Please leave a comment or PM if you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, or just compliments. For the sake of this work, the elemental balance will go earth}lightning}water}fire}wind. Thanks to SmallFountainPen for betaing chapters 57-73. Thanks to SoaringJe for betaing chapters 116-121.

By the time the wedding and all related events had finally concluded, Sakura was almost euphoric as they exited the city.

"If I had to bow one more time—"

"You're supposed to bow in Konoha too, you know," Juro said. "You just usually don't bother."

"Yeah, and in Konoha I can get away with it!"

Juro snorted.

Ibiki, squeezed between them – they would be riding the first few miles until they were completely out of sight of the Capital as a 'sign of respect' – groaned. "You don't have to, but I still need to bow?!"

"You're still a kid."

Ibiki wriggled unhappily. "Only because the Hokage changed the age I could graduate."

"I bowed as a genin too."

"Always a retort."

Juro grinned. "You two really are peas in a pod. Just don't go around exploding anything, okay Ibiki?"

"I'd explode things if I could."

"We can explode things together when we get home," Sakura said. "Imagine – in a couple days I won't even be bloated with tea anymore."

"They really took advantage of our limited-time presence," Juro said, wincing himself.

Tea ceremonies were nice enough, but ten in one day – Sakura's record – was more than any decent person could bear.

She might have more work to do, now – new obligations, on top of those mandated directly by the Hokage and inherent in her position as Research Head, Yamanaka kin, and guardian – but anything would be better than that.

Sakura rolled her shoulders, working out a few more aches as the wagons trundled forward.

There was a pretty big crowd to see them off. They were leaving with the main contingent of Hokage citizens: a seemingly endless stream of wagons with many shinobi still showing off, standing sideways on wagons and carrying an intentionally large amount and backflipping behind the wagons.

While there might be a general level of distrust over shinobi in the day-to-day, that didn't stop non-shinobi from being more than entertained by the showing off.

Sakura glanced sideways at Juro, who stolidly did not look back.

(He'd only come home an hour before they were due to leave. Shin had laughed nonstop when Ibiki had asked him why and then, realizing, called him a gross old person.)

They'd just made it past the noise of the Capital – the wedding might be over, but the partying was due to last for weeks still because this was a time of peace, a time of celebration.

They'd just made it past the noise of the Capital, when the entire wagon train came to a sudden, immediate halt.

There wasn't any verbal signal.

No visual one either, beyond the sudden stop.

The signal was the chakra, the sudden – loud, in the manner that chakra could sometimes be – pulse.

One of the only pulses that every chakra-sensitive student was taught, one of the only signals considered important enough to teach to every single chakra-sensitive student, no matter how many times they would have to get it down (some, after all, were barely able to pick up chakra at all.)

The pulse said stop.

The pulse said hold.

The pulse was, in theory, supposed to be used in the midst of battle, to say that something important enough had happened that both parties had functionally declared an immediate ceasefire.

There was no battle, but that didn't make the order any less clear.

Sakura had grabbed the reins from Ibiki's lax grasp and forced the horses to a stop before she'd even realized what she was doing.

Ibiki's head snapped towards her – he couldn't feel the chakra, but that must have been why she, rather than both guardians, had reacted – but she had nothing to tell him.

They waited.

The shinobi around them shifted uneasily.

Sakura could feel people – very few, but definitely there – flashing past, back toward the Capital.

And then Asuma was in front of her, and an ANBU to boot.

"He's in your care. We will not move for the next ten minutes, and then each wagon will turn and return to the Capital."

The ANBU disappeared.

He didn't bother to hide his presence, though – he was on top of the cart, flashing chakra signals far too complex for Sakura to understand to ANBU on other wagon tops.

"No, I don't know anything," Asuma said.

Ibiki groaned. "Well, what's the point in you, then?"

Asuma laughed.

"Can we play tag? I mean, for the next ten minutes?"

"You should probably stick close," Juro said, glancing at the still tense shinobi around them. "You can play in the wagon."

"You'll give us updates?" Ibiki asked.

Sakura and Juro both nodded.

They would, after all.

If they thought doing so was reasonable.

The boys went past the wagon flaps, squeezed beside the stacks of paper-specific storage seals (the seal itself was far more complex than a traditional storage seal, but they also lasted longer and required next to no chakra input.) Sakura and Juro sat.

Waited.

Some people had begun talking, mostly in hushed whispers, but the sudden change in plans was still unexplained.

What could have—

"Hello," Kakashi said.

Rin smiled. It was a rather weak smile – she was clearly just as confused as the rest of them – but she was still trying to be polite.

Obito waved.

"Sensei says we're supposed to stay with you for now."

"Oh, um," Juro said. "Okay."

"We're becoming a daycare," Sakura said.

"Too bad your little sisters aren't here," Juro said.

"We're not kids!" Kakashi said.

Sakura shrugged, agreeing. "How was your Capital trip?"

"Really interesting!" Obito said, at the same time Kakashi muttered, "really boring."

Rin shrugged. "It was a novel experience."

"Feel like you'll never drink another drop of tea in your life?"

All three nodded.

Juro laughed. "Well, you can consider yourself a diplomat now."

"No they can't. Not until they pull a Shin and convince themselves that they want to go back and do it all the time."

"So only Obito then?" Kakashi smirked.

"Be nice!" Rin said.

"I am! Obito liked all the nonsense. I didn't think he acted much like an Uchiha when we met, but now I'm convinced."

Obito flushed in pleasure.

That was interesting.

The last time she'd seen him – months ago, now – he'd still been… resentful, at best, over the Uchiha's initial response to his Bridge injury. She wondered what had changed.

"How about you?" Rin asked.

"I had some interesting conversations about non-invasive diagnostic techniques," Juro said.

"Really?" That piqued Rin's interest.

"Yes," Juro said, shifting forward. "Specifically, there is a method to listen to the heart and lungs through this new device—"

"The stethoscope?"

"Yes, it's fascinating. Many other uses too; Sakura's promised to make me a couple prototypes."

"What does it do?"

"Oh, it's a fairly straightforward construction, really…" Juro began. He and Rin kept speaking, but Sakura had really heard more than enough about the stethoscope – she shouldn't have made that promise – and she turned to Obito instead.

"Do your seals allow you to spy on the ANBU?"

Obito turned red.

Kakashi turned, very, very slowly to face him.

"I mean, I'm not… not intentionally," Obito said. Which meant yes.

Kakashi was practically vibrating.

"Do you think—"

"Sensei already said no seals."

Kakashi growled. "Rin can have them if she wants them, and you have them already… it's not fair."

"Well, that's what you get for volunteering."

Kakashi's body snapped to Sakura (he moved quick, even when the movement was minimal. Sakura'd tried to train her body that well before her Jonin exams, but she'd failed.)

"Can you—"

"I don't do body seals."

"But—"

"That was my nephew."

"How—"

"You're not the first to ask."

Kakashi groaned.

The wagons began to shift.

"Here we go," Sakura said. The Hokage's students hopped on the wagon, the boys slipped back onto the front to squeeze beside them, and Juro snapped the reins to get the horses moving.

Slowly – because there really were too many wagons and horses to move with any sort of speed – the whole caravan turned in place.

Faced the Capital.

And, after a moment, began to move again.

And then, finally – after minutes of signaling, of discussions Sakura couldn't eavesdrop on no matter how much she wanted – the ANBU dropped in front of her.

All seven wagon riders, each knowing more than enough sign language to follow, watched closely as the ANBU flashed through a series of signs.

Then disappeared.

So.

The Daimyo had died.

Well, that explained things.