DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, Naruto speaking to Kurama, etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

"So who was this person that kissed Naruto-chan?" Iruka asked his gossipy student, whom he had just walked in on after escorting Tenzo-san out of the building. Konohamaru and his little friends had just been dropped back to class by Naruto's sensei, and if Iruka found out that this information was true, he was going on the warpath!

Naruto was a beautiful but innocent little thing that wore her heart on her sleeve! Having tutored her nearly daily over the last several years, he missed the girl but hoped that she wasn't getting herself into any trouble now that she was a Genin. ESPECIALLY not the kind that involved boys.

"I dunno," Konohamaru said, turning back toward Udon to most likely talk the boy into doing something dangerous or obnoxious. "I forgot his name."

Iruka cleared his throat - twice - before he had Konohamaru's attention again. He'd also had to whomp him with the eraser he was holding. "HEY!" the kid had the nerve to complain.

"Konohamaru," Iruka said sweetly, (although Konohamaru thought he looked like a psycho,) "what did this person who supposedly kissed Naruto-chan look like?"

"Who knows! That old geezer's been following her around for a while… He wears a mask and even has an eye covered." As mad as he was about the whole kissing thing, he also thought it was hilarious that Boss had probably lost her first kiss to a super old guy who was wearing a mask. Moegi said that since the guy was wearing a mask, the kiss didn't count, but Konohamaru couldn't be sure of that. It seemed to be an awful lot like pressure-y and lovey-dovey kissing to him, even though it was weird that the old guy bent his nee-chan backward like in the TV shows his Uncle Asuma secretly likes to watch.

Everyone knew that real people didn't kiss like that!

He flicked an origami crane out the window, scoring 10 points for accuracy before he looked back at his sensei, who started putting out what his gramps called "Killing Intent," he was pretty sure, and making him feel sick! "What?! What did I do?" he asked, trembling.

"Nothing," Iruka said as he smiled and patted Konohamaru's head. All of the pressure was gone and Kono felt that he could breathe again. "I'll be back," he told his student before Iruka went out to find a teaching assistant or substitute. He was going out to hunt a perverted Copy Nin that was hot for young girls!

Kabuto wondered how long Orochimaru-sama would leave him in this dump.

He had been mind-walked - something that was almost completely unsuccessful - and now T&I was using soft interrogation to get him to spill his secrets. He had been ready and preferred to be tortured: Orochimaru-sama trained his operatives well in how to successfully survive such methods, and he was getting irritated with Ibiki-san's questioning.

He could care less that he might once have been a Konoha resident that went by a different name as a baby if that was true. He remembered the woman he would always call Mother; even after what happened, she and Orochimaru-sama would always have his loyalty, even if that woman didn't remember him in the end.

Kabuto forced tears to flow freely down his face as he thought of the woman, taking off his glasses to make the tears all the more apparent. "I assure you, Ibiki-sama," he said reluctantly - Ibiki didn't truly deserve his respect the way that Orochimaru-sama did - "I am a loyal Genin of Konoha. I don't fully... understand exactly what you've found," he continued while using his Torture-center provided-shirt to clean his glasses, as he pretended to tremble, "or where you think these things happened to me." He sighed brokenly before speaking again since Ibiki wasn't saying anything. "May I ask what you believe happened to me? ...What is to come of me?"

Ibiki internally groaned and sat back in his chair. He didn't believe any of the shit that was coming out of the traitor's mouth, but he'd give him this: the younger man was putting on a good show. A good spy was always fun to figure out and interrogate, even if it could be time-consuming. He'd figure the kid out. No matter what he told him, Ibiki knew for a fact that he wasn't loyal to the Leaf.

The brat's eyes had twinkled when he had mentioned Orochimaru. Gross, Ibiki thought, just what is their relationship anyway? And just what exactly is Orochimaru doing to kids nowadays?

Yoshino was very glad that Jiraiya-sama stopped by on his way out of the village with her daughter. She hadn't spent very much time with Naru-chan since shortly after she moved out, and she had missed the girl very much. Sitting tea and a ridiculous amount of cookies down at the kitchen table after Jiraiya-sama was settled in Shikaku's home office, the Nara matriarch sat down to get all of the latest gossip from the girl herself. "So how are you, Naru-chan?"

The little blonde was already digging into her cookies. "I'm okay. There's been some weird stuff going on."

"Alright," Yoshino began worriedly. The Naru she knew was usually bursting with information, or secretly planning gods only knew what with Shikamaru.

"I... well, you know that we got attacked in the exam?" Naruto asked in a whisper.

"I do, my darling," Yoshino said, reaching for Naruto's tan hands. Naruto only held her own in return for a few seconds, then stuck another cookie in her mouth.

She was so cute.

"I'm afraid something big's going to happen, so a while back I started putting what I thought were barrier seals on everything. Beginning with the compound, you know? Well... Ero-sennin told me that they're NOT really barrier seals. I've put them all over the village - or my clones did - and they're more like reinforcement seals. And now I have to leave." Naruto took a sip of her tea, looking miserable.

"Well, I'm glad you reinforced what you did! No one else was thinking of that."

Naruto was glad that Yoshino didn't go off on her or even question her about making seals. Kakashi, and later Shikaku, warned her that many people wouldn't like that a jinchuuriki had such a skill set. But as far as she's concerned, they could fuck the hell right off! Sealing was her family's birthright and art, goddammit!

"You want to finally tell me why you attacked Danzo?"

Naruto sighed as she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms under her chest. "Danzo's a bastard..."

"Language, Naruto-chan."

"...And an eyeball stealing freak." She noticed the calculating way that Yoshino was looking at her and appreciated that she wasn't just being dismissed like she felt the facts had been with her father and grandfather figures. Shikaku usually just stared at her like she'd said the sky had switched with the ground and went back to doing whatever he was doing before. The Hokage had flat-out silenced her for speaking badly of his rival, she supposed.

"The Kyuubi can sense these things. He hates the Sharingan, and Danzo has a powerful one, or maybe several... I don't know," she said, lying about the last part. Naruto knew damn well that the bastard had who-knows-how-many of the eyes implanted in that arm of his. "Umm, don't do anything to him, alright? He might be a gross-looking dude who has to use a cane, but that doesn't mean he's not powerful... Plus he's always got all his drones around him."

Yoshino wondered if Hiashi or Hizashi would be able to see the Sharingan Danzo supposedly had that Naru always worried about. She wasn't going to tell her daughter that she planned to investigate, however. "No worries, Naru-chan."

"Good," Naruto said as she took another cookie. They were delicious. "Umm... what's been going on with you?"

"Tsk! I've just been chasing Shikaku and Shikamaru around, trying to get them to behave themselves. Even though I'm acting as Clan Head now, Shikaku doesn't allow me to do the work of a Clan Head! He's still taking on everything all by himself!"

"You do lots for the clan! And I would think you'd be happy that he wasn't being lazy."

"Oh he's still plenty lazy," Yoshino said as she brushed back some errant hair strands. "There's so much paperwork Head duties require, and you'd think he'd do enough of it as Jonin Commander. There's no reason I can't do it!"

And so went the conversation. Naruto advised Yoshino to sneak behind her husband's back if she had to, in order to help him before their little chat turned to new babies that had been born into the three allied clans. And speaking of new mothers, Naruto couldn't help the bitterness that bubbled up within her.

"I met my Mom," again went unsaid as Naruto began the story of what happened quietly as she stared into her tea. "I... had wanted to talk to her about marriage and the... tadpoles I'm expected to have and all of that 'ttebayo. But no," Naruto said, shaking her head, "she just appeared in my mindscape - a chakra construct, ya know - right in the middle of a battle and... pulled out chains," she continued miserably. "She may have said hello: it all happened so fast - I don't even know - and I just don't get it! I can't make them on my own: I don't know why she would hurt me like that."

Yoshino sipped her tea and looked at her daughter after almost choking, wishing for the thousandth time that all these heavy burdens hadn't been put upon her. Even while Kushina had been pregnant, she and Minato-sama were expecting such big things from their child. It wasn't fair! And a jealous little part of her, she knew, wished that Naru-chan had been hers all along. "What do you mean 'hurt' you, Naru-chan?"

Naruto shrugged miserably and bit her lip. "She reached into my chest," she replied, placing her palms over where the chains had come out, "in my mindscape, anyway, but also not! Then SPRRRRING," the blonde sang out as she moved her hands to indicate what looked like a shower coming from her chest. "There they were. Kakashi said they made a barrier, but my friend moved right through it! What kind of barrier is that? A suck-ola one, I can tell you that," she continued to rant.

"I can't imagine Kushina-chan ever wanting to hurt you," Yoshino said confidently as she patted Naru's hands before moving the cookies away from her. Honestly, even as a kunoichi, the girl ate so much she might blow up like a barn. Plus she needed something healthier! "I remember those famous barriers of hers." She considered the whole thing, feeling that little bit of anger boiling up within her again, which wasn't fair to either of the Namikazes. She supposed they did what they had to do in that terrible moment, but Yoshino knew that she could never sacrifice her child - no, her children - like that. "She must have done it to protect you, Naruto."

"I didn't even need protection right then! I was doing pretty well against the Kazekage..."

"Naruto," Yoshino shouted in a scolding tone. She had heard about it in one of those awful council meetings, and Shikaku had told her more about Naru-chan's attack on the Suna leader, which the girl should have known better than to do. Honestly! Putting a Kage through a wall: what am I going to do with you, Naru-chan? Naruto was still fuming as she talked, though, as if she had never been scolded.

"...who's a total douchebag, by the way," Naruto said, growing more aggravated and ignoring her mother figure's additional complaints about her language. "My friend, Gaara, came crashing into the beatdown party, but he would never hurt me. So what was her deal?! I was so out of it and even sick - sick: me!- after the whole chain thing... I coulda been killed by that sandy Kage bastard because I was so weak if it wasn't for Gaara," she finished, again somewhat ignoring the warnings about her language for now. Considering Yoshino had somehow pulled the Wooden Spoon of Discipline literally out of nowhere, she'd be more careful with the rest of their discussion.

Yoshino continued tapping the end of the spoon into her other hand as she sat back in her chair. "Feel better after talking about it?"

"Yes," Naruto pouted. She did not feel totally better and was still mad at her biological mother, which made her feel even worse. While in her gloominess, Yoshino had brought over some carrots, which she immediately took to munching on after dipping them in hot sauce. "Ero-sennin - I mean Jiraiya - said he doesn't know anything about the Adamantine chains. My mother, Kushina, I mean, started using them in Uzushio before she even moved here."

"Well, then," Yoshino began, taking a carrot for herself and pointing it at her daughter, "you might have to go to Uzushio to get the answers you want." She looked at the ceiling as she thought it over, not seeing Naruto's eyes shimmer with excitement, although that was to be expected. "I can ask around about it: talk to an old teammate of hers..." She needed to do that anyway, because if a Hyuuga could see that supposedly stolen eye of Danzo's, then they needed to get on this right away. Dojutsu theft by an Elder? Good Lord: the council and village would lose their minds. And God forbid the Hokage knew about it.

Honestly, for all of Hiruzen's power and prowess in battle, she thought he was a shitty Hokage, especially the more she went to the new Kunoichi Support Group meetings that Tsunade-hime had been holding. But she'd never say that, not even to Shikaku.

"So," Yoshino said with a twinkle in her eye that made Naruto pause and stop chewing, "you and Kakashi have consummated your marriage, ne? How is that going for you, Naru-chan? Does he take care of you in the bedroom?"

Naruto faltered and tried to get away from the chatty woman. Fortunately, Jiraiya came into the room, letting them know that they were going to be reverse-summoning to Mount Myoboku. They walked outside after saying a heartfelt goodbye first, and Naruto laughed at how her brother was staring up at the sky from under a pile of rocks. Uncle Ensui had obviously gotten under his guard and attacked him with an Earth jutsu.

Ensui was a quadruple threat! He was an expert in genjutsu, great at his clan's jutsu and general ninjutsu, and was no slouch in taijutsu, either. He was a great partner for Shikamaru to train with.

"Kick his ass, Uncle Ensui," Naruto chirped before laughing at Shikamaru, who dug his hand out of the ground to flip her off.

The last thing she heard before she was reverse-summoned was, of course, "Troublesome."

Kakashi found Tenzo with an exhausted Sai and another ROOT kid and nodded at them from behind his book. He dropped Icha-Icha Paradise down a bit and lifted an eyebrow at the trio while wondering what Sai was painting. "Is this..."

"Hai, senpai. Kakashi-taicho, meet 212." Tenzo leaned more toward his senpai, whispering close to his ear, "You look like crap." The Copy Nin looked like he hadn't slept and was physically tired.

Kakashi gave Tenzo a swift elbow to the side. From the way they both looked, Tenzo had obviously been training Sai, so who was he to talk?

"Taicho," the boy said shiftily. They were in a dense part of the forest just outside of Konoha, but one could never be too careful. "You may call me Tenzo."

"What did I tell you about that?" Tenzo said in exasperation.

"Hmm. You may call me Rajaiya?"

Kakashi approved. "Like the Icha-Icha character."

"Indeed, Hatake-taicho."

"Kakashi. 'Hatake' makes me feel old." He stared at the younger man - probably a teenager - for a while over the top of his book before snapping it shut and putting it back into his weapons pouch. "You are not old enough to be in charge."

Kakashi knew how ROOT worked: they pitted their soldiers against each other in a battle for survival during childhood, but even afterward, it's not like that changed much. Danzo was supposedly a believer that age brings wisdom despite this - probably why he refuses to do us all a favor and die, Kakashi thought - so he knew that many ROOT commanders had somehow reached 40-plus.

Staying away from the Kyuubi attack probably helped in that: the bastards, he thought.

The older ROOT members were the most dangerous in the organization, however. Their loyalty to Danzo was complete. He'd heard the oldest didn't have seals on their tongues but did have a kill switch implanted in their bodies, or a seal that would have the same effect: something that they agreed to carry.

"True, taicho," the now-named Rajaiya agreed. "Most of those who know and wish to follow the enlightened path are under 20," he began, nodding at Sai who was painting a detailed meeting of the men in front of him reverently as if it would one day hold historic significance. "Since Jiraiya-sama operates outside of the village, you are known to be the most well-known Icha-Icha disciple or prophet. You are Yondaime-sama's apprentice, powerful in your own right, a former member of the Foundation, you have bedded many women..."

"Maa, maa, Rajaiya-san! Say that in front of anyone else, especially my wife, and you'll die." Perhaps right after me, Kakashi thought. If anything, Rajaiya looked pleased for some reason. "Whether it's by my hand or hers, ne?"

The nondescript young man simply nodded. "You prove that a ROOT operative may find true fulfillment outside of shinobi duties."

"I've told you that's just for clan heads or heirs, 212," Tenzo said.

"Rajaiya" the other males chorused as they corrected the mokuton user. Tenzo sulked and was pulled away by his senpai.

"Why have I been hearing this crap about the clans, Tenzo?" Kakashi whispered as he looked at the two ROOT nins behind him. Sai was capturing his almost shimmering hair in the painting quite nicely.

"Danzo-sama has maintained that only those that are clan heads or heirs may procreate or attempt to do so. Even though Naruto-chan told Sai this is not the case, the belief was a foundation of... well, the Foundation."

"You believe that bullshit?" Kakashi asked, interrupting him. Tenzo paled dramatically, letting him know that he was spot on. For Pete's sake: how did I let my cute little kohai down so badly?

"Uzumak, er- Hatake-chan's parentage has been all but broadcast throughout the shinobi grapevine recently... So much so, that word of being the heiress to the Uzumaki and Namikaze clans has even reached ROOT," Tenzo began explaining. "Because of this and Danzo-sama's admiration of Yondaime-sama, her words about..." Pausing, Tenzo looked around comically. "...Sex," he hissed, "have been taken as fact among ROOT's younger members."

Kakashi's visible eye opened widely as his voice dropped an octave. "They think that Danzo appreciated Minato-sensei?"

"He often used Yondaime-sama's sacrifice as an example for us to follow," Rajaiya said, having obviously listened to the more private portion of Kakashi and Tenzo's little conversation.

Well, didn't that just piss Kakashi off? As Hokage, Minato-sensei ordered ROOT to be dissolved, warned Danzo that further actions without his permission would result in "serious consequences," and Danzo hated him for it. And just hated him, in general, for taking The Hat he coveted or wanted to give to Orochimaru to lead the Leaf in his stead. The idea that the Warhawk was using Minato-sensei's sacrifice as a way to control his underlings could not be allowed to continue.

"Rajaiya-kun," Kakashi eye-smiled as he reapproached the brunette. "You have others to introduce me to, do you not?"

"Hai! This way, sir!"

- And so began Kakashi taking leadership of part of Danzo's forces.

"Alright, Gaki; let's see what you can do."

Naruto nodded at her godfather - it was still too weird to call him "grandfather" - as she happily rubbed a little toad oil on her wrists. Feeling the wonderful, familiar hum of nature's energy all around her increase, she sat down alongside four of her shadow clones. She was immediately smacked REALLY HARD in the back. "YEOWCH! Crap," she whined, rubbing her shoulder where she could feel a welt already coming up on her skin. Even knowing that it would soon go right back down thanks to her Uzumaki genetics or Kurama didn't make it hurt any less. "Already, huh?"

"Yes," Pa said, looking way too much like he was ready to happily take another swing at her like he was batting for the fences. "You're sucking in nature's energy much too quickly."

"Aa. But it feels so good, ya know? OUCH!" she wailed before raising her fist and shaking it at the white-haired amphibian. "Damn you, old toad!" She closed her eyes again and tried to regulate the flow of energy within herself more effectively. For a moment it all felt too thrilling, and just as soon as she thought of asking Kurama for help, she was wallopped again. She moaned, hearing her clones do the same, one by one beside her, and went back to meditating.

I suck: I already miss Kakashi. They'd had quite a night together. "Itai! Sorry, sorry."

Jiraiya stopped her, waving one hand in front of him as he covered his mouth with the other as if he was either thinking or going to be sick. "Naruto! Stop having pervy fantasies about men younger than you think you are! How do you expect to use Sage Mode if you can't meditate and stay still? All that wiggling around..."

"Sorry, sorry," Naruto replied again, embarrassed. Jiraiya as usual was right. Of course, Kakashi had given her a marvelous send-off all night long and it was hard to forget even for a few moments. She felt her cheeks heat up again and vowed to get - and stay - serious. "Alright, girls," she said as she looked each of her clones in the eyes, "let's try this again! On three!"

Four hours later, she had it. Then those fossils made her climb on those horrible spikes so she could channel nature's energy high up in the air. Jiraiya was not helping as he tried shouting at her from on the ground. "Get up here, you old perv," she yelled down at him as she forced herself to otherwise stay still. "There's no reason you can't do this, too! You could get rid of that big warty nose of yours in Sage mode if you just trained harder!"

"Brat!" Jiraiya then let out a string of curses as he carried up a platform of his own. He hated heights! Who didn't?! Once sitting high up on the tiny little platform, he addressed his god/granddaughter who was already going into Sage Mode beautifully. "We're going to work on your Frog katas after this: you'll be able to take down that Akimichi with ease once you've got that down. Then we'll go over chakra natures because although your wind will win out in a battle with Kurotsuchi's earth jutsus, if she starts using that lava I don't want you to be completely fucked! If you have to fight her, of course."

"Did you say lava?!" Naruto asked, horrified enough that she went tumbling down toward the ground. Fortunately, Pa grabbed her waist with his gross tongue again.

"I need to leave to gather intel on Suna," Jiraiya said, ignoring the lava question for now. There was no sense in worrying her about it until she completed different levels of training unless Naruto slacked off. "If what you said was true about a coup, Naruto..."

"Oh, it's true alright," she said as she wobbled around on her platform. "Hey!'' She followed Jiraiya back down to the ground, ignoring Fukasaku's scolding. "You're going to be alright, right? I just got you back, and I... I don't know what I'd do if something happened to ya." Jiraiya ruffled her hair the way that he always did, but this time she leaned into it before going in for a hug. "You're not going to die on me again, right?" she asked in just over a whisper.

"I have no intention to die, Naruto: not right now." He tapped the end of her nose. "I have to watch my granddaughter win the Chunin exams, don't I?"

Naruto blushed and looked away, crossing her arms under her chest. "That... that doesn't matter, 'ttebayo. What matters is that you live super long so you can - yuck - babysit for me and Kakashi..." Jiraiya began moaning and groaning about Kakashi and not being old, making Naruto almost completely cheer up. "It's not my fault that I have to have those things in the next few years! You could at least stick around to enjoy it. And to live to be a hundred."

"Yyyy-uck!" Jiraiya said, not liking the idea of being that old at all. "Get back up there and train you brat." He watched as Naruto eventually jumped up to the platform and envied how easy it was for her. Maybe he really did need to train in Sage Mode more.

Sadly, he had to check on the political situation in Suna, and worse: meet with Konan again. How was he going to explain what happened to her Genin? And would she believe that his goddaughter - granddaughter - had time-traveled and knew that she and Nagato had been killed in their pursuit of a perfect but false peace?

...And, of course, that Naru-chan had freaked out at seeing a Genin who had once flattened his village? It was all such a pain, but he would endure; he was a shinobi, after all.

"Can you leave a clone here so that I know you're alright?" Naruto hollered from high in the air as she wobbled from losing concentration.

"I thought I told you not to worry? Concentrate on mastering Sage Mode, and," he sighed and dragged a hand through his hair as Naruto jumped down next to him again. "I need to deal with Tsunade eventually, and I only have so much chakra - unlike SOME people." Seeing Naru's worried little face, he relented. "A toad will come to you if I'm in trouble, okay?"

"You should reverse-summon before it comes to anything like that!"

"Whatever you say, Naruto. Ja, Pa! Naruto!"

Sasuke laid on the ground, panting, after being thoroughly thrashed by ANBU Zero again. What a stupid name and mask, he thought spitefully. He would agree, however, that the ANBU was extremely strong and fast. Zero had also told him that he was an expert on Kekkei-Genkais, including the Sharingan.

"So what are you going to do after the Chunins, Sasuke?" Zero asked the younger Uchiha. "If you prove yourself useful and RESPONSIBLE," he emphasized, "you would make a good addition to ANBU."

Sasuke sat up a bit, interested now. That Man had been in ANBU, and Sasuke knew that he'd become much stronger while in the organization. "Do you really think so?"

"I know so! I could, perhaps, put in a word with the higher-ups and get you an assessment once you make Chunin. You're powerful enough to reach the rank, buuuuuut..." Zero drawled out the last word as he looked at his cousin from behind his solid white mask.

"But what?" Sasuke asked. And can I really make Chunin this year? He'd been getting a lot of shit from Tenzo-sensei about Will of Fire crap.

"Well, your teamwork sucks, to be frank. Ah-ah-ah," Zero chided as he waved a finger in front of him, "I've been watching. I saw you on monitors in the Forest of Death and your team's combinations were good, but they'll have to be better if you want to be in ANBU. You'll have to be able to work with a variety of people that could change even during missions, Sasuke... And you can't turn around during a mission to fight and 'test your strength' whenever you please." Seeing that Sasuke didn't look like he either understood or perhaps wasn't fazed at being caught and berated for what he'd done, (his team had been closing in on the Tower when Sasuke turned around to fight a team when there was no reason to do so and got caught by fucking Orochimaru,) Zero sighed. "You have to have your team's back at all times, Sasuke."

Danzo was losing control, and he couldn't allow that to happen.

Damn that Senju woman! And damn his ROOT operatives for not thoroughly taking every single item in the formerly abandoned Senju compound. He guessed that Mito-sama may have hidden away and sealed some of her husband's and brother-in-law's documents like the original village charter, and it wasn't like he could punish the operatives that had failed him so. No, he'd had them killed as soon as they'd brought what was believed to be the entire Senju bounty to him.

Now not only did he have to deal with more Senju idealism, but Jiraiya of the Sannin on top of that. And how would Orochimaru react to this turn of events? Orochimaru never flinched from a fight, but he was also a practical man, in his opinion, and the Snake Sannin knew just how strong his former teammates were. If he learned that they were here, would that make him less likely to go through with their plans? Or, perhaps, would he be keener to fight and win: eager to show his brilliance and power?

It could occasionally be difficult to assess what the man wanted. He hadn't anticipated Orochimaru going after the jinchuuriki, considering he'd abandoned that organization. Orochimaru also hadn't succeeded in getting his hands on the Uchiha, which was both good and bad. He had enough DNA and other samples, (including Sharingan eyes) of the Uchiha to be able to create more, so he really wasn't that worried about Sasuke falling into his hands. The teen wasn't nearly as powerful as his brother, and his brother was still loyal to Konoha.

But Uchiha Itachi wasn't loyal to him, and that could create future problems.

His thoughts were interrupted by two of his most loyal operatives.

"Lord Danzo," Fu said as he kneeled, staring at the floor. "We believe the jinchuuriki is no longer in Konoha."

"Find her; take Team 1, Torune. Fu, monitor Kabuto's imprisonment and release him as soon as possible. Leave no trail, use Team 13 if necessary." Both operatives disappeared in a sunshin.

"She's definitely a Namikaze, O-Jiji," Kurotsuchi remarked with a smirk on her face. "She's just as pretty as those pictures I've seen of her Papa, too."

Onoki groaned after appearing gleefully deranged for just a moment, while Kitsuchi, Kurotsuchi's father, complained louder - almost whimpering at the end in despair.

"Kurotsuchi's got a crush on her," her father said.

Kurotsuchi began her tirade over her grandfather's squawking. "Crush? CRUSH?! I am in love with her! Such beauty, such kindness, such FIRE! No one but her will do," Kurotsuchi exclaimed, her hand over her heart while she dramatically exclaimed her love of the busty blonde Namikaze she'd met in the Land of Fire.

Akatsuchi soured and frowned at his kohai: this was the fifth or sixth young woman Kurotsuchi had "fallen in love with" this year alone, but this time, especially, it was past the point of getting out of hand. "Mou, Kurotsuchi! Have you forgotten what the Yellow Flash did to us: to our comrades?" Realizing that the younger woman - his Jonin bodyguard-partner of the Tsuchikage, was unrepentant, he looked at his leader forlornly. Kurotsuchi was always such a pain - although he loved her like a sister, of course. "How could you ever be with Namikaze-hime? Our citizens would never allow it!" He dodged lava, which burned a large hole in the Tsuchikage's office wall, and took off running, evading Kurotsuchi's uninspired aims. Many would've been surprised that the big man could better dodge on the ground than in the air. "Where's Deidara when you need him?!"

"Have another child, Kitsuchi, that's an order," Onoki said after the two ran off, rubbing the bridge of his huge nose.

"And take a chance that it could turn out like her?" Kitsuchi asked somewhat jokingly, throwing a thumb back toward the smoking hole in the stone wall his daughter had just created and jumped out of. "No thank you!"