Naruto wouldn't look at me. "It's my fault, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"Everything."

"No, Naruto, there's no way for everything to be your fault."

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't. Spell it out for me."

"My parents are dead because of me!"

"False."

"Everyone hates you because of me!"

"False again."

"Everything bad that's happened since I was born is because of me!"

"False again! Zero for three, Naruto, are you trying to see how far off-target you can get?"

"This isn't funny."

"I'm not laughing. Tell me, how could any of this be your fault?"

"If I wasn't born, no one could have gotten the Sanbi out of Ka-chan."

"Did you have a choice on whether or not you were born?"

"No, but—"

"If you didn't have a choice, then it can't be your fault. Yes, some bad things happened the day you were born. A lot of bad things happened that day. You were barely bigger than my hand at the time, you hadn't even opened your eyes yet. Okay? None of that was your fault."

"Then why did you take me with you when you left?"

"Because you were the last scrap of my sister, the last scrap of the only man I would have willingly given my soul for, and within the first week, you earned your own place."

"Why did To-chan and Ka-chan seal the Sanbi inside of me?"

"Because they trusted you. They knew you wouldn't abuse your power, they knew you would help people as well as you could with it, that you would carry on their legacy."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You know that I'm a Jinchuuriki too, right?"

After a few seconds, Naruto nodded.

"I've been a Jinchuuriki since I was a few years older than you are now. I was lucky. Most of the village had no reason to fear the Kyuubi, and once the news got out, I had already established myself as a medic, someone who saved lives. That kept up a good buffer between me and those who feared or hated what I am. Once I joined the black ops, that buffer gradually faded. It's not easy, Naruto. I didn't want you to feel that burden before you had to."

"You said you're staying here because of me, but I don't want to stay here. I like Naomi-nee, why couldn't we go with her?"

I sighed. "Naruto, I've been a medic for more than twenty years. I've taken care of a lot of children in my time. I know what's good for them and what isn't. Naomi and I may be fine travelling around alone, but I know you, Naruto. That kind of life would make you restless, you'd take risks to relieve the boredom. The disguise we used won't work again, you're too old, the Sandaime has already figured out the trick."

"I think that's dumb. I looked you up in the library, Ji-chan."

"Naruto—"

"I had Naomi-nee read the book to me. It said you held off two armies and three Bijū by yourself at the beginning of the last war."

I chuckled hollowly. "Don't believe everything you read."

"No, I asked a bunch of other shinobi too. They said it was true, they said you did more than the book said too. They said you died for the Sandaime."

"Naruto—"

"What happened? Why aren't you that strong anymore?"

"That day, a lot of things went wrong. You don't know what it's like to kill someone, and I hope you never know. I held off the Bijū because I had no other choice. It was hold them off and die or lose the village. The armies were caught in the crossfire. After that battle was over, I was as good as dead with all the fighting around me, I couldn't even get myself off the battlefield. I thought I was going to die there and I wanted my death to mean something, so I jumped in the way of an attack at the Sandaime's back. Hell, the effort it took to move was probably what actually would have killed me."

Naruto stared up at me, eyes wide. "You're still loyal to Konoha, aren't you?"

"I suppose I still am, in a way."

"Why don't you make things go your way? You're strong enough!"

I snorted. "Your parents always got frustrated with me for the same thing. They were bullheaded enough that whacking the problem until it fixed itself always seemed to work for them, both of them, though Minato was a bit pickier about how the problem worked itself out. In contrast, I don't like doing that, and I don't like forcing people to see things my way."

Naruto took a step towards me and held his arms up. I picked him up and he clung to my front like a little monkey. "I'm scared, Ji-chan."

"What are you scared of?"

"I'm scared they'll hurt me to get to you because I'm not strong like you!"

"Why would they do something like that?"

"Because they hurt you and hurt you and you never seem to care. Sure, you get angry sometimes, but then you act like everything goes back to normal! And after Suna, nothing could go back to normal because I was hurt and—and—"

"I'm not going to let them hurt you, Naruto, I swear."

"I know, but Ji-chan, you're not perfect."

"Is that why you tried to run away? Because you were scared I couldn't protect you?"

"I didn't want you to have to protect me."

I didn't respond to that, I just hugged him back tightly. "When you're good enough to be a Jōnin, you can go wherever you want, whenever. Until then, please let me know when you decide to take off, okay?"

"Do we have to go back?"

"Yes, we do. I'm sorry, Naruto, but we have to go back." I rubbed his back as his arms and legs tightened around my neck and torso. Once Naruto was settled, I headed back to Uzu.

(-_-)

My father waited on the beach, leaning against a tree. Clouds began to block out the sunlight. "How far out did he make it?"

"Almost twenty kilometers."

"Impressive."

"What do you want?"

"Just making sure you two are okay. You scared us."

"We're fine."

He put his hand on the side of my head. "I know it's hard, son, but I hope someday you can learn to trust us. You're not as alone as you feel."

"No, maybe not, but trust has to go both ways."

(-_-)

Several weeks passed with little to break up the monotony. Four houses stood alongside the pseudo-warehouse the clan erected the first night. I trained with Naruto every morning. He was a natural shinobi. Fūinjutsu and studying were beyond him, but he could strategize as well as most Genin and he was on-par with the other trainees in raw ability. He was decent at Ninjutsu, but his chakra control was nowhere near where it needed to be. His excessive chakra reserves spurred him into abusing the kawarimi. I wasn't sure what he did, but he managed to replace the smoke from the kawarimi with a burst of light, tricking Natsuki into thinking I taught him Hiraishin. It was a headache and a half until I figured out what he had done and explained through fits of laughter. Naruto looked far more pleased with himself than I had ever seen him as he watched me explain.

In the afternoons, I trained with Ryuunosuke, mostly in strength and conditioning. Even though it had been years since he was rescued from Iwa, he was still recovering his strength and was encountering problems similar to mine, although he was far more determined to overcome them.

After dinner, I alternated between being forced to re-learn how to read kanji, practicing Fūinjutsu, and working on Itachi, who wasn't taking the lack of training and minimal activity very well. In one of the houses, the clan library had been set up. Itachi spent most of his time there, tearing through the clan history. He was nearly done reading through the clan history and fiction collection, the only part of the library we allowed him to peruse. I'd treated more than one burned, shocked, crushed, cut, frozen, numb, and misbehaving hand of his when he stubbornly tried for scrolls that contained clan techniques and secrets. I was marginally closer to figuring out the problem and had begun working on potential treatments. Tamaki helped where he could, but even though he was one of the best medics in the world, he could barely understand when I explained what I knew and ended up more of a wall I threw ideas at to watch them bounce back, hopefully intact after being spoken aloud. When he was busy, Kaede volunteered, understanding next to nothing.

To no one's surprise, Itachi didn't take well to being talked about in medic terms, but instead of getting frustrated, he surprised everyone by beginning training as a medic, at least, the theoretical portion since I wasn't allowing him to use chakra. He was a quick study, but at the level I was talking, it would take him a few years to decipher the half-English medic talk I coined, and Konoha doctors and medics gradually adopted over the years.

Naomi made contact at the end of the first month. I was glad to hear from her, but her methods left a lot to be desired. Since we hadn't yet built a system of running water, mostly because it was too cold and the ground too hard to dig a new well, the 'toilet' was a hole dug in a small grove of trees. I had just crouched to take a shit when Naomi appeared directly behind me, literally catching me with my pants down.

Of course, she thought it was hilarious and laughed at me as I jerked my pants up, profanity pouring from my mouth. When I settled down and she stopped laughing, she started to fill me in on what she'd done while I was gone. She hadn't been idle, appointing herself as a sentry on the mainland. No one ever saw her, but the usual pirates were beginning to dwindle their attacks on villagers and highwaymen and bandits were fewer and further between. She wasn't covering an exceptionally large area, but it was impressive. She'd stopped by so soon to see if we had any sealing supplies she could use to hide her base more permanently. We were actually running pretty low on sealing supplies. I gave her the information she needed to take some before she left.

A week later, our sealing supplies had been refilled and several rather interesting texts left in the library. Itachi was frustrated that I ended up in the library that morning, by sheer dumb luck, beating him to the new material, which was quickly banned from him. Later that day, there was a minor panic over a security breach when one of the civilians went to get some supplies and found everything restocked.

It took me almost an hour to convince them it was from Naomi, and not an enemy shinobi.

At the end of the second month, the entire Uchiha clan arrived on the shore. I wasn't sure if it was planned or not, but I was in the middle of a Taijutsu spar with Ryuunosuke, and the distraction nearly got me killed. My head turned towards the opposite side of the island, consequently putting the wicked left hook he sent towards me in my blind spot. It hit the back of my head, Ryuunosuke barely managing to lighten it, and instantly knocked me out cold.

I came to with Natsuki and Naomi kneeling on either side of me.

"What happened?" I groaned, unnerved by the swarm of over two hundred Uchiha signatures in the immediate area.

"Someone got distracted and let his guard down," Natsuki teased, putting a hand on my chest to stop me from sitting up.

"No, it's not about me, the Uchiha, why are they here?"

"They're moving here," Naomi supplied.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"The Uchiha left Konoha and are moving to Uzu."

"What happened? Why?"

"They got sick of the Sandaime and his council undoing yours and Minato's work. They got a taste of what life could be like in the village and then it was taken away from them. It was leave or revolt, and since several of the Uchiha ANBU were loyal to the village, they lost any leverage they could have had, so they left, just like us."

I froze, trying to process all the implications. It was probably panic speaking as I jumped up, trying to shake the two of them off. "Are you insane‽ The defection of the Uchiha clan will tear Konoha apart! They'll be at war within a month!" Both girls grabbed one of my arms and restrained me.

"Calm down, what's done is done."

"How the hell can you say something like that? The Uchiha make up half of Konoha's strongest ninja!"

"Not anymore."

"What?"

"Half of their clan was destroyed during The Attack."

"It doesn't matter, the reputation alone—"

"Konoha betrayed us all!" Naomi interrupted. "She turned against me, she turned against you, and she turned against this clan." Her voice was deadly calm. "They isolated the Uchiha and had plans to massacre the clan if they stepped out of line, just like they had plans to massacre us. They planned to make Itachi carry out the massacre!"

"That's the Sandaime's failing, the council's greed, not the village! There are thousands, tens of thousands of civilians who have done nothing—"

"The civilians perpetuated the antagonism against us all! The Konoha you believe in is gone! It died with Minato! It's better off just rotting where it stands, there's no reason to bring us and the Uchiha down with it!" Naomi screeched.

"Konoha is my home!" I bellowed back.

"Enough! Both of you!" Natsuki interrupted. "Kichiro, the decision has been made, there's no backing out now. Naomi, you were given explicit instructions not to tell him what happened!"

Suddenly, Natsuki's cool hand was around the back of both mine and Naomi's neck. I gathered chakra to counter the knockout burst of chakra I assumed she would attempt, and Naomi did the same. Too late, I realize it was a topical knockout agent, and my arm had already been smeared with the stuff. I tried to counter it, but a double dose had already made it into my bloodstream, just enough to keep me unconscious for a few hours. Natsuki had never been one for poisons. Unfortunately, when the dose started to wear off, it would leave me extremely complacent and weak for a few hours. That would give them plenty of time to explain the situation and manipulate me into compliance. Natsuki backed off as I jerked away and staggered to my feet.

"How dare you—" I slurred, medic Ninjutsu already trying to counter it. I knew I wasn't fast enough, but if I could speed up its half-life then—

I quickly scrapped that plan and ratcheted up my adrenaline levels. I knew immediately it wasn't going to work, so I collapsed while I still had control, ramming a senbon into the back of my upper thigh, all the way in so no one would notice. The tip hit bone as Natsuki caught my head and shoulders. It was an extremely crude version of an ANBU procedure to smear ink, blood, or soot in a pattern somewhere the operative would notice to tell themselves they weren't in their right minds. Hopefully, no one would notice, not that Natsuki was familiar with ANBU secrecy procedures anyways. Unless they did a thorough search, they wouldn't find the senbon and it would be a very painful reminder for me to ignore everything they said and refuse to cooperate.

I fell unconscious, feeling betrayed.

(-_-)

The explanations went about how I planned. I sat, propped against the wall, my eyes closed, responding scathingly and dully contradicting everything that was said. It took less than ten minutes for my father to give up since I was very obviously onto the scheme. After a few minutes, he sent Tamaki in to ease the effects of the drug. When it was gone, Ryuunosuke took a knee in front of me. I glared at him.

"How did you know something was up?" He demanded.

I smirked and pulled out the senbon from my leg and showed it to him. He frowned.

"Once the drug entered your system you wouldn't have remembered what it meant."

"Didn't have to know the details, just that I was being manipulated. Normally, blood, soot, or ink on the back of my hand or top of my foot would have sufficed, but it would be too obvious, so I decided on the cruder version."

"But you implant senbon under your skin all the time to reinforce bone or produce a surprise weapon."

"I always put them parallel to the bone, not perpendicular, and then only when I'm anticipating a massive battle."

"You're unbelievable." He rolled the senbon between his fingers, blood smeared across his hand. "Are you willing to hear me out now?"

"Not particularly, but I will anyways, so long as you will return the favor."

He sighed than knelt opposite me. "Deal. I want to speak without interruption, then you can argue and present your case."

I hesitated then nodded.

"The problems between the Uchiha and the village have existed ever since Madara and Hashirama fought at the Valley of the End. Most of the problems can be connected to the Military Police and the fact that the Uchiha didn't just monopolize the law enforcement of the village, they were the law enforcement. People blamed them, resented them, and isolated them because of it. The Uchiha were accustomed to it, so the situation neither worsened nor improved. Then, Minato comes along, Kushina beside him, and they use their influence as up-and-coming future Jōnin to publicly befriend the clan, pulling them out of the last of their defensive shells from the Warring States Era. They branch out of their compounds, and by the time the third war rolls around, they're a real part of the village, heroes even, once the news of their accomplishments start to spread. They were a pillar of the village.

"It was all upwards momentum from there. When you coined policies that treated them fairly and made an example of anyone who treated someone unjustly, which spread through the hospital and village, only pulled them closer to the village as equals. Then Minato became Hokage, threw open the Military Police to all who made the cut, pushing even more Uchiha out into the field.

"Then The Attack came. The Uchiha were hit the hardest out of anyone. Less than half their children and teenagers survived—it was some adverse reaction to the Sanbi's genjutsu. Those children made up twenty percent of their clan. They lost a quarter of their shinobi. Of all the clans, the Uchiha suffered the most, but because of some rumors about several Uchiha being behind the tragedy, the whole clan was blamed while they tried to bury their children and their defenders. They were forced back into their compound, restricted to Police duties and so on. They had the shortest stick and worst lot shoved down their throats, right after their golden age.

"Itachi-kun and a teenager by the name of Shisui, Kagami's grandson, joined ANBU, and were originally loyal to the village above all, however, most of the clan were of a different mind. They were planning a demonstration, they were going to refuse to police the village and stand outside the Hokage tower until the Sandaime did something about the situation, until he brought back Minato's changes. It wasn't a secret, but the council interpreted it as a threat. They thought the Uchiha were planning a coup d'état. Itachi-kun and the Shisui boy were summoned to the Hokage's office where they were given orders to stop the demonstration, which in their mind was a coup, at all costs. The two boys were given a plan, orders really, to carry out, orders that told them to murder every single man, woman, and child in their clan. No one knew what the village told the boys until one of the council members, Danzō, assaulted Shisui and tore out one of his eyes. The boy attempted suicide shortly after and it was dumb luck that Fugaku went looking for them and arrived in time to stop him.

"Itachi explained what happened and the Uchiha left Konoha a week later. They've been travelling here for the past two months, and Fugaku came ahead to persuade us to allow them to settle here. The Uchiha are too far removed from the Warring States Era to remember how to govern themselves and they need somewhere safe to figure it out."

I stared at the ceiling, frowning. "They had to fight their way out of the village, didn't they?"

"Yes, they lost most of their possessions in the skirmish, but no one died on either side. Ideally, a shinobi can put aside their emotions, but killing comrades, comrades who were fleeing for their lives, that was not something the Sandaime could order if he wanted any of the ninja to remain in the village."

"What about Kagami? Did he leave with his clan?"

"He distracted the Sandaime long enough for the clan to escape." Kagami's chakra conveniently appeared outside of the door. "I'm fairly certain they fought, but he's here now. Odd that you should mention him he—"

"Wants to talk to me, I know. He's standing outside the door and listening in."

Ryuunosuke flinched and Kagami respectfully pulled back and stopped eavesdropping, though he still waited outside.

"You should talk to him."

"I can't. I don't want to see him ever again."

"Kichiro—"

"He made me relive my entire life! He made everything I've ever felt come back to me at once! It's because of him I'm the unstable mess that I am, and—"

"He obeyed orders!"

"Screw orders! I've spent most of my career regularly disregarding orders. At the time, the only person who could tell Kagami what to do was the Sandaime, and I know those orders were given in secret, so damn it if that's no excuse!"

"He could help you."

"Help me?" I scoffed. "That man betrayed me. He didn't even give me a chance to explain myself."

"You—"

I interrupted him by standing up. "I admit the Uchiha were probably right. They left to avoid weakening the Leaf with pointless loss of life. You said there was a skirmish, which implies injuries, and there aren't any medics in the Uchiha clan. I'll make myself useful. Excuse me." I sped through the Hiraishin seals and flashed to one of the seals on the shoreline. I had made it my personal project to seed the island and the ocean floor with seals, until the water was too deep for me to safely handle the instant change in pressure.

The flash of light drew the eye of everyone in the vicinity. A Jōnin waved me down from the tree and immediately directed me to an elderly kunoichi weak from the trip.

I helped her to the site where the Uchiha were setting up tents and organizing a campsite. An awe-struck preteen girl walked on the elderly woman's other side. I made sure the woman was okay, easing the arthritis pain exacerbated by the cold while she scolded me for something while the preteen blushed. I ignored her and hurried off to help someone else.

It was almost midnight when the entire Uchiha clan finally finished setting up camp and began to settle down for the night. Since sunset, I knelt in the center of their camp patiently attending to the poorly-dressed wounds, some of which were festering. Among the ninja were a few civilians with sprains and several children on the verge of sickness. At one point, Kagami knelt in front of me, but I treated him no differently from the others. When the line ended, I used Hiraishin to escape Kagami's eye, much to his frustration. By the time I made it back to the Uzumaki section of the island, Naomi had left.

Author's note: So...t's been more than four years since I first posted this. Four years. And about seven years since I first started reading fanfiction. Wow.