AN: Ok so I am just gonna keep it all in one fic and have a clear separation between the two parts, so like, I wanna say 4 more chapters before the second part of the story?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Following the events of Friday Iruka tried to pound the pavement and find out anything else. With Jiraya having skipped town and Kakashi on some long term mission he didn't really know who to go to. Trying to stop into the Hokage's office meant seeing Kushina, which ruined the whole discreet aspect of it all. She had of course approached him a few times, keeping up appearances as she called it. To top it all off, she'd given Mizuki an invite to the party, but not him! There was a line, and she had crossed it!

"Look I know it seems like I was going behind your back, but I swear" Mizuki was also now trying to convince him that he had not broken the bro code, which was still a mystery to him. "I would NEVER do that to a bro!"

"For the tenth time, I believe you! That's not why they gave you an invite and not me!"

"Ok well it hurts when you say that, cause it could be why I'm just letting you know it's not."

He added this exchange to his list of grievances against Kushina. If it weren't for the few kids still waiting on parents he could just walk away from this, but no, he was trapped there by his job.

"Excuse me" as one Itachi Uchiha approached them, he prayed to whatever cruel god was out there. "I need to discuss some things with Iruka."

"Well if you insist, sorry man but you know I just gotta" Iruka didn't give him a chance to say something before walking off with Itachi. "What can I do for you?"

"Rōzu provided an invite to Naruto's party to Sasuke earlier, and mentioned how a proper chaperone should take him. I may be reading into this, but are they mad at me?"

"Well, I'm sure they aren't, but I cannot say for the Rōzu who gave that invite."

"Does Naruto have two parents with the same name?" Itachi was a little perplexed by his reply.

"Nope, just um, uh" he really didn't know how to explain what happened to someone else. "The ghost, I guess, of Kushina, Naruto's birth mother, may have possessed them?"

"Are you perhaps not getting enough sleep? I'm aware teaching can be very stressful."

"No she sort of told me that to my face, not in those exact words, but more or less."

"Hm, assuming that is true, are you aware of what she knows of me?"

"No? I'm still not actually clear how you know Rōzu if I'm honest."

"Oh that's easy, I helped them hide a body."

"YOU'RE THAT GUY?" he of course remembered which body from Rōzu's story, but his yelling did earn some unwanted attention.

"Yes?"

"Sorry they just, well, told me about most of that, but didn't mention you were that guy."

"Well, I can maybe see why this mother might not want me at a children's birthday party then. Assuming this Kushina is also aware of that story."

"So that answers your question?"

"It does, I now just have many more questions."

"Well get in line bud, I'm sitting on a few hundred."

"Oh will you be confronting them about this? I was planning to about the party already and would be glad to accompany you."

Iruka had not planned to do that, given that A: She was very scary and B: Had made it quite clear she wouldn't be offering any explanations. Maybe with Itachi as back up though he could get something out of her.

"That would actually be very helpful."

"Alright, I'll find you later today" with that Itachi headed back to Sasuke and went on his way.

He didn't have any actual plan in case things didn't go as he wanted them to, so he tried to form one. It was hard doing so with Mizuki explaining the intricacies of being bros instead of helping him get their classroom cleaned up. Finally he was in his home and alone, clear of distractions and able to think. This lasted for one minute before someone started knocking on his door.

"Can I help you?" he angrily opened it assuming it'd be Mizuki.

"I dunno?" Naruto stepped back defensively.

"Naruto? Why are you here?"

"Well first of all, can I trust you not to narc on me?"

"Uh, depends?"

"I made a clone and snuck over here."

"Oh that's great news that you've got the clone technique down!"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Another dead clone?"

"Yes, but, it distracted my mom long enough for me to sneak out so it worked! I want that on the record that it did work!"

"Ok fine, but why exactly did you do that?"

"Is something going on with my mom?" Naruto sounded a little afraid when asking that.

"What? No of course not" Iruka didn't want to concern him with all of the very weird things that were most certainly going on with his mom.

"They're being really weird though! Like they're leaving or something! All the baking and doting and saying things like "It's alright, mom's here and isn't going away ever again," these are not normal things!"

"Oh those uh" he didn't have a good lie on hand for that. "Are just, uh, normal mom things?"

"You know don't you!" Naruto was not taking this lack of help well. "Whatever's going on you know and you aren't telling me!"

"Naruto there's nothing going on I promise!" he really hoped all the lies that people told Naruto wouldn't cause him to have a ton of trust issues down the line. "I'm sure Rōzu is just uh, hitting their motherhood stride?"

"What does that mean!"

"Uh" Iruka was hoping someone would interrupt this conversation and bail him out.

"There you are!" 'Rōzu' rounded a corner and approached them, and he cursed internally. "You had me very worried with that little bait and switch!"

"Stay away from me!" Naruto dashed behind Iruka. "You're not my mom! I don't care what everyone is saying!"

"Oh don't be silly! I'm sure whatever far fetched story Iruka told you is just one of his many funny little conspiracies about me."

"All I've told him is that you're his very normal mother" Iruka tried to segway this into a question. "But why don't you share a fun little conspiracy, you know to lighten the mood."

"Hm let's see" she tapped a finger to her chin. "Maybe something about me being from the moon, and I've come here to steal the nicest little children away."

"Ok just because I had put something like that on the board means nothing."

"Nothing good for sure" she waved Naruto over to her. "Now come on, dinner is gonna get cold if we don't hurry back."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Naruto held onto the back of Iruka's pant leg. "I want to know where my real mom is!"

"Naruto my sweet son" she crouched down to be eye level with him. "I am your real mother, and Rōzu did a wonderful job taking care of you while I was away. I'm back now and am so grateful for their help in getting me here with you."

As he felt Naruto's grip tighten, Iruka couldn't help but pity Kushina. She'd somehow come back from the dead and her son was rejecting her. Even if everything going on right now was insane to him, he could at least let her spend time with him. He put a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"You were right before, I do know what happened" he ignored the look she threw at him. "This isn't Rōzu, but you apparently already knew that Naruto. This is Kushina, she's your birth mother. I'm not sure how she's here, but her and Rōzu worked it out together. I hope it doesn't ruin the surprise if you hear about this now. Rōzu wanted to give you a chance to spend time with her for your birthday."

Naruto looked back at her, his grip loosening. Kushina smiled at him, a tear welling in her eye. Seeming them together, Iruka knew it might not have been right to lie again, but it felt right. She gave him one last glance as Naruto took her hand and they left. He was alone again, and felt conflicted about everything. He wasn't sure when the next knock at his door came, but it felt like forever.

"Come in" he waved Itachi inside and closed the door again.

"I tried to search the Uchiha archives for anything related to ghosts" Itachi had a small book with him. "It's all very old material and none of it mentions possessions."

"I don't think ghost is quite right" Iruka remembered what Jiraya had initially said. "At first we thought it was the nine-tails attempting to influence them."

"We?"

"Oh right, I had gone to Jiraya about this when their hair turned red. He has since fled so I haven't really been able to figure out too much more about that."

"That actually might still be correct" Itachi produced some additional papers. "I looked into a Kushina Uzumaki, most of her records were kept hidden. It turns out she was the former jinchuriki of the nine-tails."

"Wait what?" Iruka took the papers to look over. "How did you get these?"

"Being in ANBU has some perks to balance out all of the trauma."

There were a few photos with her files, he didn't recognize her of course, but it helped having a face to the name. It was as Itachi said, apparently the jinchuriki before her was also an Uzumaki. This raised more, unrelated, questions that he put on the back burner.

"So you think her containing the nine-tails may be related to this ghost stuff?"

"I'm no expert, so this is all sort of speculation, but perhaps a piece of her stayed with the nine-tails after it was resealed? If what happened to Rōzu is because of its influence then perhaps that piece managed to use that to affect them."

"I, well, that makes more sense than ghosts being real I guess?" Iruka really didn't have a working theory, and this was based on some facts.

"For the record, I really don't want ghosts to be real."

"Uh, ok that is on the record?" Iruka forgot Itachi was probably still young enough to have fears like that.

"Where do we go from here? Stakeout?"

"Doing a stakeout ended very badly last time so we should put it at the bottom of the list.."

"Do you have any other options then?"

"Maybe we just have to wait it out?"

"And hope she comes to us to explain what's going on? Most ninja aren't exactly known for doing that."

Iruka wasn't too sure how to convey his sudden empathy towards Kushina. Maybe there was more to it than some nefarious body stealing plot like he'd initially assumed. They'd need to get more information somehow, but he couldn't think of a good way to do so. There likely wasn't any evidence they could snoop through, unless she was keeping a ghost diary for some reason.

"We could just try and ask her I guess?" she'd told him before that questions were a no go, but he'd managed to worm answers out of Rōzu so how tough could she be to crack. "Unless you've got like, some weird mind control stuff you can do."

"I'd rather not resort to that."

"Now, are you making a weird joke or can you actually do that?"

"I know someone who can, but I think that should be a last resort thing."

"Right" Iruka put it as the second option on the list. "Politely ask is our go then."

"I'd like to put stakeout above mind control."

"Fine" he made a new list on the back of the page to reorder the options.

"Thank you."

"If we get there in about twenty minutes I think Naruto will be asleep, or at least in bed."

"Alright."

"So" he now realized he'd have to wait around with Itachi for another twenty minutes and needed to talk about something. "What's the strangest themed restaurant you've been to?"

"..." Itachi just stared at him in silence for a few moments, making Iruka fear he'd just offended the young prodigy. "A Cod themed noodle shop."

"Did they sell noodles with cod?"

"No."

"Why did you go there exactly?"

"I like cod, it has a nice texture. The experience was very disappointing."

Unsure of what else to say, Iruka asked more questions from that book. He'd only read it once and only when he was very drunk, so he wasn't sure if he was getting them right. To his great surprise, Itachi just kept answering the questions.

"Do you have a name for all of the crows you feed?"

"Of course."

"Do you want to share all of them?"

"I think we don't have enough time for me to share all of the names, should we get going?"

Iruka checked a clock, it was now five minutes passed when he'd planned to get there. He rushed up to the door since it was his own fault they'd run over like this. Flinging it open he barely managed to stop himself from barreling into the person there.

"Holy fuck" Kushina jumped back, starteld by him suddenly flinging the door open. "What are you psychic?"

"Uh" Iruka wasn't sure why she was here. "If anyone asks, Yes. Also, can I help you?"

"I came here to try and pay back your help from before, if you're headed somewhere else though I can find you tomorrow?"

"Oh no actually" he gestured to Itachi. "We were actually about to go find you to ask questions."

"Perfect then" she walked past the two of them and sat down inside. "Per your standard rate with Rōzu you get three questions."

"Uh, cool cool" Iruka closed the door and sat back down, Itachi chose to just stand behind him.

"Can I have the first question?" he said this specifically to Iruka.

"Yeah go for it" Iruka didn't have one ready just yet.

"Was I not invited to the party because I helped hide that one body?"

"Not really? You just seemed like you wouldn't really enjoy a seven year olds birthday party if I'm honest."

"That is fair, for the record, I would."

"Alright I can get you an invite I guess, uh, any non-party questions?"

"None from me."

"I've got two I guess" he probably should've expected that to be Itachi's question given their morning talk. "How did Rōzu become you?"

"Yeah I figured you'd ask something like that, get comfy it's a long answer" she leaned back in the chair. "As an Uzumaki I've got some pretty special chakra, and thanks to that I am, was, a very good jinchuriki. Unfortunately, a masked asshole ripped the nine-tails out of me when I gave birth."

She paused briefly after saying that. Iruka wasn't sure if she wanted them to ask who that was or would just say it. He decided to just wait and see.

"Damn wanted to try and get the two for one" after a full minute of silence Kushina continued. "Him ripping it out of me apparently took some of my chakra with it, that and the chakra me and Minato put into the seal managed to link up. With that link up I was able to manipulate the foxes chakra again, and basically just kept trying to hop into another body. Your friend just so happened to be the only one who was too weak to reject my chakra and in contact with Naruto enough I could do it."

"Wait, how many people did you try this on?"

"Who's to say?"

"DID YOU TRY AND STEAL MY BODY?"

"Uh…" she scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Only once or twice."

"That doesn't count as the third question, because you tried to steal MY BODY."

"Fine, one more."

"Can we get you out of their body?"

"I mean, who's to say? Ya know?"

"That's a yes and you just don't want to give back the STOLEN BODY so you're deflecting."

"THEY STOLE MY SON IT'S ONLY FAIR!"

"THAT IS NOT HOW ADOPTION WORKS! YOU DIED!"

"I KNOW I DIED YOU DON'T HAVE TO REMIND ME YA KNOW!"

"Fine, I'm sorry that was rude I can admit" Iruka didn't want to think about if the tables were turned and someone reminded him that he had died. "But like, you have to see how messed up what you're doing is right?"

"They said it was fine."

"I find it very hard to believe that when asked "Hey can I have your body forever?" they said that was fine."

"Ok yeah I tricked them, but they were fine with helping me reunite with Naruto which is what is now happening. Therefore, they were fine with it."

"NO, THAT IS NOT HOW THAT WORKS!" Iruka could not believe he was arguing with a ghost about stealing people's bodies being bad. "GET OUT OF THEIR BODY!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"If it's all the same to you both, I'll be leaving" Itachi had clearly had his full of this conversation. "Iruka, please find me later."

"What why?"

"For reasons."

"I'd like to know these reasons" Kushina clearly didn't trust his tone.

"And I would like it if you'd return Rōzu their body."

"I'm annoyed, but you've got me there."

"I would also still like an invite to the party."

"Will you tell me the reasons if I give you one?"

"No."

"Then tough."

"Then don't come to me if you need a body hidden."

"I won't! I'll just take care of it myself!"

"Fine" Itachi left on that.

"For the record I think you two won't work out" Kushia headed for the door as well. "But that's just my two cents. As someone who was in a very successful marriage."

"GET OUT!" Iruka shoved her out the door. "AND FOR THE RECORD NO THAT IS NOT WHY. AND ALSO I DON'T CARE!"

"SURE YOU DON'T BUDDY" she yelled this so he could hear through the door.

Iruka was getting very fed up with people accusing him of having feelings! Mizuki was bad enough, but if one more person brought it up he'd lose his entire mind. Especially if it was another ghost inhabiting the person people were accusing him of having feelings for.