have to listen to her again.' Then she smiled at Gai and waited for class to begin, noting with satisfaction that Hyuuga-san was obviously feeling somewhat untethered by Regina's current attitude.
'Bring it, Nakayama-san. I'm ready today.'
The week passed by without anything else major happening, aside from the low-level discontent displayed by a significant chunk of the population, shinobi and civilians alike.
'Overall, it's going about how I expected.' she mused over her paperwork. The world beyond her office door was a bit foreboding, but it seemed nobody was willing to actually threaten her.
'If they really wanted some action, they really should do more than just be unpleasant. Either they have a point to address and should advocate for it, or they didn't find it that contentious and possibly would have been better off leaving it alone.'
Regina looked in the direction of the Hokage's office from her own, and felt the tiniest heartache.
'But I do miss being in that office and included in major decisions and village operations. It was much more fulfilling than doing paperwork 100% of the time.'
But the paperwork was her job- so she did it.
Sometime in the afternoon, there was a polite but firm knock on her door.
"Yes?" She called.
The door opened, and someone walked in.
"Ikemoto-san?"
Ikemoto-san walked into her office, clasping her hands in front of her hips. Her eyes were averted to the floor.
'That's weird.'
"Is there something wrong?" She asked, putting her pen down.
"Ah. Yes, I'm afraid so, Rejina-hime." Ikemoto-san pulled something out of her pocket. "There is a message for you from the Academy."
Regina's heart fell to her stomach. She wiped her face of any feeling as best as she could.
'It's got to be bad. She didn't wait until I came home after work hours to deal with it.'
"Thank you, Ikemoto-san." She said, as regal as possible. Regina extended her hands, and Ikemoto-san placed a scroll in them. "Is there anything else?"
"Yes." Ikemoto-san paused. She was obviously weighing her words. "You may wish to wait to hear it until after you have read the letter."
"Of course."
Regina unfurled it and read it down. Whoever had written it had obviously had clarity (or her abominable handwriting-deciphering skills) in mind.
'Naruto hasn't even been attending school.'
She looked up, chin high.
"Where is my son?" She asked, trying not to sound too upset. This wasn't exactly what Ikemoto-san had probably envisioned in her employers. It didn't look good.
"Waiting outside. That was the only other thing I had come to say." Ikemoto-san bowed.
"Thank you, Ikemoto-san. I appreciate your good sense and discretion." Regina worded it as carefully as possible. Doubtless, this was going to be added onto her laundry lists of faults as seen by her detractors. No sense in providing more details than necessary. "Would you please send him in? I will bring him home."
Ikemoto-san bowed again, and left. She returned with Naruto a few seconds later. His face was bright red, and his clothes were filthy.
Ikemoto-san walked out, and shut the office door firmly behind her.
"Naruto-kun." She said.
'Honestly, I have no words. Didn't we talk about school and his homework, at least, literally last Tuesday? It's only been a week.'
He sniffled.
"Why are you skipping school?"
It was downright perplexing. She'd gotten him a tutor, she helped him almost every night with his homework. Sasuke was obviously willing to help, as long as Naruto was actually trying.
'But none of that matters if he doesn't even show up for class! I thought those things would help.'
'...I thought I finally had a handle on things.'
The note in her hand crumpled. She purposefully straightened out her hand, stretching her fingers.
"I…" his eyes welled up with tears. Naruto's lower lip quivered. "I don't like it."
Regina self-comforted, taking her hair out of her ponytail and running her hands through her hair. She was vaguely surprised that clumps of hair didn't come out.
"Is there…" she searched the farthest recesses of her mind, "anything else I can do? How is Ebisu-san as a tutor?"
"He's good." He whispered, looking away from her.
Something inside her wrenched. She closed her eyes and forced her heart rate to slow.
'Breathe out in a little o, breathe in.'
When she opened her eyes, she looked at Naruto again. He was watching her, tears now leaking down his cheeks.
"I'm sorry school isn't good." She said, and she meant it. "I love you. I'm not mad at you, but I am frustrated."
He nodded, swallowing hard.
"I just don't know what else to do. I know you can do your work, I know you're smart, and now you have me and Ebisu-san." She could feel the tension building again. Her head hurt.
"Is there something wrong?" She went to rub at her temples, hoping to release the stress headache. "If there is, we can work on it. I just… no amount of extra work will help if you're not in school to get your normal education."
Silence answered her. There was a sniffle.
"Okay." She breathed out deeply. "Come here, then."
He stiffly walked around her desk and up into her arms, and she hugged him close. Regina didn't know what else to do. "We'll get through this together." She said, as much to him as to herself. "But I need you to be honest with me."
Her shoulder was quickly becoming wet. She fought off the urge to shudder.
"No one likes me." He said into her shoulder. "No one will play with me."
'God, I feel that.' The moms had been particularly unfriendly for the last couple of weeks. Even Yuina-san hadn't really talked to her outside of pleasantries, even when they did their weekly get-togethers with the kids. She was going backwards, and could feel the stares on the back of her neck even now. 'Is this my fault?'
She wracked her brain. Maybe her current issues were exacerbating the problem, but she'd noted that when she'd first seen him. His teachers had also brought up that issue when she'd first met them. So it probably wasn't just about her being a pariah.
"I'm sorry, that's so hard." She wrapped him tighter, and kissed the side of his head. "I'm so sorry that's happening to you. I'll look into it."
She slowly let him pull away, though his fingers stayed entangled in her shirt.
"And I know it's horrible." She made eye contact, lightly tilting his chin up with a finger. "But I need you to stay in class all day, every day, unless you're sick or something. I'm worried about your grades, and I'm scared that you might miss something important."
He nodded, pulling his left arm away to wipe at the river of snot coming down out of his nose. His body language was closed off still.
"I need you to promise me that you'll go to class and stay there all day." She said gently. "I will do my best to find out why the other kids aren't nice to you and fix it. But if I can't fix it, you still need to learn to be a good shinobi."
'Your literal life is at stake, kid. Please work with me here.'
She walked Naruto back to school herself- and delivered him to his classroom. Umino-sensei gave her a weird look, but she dismissed it, bowed politely, and got the hell out of there.
'I guess I may as well try to ask other people what's going on. He's right when he says that people don't treat him right. I just don't know why.'
Regina walked up to the school administration office and smiled at the secretary, who was the friendliest near-stranger Regina had noted in a week. She actually smiled back.
"Hello," she checked the name on the woman's desk, "Hamamura-san."
"Hello, Jiraiya-hime!" the woman chirped back, and was obviously somewhat thrilled that Regina had gone to the bare minimum decency of looking for her displayed name.
'That's so sad. Do people not usually do that?'
"I'm so sorry, but I've noticed that my son, Jiraiya Naruto, has been having some… social trouble from the time I arrived." She tried to sound like she was confiding a secret. She didn't have to manufacture the worry. "Do you have any idea why that is?"
The woman made a sympathetic, pained grimace. "I'm sorry, Jiraiya-hime. I couldn't tell you."
"Please," Regina pleaded a little bit. "I don't understand why people treat him so… badly… sometimes. He's only eight years old."
Something like regret flashed on the other woman's face.
"I really cannot tell you." She said, sternly but quietly. Then she leaned closer, looking around. "You should try asking in the Hokage Tower." She said carefully. Regina took note.
"Thank you, thank you Hamamura-san!" She whispered, bowing a few times. Then she scrammed out the door.
It was a really short walk to her office building, but she couldn't even think of one person she could ask.
'Basically everyone there either outright hates me right now, or is keeping their distance.' she rubbed at her neck as she walked up the flights of stairs. 'I can't imagine who I could ask who would give me the time of day.'
But she owed it to Naruto to try. She'd promised, even if it wasn't important on its own.
'Keiko-san used to be friendly.' She reminded herself as she rounded the corner. Said woman was working at her desk. 'Is it possible that she would at least answer a question?'
It would be unreasonable for her to not. So… it was worth giving it a shot. She faced the Hokage's Secretary head on.
"Hello, Muramatsu-san!" Regina tried to put on as much of a brave and friendly face as possible.
Somewhere in the back of the office, something thudded to the floor. Regina didn't look up.
There was a weird sort of stillness in the air. It was tense.
"Hello, Jiraiya-hime." Keiko-san's voice was professional, but a little cold.
"I'm very sorry to bother you," which was true, "but I have a question I'm hoping that you can help me with." Regina affected the body language of friendliness, open arms and vulnerability.
"...it is my duty to assist." Keiko- no, Muramatsu-san, said with slight reluctance. She sat up and opened up her chest by pulling her shoulders back, and putting her hands open on the desk.
It was obviously meant to warn Regina off, like an animal opening its hood or puffing up.
"My son is experiencing some…" she thought about how she wanted to phrase it, "malicious and discriminatory behaviors."
Muramatsu stilled.
Regina took her time picking out her next sentence. This was a fine line between getting what she wanted through properly applied force, and pissing literally everyone off and getting in more shit than before.
"Evidently this has been going on for years, and increased as of late." She felt the middle of her lip curl up. Muramatsu-san's jaw set into a line.
Regina leaned a bit towards the desk, still mostly smiling. "Is there anything you can tell me about it?"
The office felt like it was holding its collective breath.
"...No." Muramatsu smiled back. "I can't say anything about that."
"All right then, I'd like to book an appointment time with the Hokage." Regina stilled her face down to the blank, practiced smile.
'Performance face. Smile, Regina. Nothing can get you down.'
"No." Muramatsu-san said quickly. A mite too quickly.
Regina's left eyebrow quirked. She kept smiling.
"I know he has a slot open, I'll just take that if you don't mind." She let her eyes close into her smile. "I'll wait out here, I don't want to take more of your time. I know you're very busy."
Muramatsu-san didn't say anything to that. There was a flush rising in her neck.
Regina went and sat down on the chairs outside the Hokage's office, examining her fingernails until the door creaked open and Morino-san walked out. She stood up- he gave her a slightly odd look, but held the door open.
She walked in, head high, and waited.
The door closed behind her with a creak.
Sarutobi-sama was leaned over his desk, examining something. So she waited.
After a minute or so, she bowed.
"Hokage-sama."
He looked up, looking pained. His mouth was puckered, and his jaw was tight.
'Well, I'm really not making many friends today.' She marvelled. 'I had to go up to the very top of a military dictatorship to figure out why a kid's getting bullied.'
"Hokage-sama," she tried to look as diminutive as possible, bowing her head and mostly addressing the floor. She brought her hands in, to clasp them at her waist. "I am very sorry to trouble you."
"Yes, Jiraiya-hime." His voice was neutral. It was also in stark contrast to their earlier relationship.
'That one actually hurt. He was pretty dadly before, even if he is a troll king.'
"Unfortunately, the problem is becoming too bad to ignore. I know you said once to me in past that Naruto-kun's circumstances would not be a concern. However, he is beginning to skip school- even with Ebisu-san's wonderful training, and my and Sasuke-kun's support." She looked up, to gauge his reaction. He hadn't seemed to move. "He says that people will not talk to him- that people insult him, the other children won't play with him because their parents say not to do so."
"And?" The Hokage was levelling her with a stare that made her knees want to collapse out from under her. Traitorous things.
She immediately went back to looking at the floor. "I believe that I need to know why this is happening. It has been happening since before I came to the village, but it is getting worse. If I do not know why people treat him this way, I am afraid that I cannot do anything to make it better."
'Even though it's not like I have a lot of social or political cache to cash in for it. But it's impossible to make any headway whatsoever unless I know what I'm looking at.'
"I am.." the words caught in her throat. "Scared for his future. If he is not attending classes and truly learning Academy curriculum, he may not be prepared for the dangers he will face as a shinobi. If he graduates."
She swallowed.
He was silent. There was an agitated tapping- probably his pen on his desk. He did that when a meeting seemed to be going badly.
Regina risked a glimpse up- he was staring her down. She felt uncomfortable and exposed.
"Jiraiya-hime." He said.
It made her almost flinch- the inflection was stern.
"Do you trust my decision-making?"
She breathed in slowly. "Of course, Hokage-sama. I merely wish to be a good and able guardian."
He hmmed. "You may go." But this time, he didn't sound so tense.
Regina left, feeling unsure of what the hell had just happened. It seemed almost positive at the very end.
'But then again, he seems to like to keep his cards close to his chest. Sarutobi-sama likes to have the upper hand at all times, and I think he thinks that he genuinely knows best for everyone. Unless that meeting shook him up more than I'd thought.'
She went back into her office for the few remaining minutes of the day, closing the door and slumping down into her chair.
'I just don't like that everyone in the village knows something about my adopted son that I don't.'