Many thanks to Anita_Magia, drowsyivy, and PoorCynic for beta reading.

We were walking down a dirt road, and I resisted the urge to react. With the realization I was dreaming came more clarity than I had felt in days. Between Sasuke's concussion, my lack of sleep, and then how much I had drunk before getting home and passing out on the couch, I had felt increasingly stretched to the limits over the last few weeks. It didn't feel that great, actually, going from being drunk and relaxed enough that I felt happy and had even danced a bit at the bar we were at to stark, sudden sobriety.

It was enough to still make me lose my footing and stumble a bit, even though the pace we were going at wasn't that fast.

I heard a snicker. "Get lost in your daydreams, Sasuke-kun?" a girl's voice mocked.

I twisted in that direction. That was... a different pink-haired teenager. The lone girl that was supposed to be part of Orochimaru's kidnapping squad. I couldn't remember what her name was. It didn't help that her hair looked more pink than I remembered. I could have sworn it was supposed to be more of a red.

What was she doing here?

Shizune rapped her knuckles down against the girl's head, hard enough that the resulting knock could be heard even in spite of the hat and hair in the way, and she glowered up at the woman, rubbing at the spot that got hit. "Knock it off, you bitch!"

"If you don't behave, I'm gagging you again," Shizune answered, voice crisp.

"I don't know why she keeps getting ungagged in the first place," Shikamaru muttered. "She says something rude, she gets warned, someone loses their patience, she gets gagged for a few hours, and then it comes out and we start all over again."

"It was repetitive the first day," Shino added.

Tsunade sighed. "She's not actually a prisoner, so we're not going to keep her gagged, as much as the quiet might be nice."

"How am I not a prisoner!? You're keeping me against my will and taking me back to your fucking stupid village with you!" She wasn't tied up or being dragged along by anyone, so I wondered exactly where that was coming in.

Tsunade looked at her nails. "I gave you the chance to leave the same way your master did, it's not my fault you didn't take it. You aren't even going all the way back with us."

"Why would I be willing to get kicked out of sight by some ugly hag?!"

Tsunade narrowed her eyes before smiling. "Just because you're good at pushing buttons, doesn't mean you're going to get the satisfaction of watching it work, Tayuya-chan. Try harder when you're done going through puberty, if you're going to be like that, little girl."

That was her name. Tayuya flushed, visibly bristling.

On the other side of me, Jiraiya swallowed and casually nudged Naruto further over to the side, putting some distance between the two of them and Tsunade.

I decided that given the circumstances of the dreams, I had no interest in being too close to a girl fight and followed their lead. I also had no interest in being too close to girl fights in real life, either, but sometimes with those I had no choice due to being Xochitl's wingwoman whenever she was in town.

This was a larger group than I had expected, really, and I was almost surprised that Jiraiya hadn't decided to leave the kids with Tsunade given that he looked a bit done with everything right now. Shizune was expected. Tayuya though...

She was definitely the wrong minion for this. Then again, Shikamaru's team running into Kabuto wasn't supposed to happen but did in the dreams, and everything else had already gone wonky, so why not her as well?

Tayuya made sense for balancing out the general gender ratio, even if it was clear no one was happy she was with us, herself included.

All the same, the attempt at rationalization fell flat even as I tried to sell myself on it.

Near me, I could see Sakura as she eyed Tsunade, Jiraiya, and then Shizune, before mustering the decision to speak up. "We will be getting back today, right?"

Both Jiraiya and Tsunade answered at the same time. "Maybe." "Depends."

Next to Jiraiya, Naruto stifled a snicker.

Tsunade rolled her eyes as Jiraiya motioned for Tsunade to answer.

"We're going at a regular walking pace for a reason, even though Jiraiya told me at least your team was capable of covering the distance between the coast and Konoha in less than a full day. Because someone—" Jiraiya looked upwards, feigning innocence that didn't look right on him, "—Informed the daimyo's people I was expected to return as an option for being selected as Hokage, moving too fast means there's a chance of missing a messenger meant for me. We're making at least one stop before we reach Konoha."

Shikamaru's face scrunched together. "Why would that matter? The council's still there and I know the jōnin commander is supposed to help make decisions, too."

"The Daimyō and his government call more shots than they tell you in the academy," Tsunade answered. "And unfortunately for me, since he's expecting to appoint me as the next Hokage, it means anything that requires his approval or input is probably going to be on hold. He might even circumvent sending critical information to the village if he thinks I'll be able to receive it first."

"That's stupid," Shikamaru decided.

Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged looks, amusement clear on their faces. "What's stupid about it?" Jiraiya prompted.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at Jiraiya; I could only guess it was because he was smart enough to realize that there was about to be a teaching moment involved, even though he couldn't tell what the lesson was going to be yet. "The Daimyō's a civilian. We're shinobi. Why does he have any input on who should be Hokage?"

Jiraiya let out a low chuckle. "Konoha was founded with permission from the Daimyō. Where do you think most of the money the village brings in comes from?"

"Civilians paying for their missions," Shikamaru promptly answered, but he frowned as soon as he spoke, realizing there was a flaw in there somewhere.

"Do you really think the 5,000 ryo your team gets for babysitting or pulling weeds for a few hours in someone's garden is really coming from the person putting in the request?"

Looking around, it was pretty obvious none of the kids— including Tayuya— were familiar with how money worked.

Naruto squinted at Jiraiya. "Then where's it coming from?"

"D-ranks are subsidized by the village itself," Jiraiya began, cutting off Naruto when it was obvious that was going to be his next question, "which means that the person paying for the mission isn't paying what the mission is worth on paper. The maximum is supposed to be around a tenth of whatever the mission payout is supposed to be, and even then there's usually refunds."

"Really?" Sakura asked.

"We ruined a lot of gardens as kids," Jiraiya said, scratching the side of his nose. "Made a few even smaller kids cry."

"You mean you two did," Tsunade cut in.

"Not with the kids," Jiraiya faked a cough. "Anyway, D-ranks are used to teach how missions are run, get you all used to them and have a chance to practice teamwork and leadership skills and learn things outside of just stabbing shit. C-ranks and up are mostly paid for by taxes depending on what it is unless they're coming from outside of Fire, and even then there's usually crap being done to avoid paying the full price entirely out of pocket. Most of the bigger trade and import companies have regional stuff set up for that reason if they have expensive cargo. They'll hire Leaf-nin for a one-way trip from Fire into Earth, and then Rock-nin on the way back."

Shikamaru still looked unconvinced. "What's that got to do with the Daimyō?"

"The Daimyō's government funds the village," Tsunade answered. "While Konoha might have been able to exist without it, it would be a very different place without the court's involvement. Before the village was founded, only the wealthy were able to hire shinobi clans."

"Mostly nobles," Jiraiya added. "And plenty of those jobs usually involved fighting other ninja, even if their clans weren't feuding at the time. "

Shikamaru stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I still don't see what that has to do with him having a say over who should be Hokage."

"I thought you were supposed to be smart," Jiraiya muttered under his breath, which earned him dirty looks from Shikamaru and Ino.

"He is smart," Ino spoke up. "We aren't dumb."

"Alright then, blondie, lemme put it this way. Your toilet's tucked away in its own room instead of being in the kitchen. You don't shit where you eat, and the same goes with shinobi and civilians."

That was a disgusting analogy and looking around, I wasn't the only one who found it that way.

"I don't get it," Naruto said, noise wrinkled. "What's that mean? Are we the toilet or—"

"The toilet," Sakura cut him off before he could continue.

"Civilians know that shinobi are dangerous," Jiraiya continued. "But that doesn't mean that they can't be dangerous themselves, even to the powerful and experienced. You all have an idea of the purges in Water, right?"

"Mostly against kekkei genkai users, yes," Shino answered. His voice was thoughtful sounding, a light frown on his lips.

Jiraiya flapped a hand. "That was all civilians against people from clans that were able to turn the tide of a battle on their own."

"What does that have to do with what I asked in the first place?" Shikamaru was annoyed and looked like he was trying to find any more depth to his pockets than he was able to find, hunching over somewhat.

"Just get to the point already!" Tayuya groused.

"Sheer power doesn't give anyone the ability to do whatever they want," Shizune answered, glancing over at Tsunade, who by all appearances was very carefully not paying attention. "Even before the village system, shinobi clans had to be on good terms with their neighbors."

"Can't do much fighting if your water's been ruined, you can't buy anything, or your land's been confiscated," Jiraiya confirmed. "The Daimyō wants the assurance that whoever is selected is on the same page as him, and with Sarutobi-sensei dead, that means his approval holds more weight than it would otherwise."

"It's still stupid," Shikamaru decided.

"Is it?" Shino asked. "It's more logical for us to maintain a positive relationship with the rest of Fire. It's like Jiraiya-sama said when we were leaving Konoha. My hive might not be very dangerous individually, even to a civilian, but all of my insects together would still be able to strip even a ninja to their bones in minutes if I ordered them to."

I felt my stomach turn as I tried to not imagine that, and Naruto gave him a queasy look of horror before he spoke up. "I thought your bugs ate chakra."

"They all do," Shino corrected. "But I've been tending to kidaichū at home since we graduated. Those can eat flesh. I'm not allowed to take them out on missions or for training without my parents until I make chūnin, though."

Shino's casual mention of possessing flesh-eating bugs killed the conversation entirely. I didn't mind that at all, under the circumstances. Shikamaru didn't look entirely convinced, but he didn't seem to be all that eager to restart his line of questions.

We continued walking in near silence for long enough that the shadows from the trees bordering the road began to shift. As we did, we passed several other groups of travelers who were going at a slower pace. It all left me with more time to think than I liked.

All of this just felt too real, but it couldn't be. I had an impossible mark on the base of my neck, but I was missing hours that I thought I had spent sleeping. Snack foods missing from their place in the pantry, dirty dishes, the TV on, searches and things in my phone's browser history.

It didn't help that I was too afraid to dig deeper. I hadn't checked my bank account, either.

It wasn't real, but I didn't want to confirm that I was going crazy. I had to at least pretend I was holding it together until the semester ended.

Eventually, conversation began to pick up again in fits and starts that avoided the earlier subject and the difficulties inherent in trying to explain political science to logic-minded twelve year olds. It suddenly made a lot of sense why algebra and chemistry experiments used to be on the table for middle school, but even in the advanced classes it was still basic Social Studies'.

Instead, Jiraiya had begun to give what was clearly questionable advice that had even Tayuya listening in— though she was visibly trying to pretend that she wasn't.

"There's no way that can really work." Sakura's doubt was evident. "Doesn't that count as omission on mission reports?"

"I didn't say to lie or leave anything out," the man said, wagging a finger at her. "That will get you in trouble for sure if a clerk checks everything. Put all the pertinent info up at the top, don't bother writing every single thing that happened if it doesn't relate to the mission parameters. Save the extra for an oral report to the Hokage or Intel."

"Don't listen to his advice," Tsunade spoke up. "He once turned in a report written in crayon. It was illegible. I don't understand how he's a writer."

Jiraiya swung around to look at her. "Hey! I know how to write!"

"Then explain all those crappy reports I had to redo!"

"It was Orochimaru's fault to begin with!" There was a brief pause as Jiraiya glanced around at us all— bringing up their traitorous teammate had clearly not been planned— before he continued on. "He kept coming up with last minute-reasons on why he couldn't do them when it was supposed to be his rotation. The crayon was the last idea I had!"

Tayuya just looked gobsmacked. Probably because of how this was portraying Orochimaru. Not vastly powerful, or creepy, but someone who had no problem dropping his share of groupwork on teammates. I would have pinned Jiraiya as that type instead.

"We were in our twenties," Tsunade responded, folding her arms under her chest. "It wasn't like you never avoided doing them once we had to in the first place." Called it.

"That was different!"

I ended up exchanging a long look with Shikamaru, who looked just as unimpressed as I felt, if probably for different reasons.

I ended up tuning out the background bickering. It sounded mostly friendly, and so I figured it would probably not cause me any further trouble, at least. Instead, I focused my attention on the trees, on mentally going through the papers I had to reread, on anything else that I could think of.

It didn't last for long.

"Sasuke-kun?"

It took me a moment before I realized that Sakura was trying to get my attention. Even after several of these dreams, being addressed as Sasuke, it wasn't automatic. I didn't want to get used to it. I twisted to look over at her. "Yeah?"

She fidgeted for a bit, before visibly steeling herself. "Are you alright?" Her eyes shut for a moment as she winced. "I mean, I know we've gone through a lot in the last few months, especially you, but you've become even more quiet lately, since we left the village. Even Naruto's starting to get a bit worried."

The fact that Naruto, who even in these dreams was still socially clueless, was apparently picking up on the fact that even asleep I wasn't doing a great job of holding it together made me cringe. One of my professors had very meaningfully told us, eyes locked on me, to make sure we took advantage of the break to rest and recuperate before classes resumed. On the one hand, I was lucky that the faculty in my department mostly believed in mental health and the restorative effects of rest. On the other hand, there was no way it wasn't getting around to my advisor in some way with that sort of suggestion, if it hadn't already. That particular professor was a chatterbox. I didn't need to deal with potentially having to ward off an obnoxious child's concerns as well.

"I'm fine."

"If you say so." Sakura did not look very convinced, or impressed, for that matter. Now I was the one reaping the consequences of convincing her her opinions mattered. "Just talk to someone if you need to, okay? Even if it isn't one of us."

That sounded a bit too considerate and by the book for her age. "Is that advice from a magazine?"

Sakura's face turned pink, which all but confirmed it. "That doesn't mean it's going to be bad advice! It was either that or ask him." Her eyes flicked over towards Jiraiya, who was desperately trying to refute a story Tsunade was telling.

I suppressed a shudder. I was more than fine with slightly-too-rote basic magazine advice if the alternative was him, especially since while Sakura was better about it, she still obviously had a crush. I couldn't even begin to imagine what sort of advice my brain would cook up if it was supposed to be from Jiraiya.

My reaction got a small smile out of her, and it wasn't before long that Naruto wandered over to join us.

I let their chatter wash over me.

Before the sun fully set, we wound up at our next stop; another narrow walled-in village that hemmed close to the road.

Naruto's expression brightened.

"We're staying here again tonight," Jiraiya said, which made him immediately deflate. In the periphery, I could tell that the others were also disappointed by that news, but I blinked; this was the same one from the other night's dream? Or at least supposed to be.

I couldn't help but ask. "We're that close?"

"Mmhm," he went.

Before he could say anything else, a figure dropped down in front of us, coming from the gate. It was a dark-haired man dressed in Konoha's uniform, or at most of it; it was after they crouched in front of Tsunade that I realized it was a little different. The shirt collar and cuffs had a red-trim, and instead of the spiral on the sleeves, the character for 'fire' was embroidered in its place in red instead. He had a scroll holder hanging from one shoulder. "Tsunade-sama? I have messages for you from the capital."

Tsunade folded her arms across her chest, and made an expression I was familiar with from school: she clearly had thoughts on this that she was choosing to not say out loud. "Shizune, book some rooms and go with the kids," she said, voice firm. "Jiraiya, there's somewhere more private to talk here, right?"

"Yeah, I know a place," Jiraiya said, though for some reason he glanced at me. "We shouldn't get bothered."

The ninja serving as messenger was too professional to let anything show on his face, but if how he trailed behind Jiraiya and Tsunade was any indication, he probably hadn't expected to get dragged off for this by two of the Sannin. I wouldn't have been very excited in his position either.

To my complete lack of surprise— and everyone else's— Tayuya tried to bolt the moment Tsunade and Jiraiya were out of sight. She wasn't quick enough to escape Shizune, though, whose arm flashed out and yanked the girl back by the rope tied around her waist.

"You're not going anywhere until Tsunade-sama says you can," she said, voice crisp.

Tayuya glared at her and attempted to yank herself free to no avail, only to be dragged by Shizune through the gate. "You're all fucking idiots." The swearing and insults against whatever she could think of— Shizune's appearance, from her hair to her footwear and everything in between— gathered enough attention and disapproving looks from others walking past that Tayuya lost steam before too long. It seemed like while she had no problem having a foul mouth and being rude, getting this much attention in a public place was off-putting.

By the time Shizune had decided on a place to stay, Tayuya had ended up completely subdued by the amount of negative attention and was visibly sulking. Shizune had gradually moved her grip on the teenaged girl from one end of the belt, to the wrist, and now finally her shoulder. Shizune requested two rooms from the receptionist at the desk, and I got to watch two different reactions blossom across some of the kids' faces when it was made clear it was going to be split between the sexes: unmitigated relief on Shikamaru and Naruto's, and exasperated annoyance on Sakura's. In this case I had no problem with being lumped under Sasuke's appearance if it meant not dreaming about sharing a room with Tayuya.

Dinner after we dropped our things off was not particularly thrilling, and mostly empty of conversation beyond Sakura and Ino stiltedly talking about what was in the magazines Sakura had gotten, probably because of Tayuya's presence. She was still sullen and had laid off with the remarks entirely now that we were surrounded by other people. She had also gotten crammed in the booth against the wall on one side, right across from me. She was an obvious flight hazard, but I still had no idea why Sakura twitched slightly in my direction when I finished the food I had randomly ordered.

It wasn't until well after we had returned to the hotel rooms and gotten ready for the night that Jiraiya and Tsunade returned. Jiraiya's face was visibly flushed when he opened the door. Past him in the hall on her way into the girls' room, I could see Tsunade, who was similarly drunk-looking.

He narrowly avoided stumbling over Shikamaru, who had gone to sleep the moment we returned. That one I would put the blame on Shikamaru more than Jiraiya being drunk, since he had set his futon up close to the door to get away from the television,which Naruto had not just claimed but kept jumping between different channels in an attempt to maximize his usage. Shino had eventually told him to keep it on one show at a time.

Jiraiya was tall enough that I suspected that a close call would have happened even if he had been sober, and judging from how he corrected himself with ease, he was used to it. "You brats are still awake?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "You were drinking?"

Jiraiya just looked tired, dragging a hand down his face as he began to shuck what he was wearing, starting with the guards protecting the back of his hands. "Some things just need alcohol if you're going to talk about them, kid."

Naruto glanced between me and Shino, as though to double-check against us before he finally made a decision. "I guess."

Jiraiya just shook his head at all of us. "Go to sleep while you can enjoy it. Tomorrow's going to be a long day and there's no guarantee that we're going to have an early night when we get back."

Naruto reluctantly turned off the television and I drifted off to nothingness.

I woke up to knocking at the door, confused for a moment as I reached out for my phone and glasses from the nightstand before I realized I was still dreaming.

I sat up, completely disgruntled.

Shikamaru was already awake but not changed, his hair hanging loose. He looked about as happy as I felt, getting up to open the door. Jiraiya, Shino, and Naruto were all still asleep.

Ino and Sakura were at the door, already freshly showered and dressed. They looked concerned and clearly dismayed at the fact that Shikamaru was still in pajamas.

"What is it?"

"Tayuya's not in there, is she," Ino stated, glancing past Shikamaru into the room.

Shikamaru made a face. "Why would she be?"

"She's not in ours," Sakura answered, twisting her hands together.

"How did you manage to lose her?"

Before Sakura or Ino could answer, Shizune came up behind them, frowning in disapproval. "That discussion can wait until we're on the road and we're in private." She focused her attention on me and Shikamaru. "Could you two get everyone else up so we can get going?"

"Fine," Shikamaru grumbled.

I left him to wake Naruto up this time, and instead went over to Shino, who was barely visible under his comforter. I leaned over and shook him. Or rather, I tried to; when I set a hand down an ominous buzzing started and kikaichū immediately spilled out from under the blankets, and started to cover me from the fingers up. They were already up to my elbow by the time I completely processed what was happening.

I shouted in alarm. If I had been awake, it would have been undeniably a shriek, but Sasuke's voice was just low enough for it to not be that.

That was enough to wake everyone else up; from the corner of my eye I could see Naruto accidentally slam his head right into Shikamaru's face, which caused more shouting, and Jiraiya bolting to his feet, a ball of whirling chakra already forming in one palm.

I was scraping bugs away from my face when they suddenly began to peel back, returning.

"Sorry," Shino said as he slowly got up, voice groggy from waking up but tinged with distinct embarrassment. "They know they're not supposed to swarm my teammates if they wake me up, but I forgot to tell them to do the same for everyone we're travelling with."

Jiraiya heaved a breath, hand over his chest. "Are you brats trying to give me a heart attack?"

I full-body shuddered. Even though all the bugs were gone, I was still feeling the tingling, crawling sensation. "I'm going to take a shower," I managed to grit out. I grabbed Sasuke's bag and stomped off.

"They're clean," Shino said, feelings obviously bruised.

"They might be clean but I still feel it."

Naruto was visibly shuddering in sympathy when I shut the door behind me.

I scrubbed under the hottest water I could get from the showerhead and by the time I was done, dressed and looked in the mirror, the Sasuke in the reflection was the sort of pink color that came from being freshly scrubbed in too-hot water. Tingly, but not the same kind of tingly that came from being covered with crawling insects.

Shikamaru entered the shower room, fully dressed with his hair tied up, and raised an eyebrow at me. "I got sent to get you," was all he said.

I shrugged Sasuke's pack on and followed him.

We ended up having a short and terse breakfast before getting back on the road, and it wasn't until we were out of sight of any other travellers that Jiraiya finally broke the silence.

"How the hell did you let a captive get loose?" he finally asked, looking at Tsunade. "I know you kept saying you weren't going to haul the brat all the way back to the village, but really? You know just as well as I do that she's going to go right back to the bastard and tell him everything."

"No she won't," Tsunade said, visibly smug.

"Huh?" Next to me, Naruto squinted at her, and everyone's attention was focused on her.

"She escaped in the middle of the night," Shino said, quietly. He was still smarting from earlier, between his bugs accidentally causing chaos and then me being grossed-out. "It seems fairly apparent that because of that, she'll be returning to Orochimaru as soon as she can."

"It's not that she won't want to, but she physically won't be able to," Shizune spoke up.

Jiraiya was giving Tsunade a suspicious look now. "What'd you do?"

"I used a little bit of medical ninjutsu to disrupt the connections to the part of her brain responsible for navigation," she answered.

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "You can do that?" He sounded horrified.

It struck me a moment later why Shikamaru was horrified. "You lobotomized her?"

"No," Tsunade said, voice cool. "As long as she doesn't get herself killed, it'll only be temporary, but I doubt she's going to swallow her pride, stay in one place, and send for help. You can't use medical ninjutsu on the brain or nervous system to permanently cut parts off, especially something like that. The most you can do is permanently scramble the signals and even then the brain will eventually adapt."

"Why can't you?" Ino asked.

"Because it's not like Yamanaka techniques. If you do that with medical ninjutsu the brain will just stop functioning entirely."

"Oh," Ino went, joining Shikamaru and me in being horrified.

"Is it difficult to do?" Sakura asked, after a moment. She sounded intrigued. "Jiraiya-sama told us that chakra control is important for medical ninjutsu, like it is for genjutsu, but he didn't really go into it."

Naruto looked over at me, eyes wide as he swallowed. He leaned towards me. "I shouldn't have asked Ero-sennin about it," he whispered. It was quiet enough that Sakura didn't notice.

"You need even better control for medical ninjutsu than you do for genjutsu," Tsunade answered. "Especially for advanced techniques like that. There were barely any medic-nin who could work in the field, much less on a battlefield, when I left, and I doubt the situation's improved from what Jiraiya's told me."

Sakura inhaled, her eyes darting to look at Naruto and me, then the others, before she straightened her shoulders and did her best to stand as tall as she could. "Kakashi-sensei and Tenzō-sensei both say my chakra control is excellent. The whole trip, Jiraiya-sama spoke about how strong you are, as a medic and a fighter. I want to know how to do not just chakra healing, but how you fight, too. Please teach me."

Tsunade's response was immediate. "No."

Sakura's shoulders fell, and she bit her lip, Ino setting a hand on Sakura's shoulder. Sakura must have been chewing on the idea before this and had probably spoken to Ino about it, I could only guess.

Shizune shot Tsunade a reproachful look and Jiraiya lifted an eyebrow at her.

"My saying no doesn't mean it's for forever," Tsunade said, setting her hands on her hips; it was aimed at Shizune and Jiraiya as much as it was at Sakura. "I haven't been in the village for fifteen years. I don't know what I'm walking into and what I'm expected to take charge of. I'm not going to pile on the commitments involved in taking on a student before I've even gone through the gate yet."

"Tsunade-sama's said many times in the past that one thing she'd change about the village is making medical training more accessible and raise the standards of medics," Shizune spoke up. Tonton oinked from her position between the two women. "If she's unable to, if you don't mind, I could help you learn medical ninjutsu. I don't know most of her more complicated techniques, but you wouldn't be ready for those any time soon anyways."

Sakura's expression cheered up. "No, I wouldn't. Thank you so much for the offer, Shizune-san."

Tsunade's lips thinned. "Shizune…"

The two women peeled off from the main group, presumably to argue more privately between themselves, Tonton trotting off to follow them.

"I didn't know you were interested in becoming a medic-nin, Sakura-chan," Naruto said.

"I'm still not completely sure myself," Sakura admitted. "But I'm tired of watching people I care about get hurt and then be unable to do anything about it. We might have stopped that Grass-nin back during the second exam, but we couldn't do anything about Iruka-sensei's hand... " She frowned, before forcing it away. "It was really Ino's suggestion the other day, anyways."

Ino froze for a moment, before she shook her head and gave Sakura a weak-looking smile. "I'm sure you would have come up with it on your own."

Jiraiya looked between the two girls and then over at Tsunade and Shizune. "Well, whatever you do, you better be committed if she ends up agreeing. Asking her the way you did was no small thing. Not only does she have an ugly temper when it gets set off, it'll look bad on her if she offers to take you on as a student and you back out once she's officially Hokage."

Sakura swallowed. "Right. I'll keep that in mind."

Hopefully there wouldn't be any squishing of Sakura in these dreams, by an angry Tsunade or otherwise. While I didn't like the dreams themselves, she and Naruto had grown on me. Admittedly a bit like fungus, but still.

Even though we could have gone faster, we kept at a steady walking pace, with only a long enough break in the middle of the day to eat before moving on. Conversation ebbed and flowed, with a good chunk of time taken up by riddles and logic games I suggested when Naruto had complained about being bored. Shino and Shikamaru ended up dominating at the logic ones, but Naruto turned out to be surprisingly good at the more out of the box riddles— at least when they came from anyone else but me. I ended up banned from giving any more riddles entirely after the first two by Jiraiya.

Night had long fallen by the time we saw the telltale fuzzy glow of light population in the sky.

Naruto bounced on his heels. "We're so close! Can we run the rest of it? I'm going to go crazy if we have to walk the rest of the way."

Jiraiya shrugged expressively, stretching his arms upwards and looking in Tsunade's direction. "What do you say, princess? You're the one who's going to be dealing with everything the second we get there."

"You too," she pointed out, immediately. Even under the night's sky it was possible to make out her expression. She had a contemplative look on her face, mouth not quite in a frown.

"Trying to forget about that bit," he muttered under his breath.

"I'll need to air out the old place before I get any sleep tonight," Tsunade responded, which evoked a sharp bark of laughter from Jiraiya.

"You're going to be Godaime Hokage, you can afford to set up in an inn room for the night," Jiraiya said, still laughing. "You probably won't have any time to be airing anything out tonight anyways, or for the near future."

She made a face at that. "I'm trying to not think about that part too much." Tsunade sighed and then straightened up. "Let's get moving." She gave Shizune just enough time to pick up Tonton before breaking into a run, forcing the rest of us to follow.

The gates and wall were completely repaired when they came into sight. There was even a guardhouse right inside again, though that was completely different; it was larger than the previous one.

The guards said nothing about the brown passports, even though the one not checking them gave Jiraiya and Tsunade a questioning look, clearly aware of who was in front of him but unsure of how he was supposed to react.

"Envying some genin?" Jiraiya asked with a snicker.

"Yeah, actually," one of them answered, only to get elbowed by another. "Hey!"

Shikamaru looked disgruntled. "Why would you want a civilian passport?"

"No travel restrictions," the chūnin looking over Shino's passport answered as he pressed a stamp next to the others on the page. "You'll get it when you're older." He glanced up, taking in Shikamaru's face, and then taking a look at Shikamaru's passport and his name when he thumbed it open. "Or maybe not."

Shikamaru only looked more unimpressed when he took it back.

Sakura looked between the chūnin guards and the passports. "Is it really that rare to have one?" she asked, once we were moving on. We were heading in the direction of the administration building. Pretty much all of the rubble was gone, and there were signs of paused construction everywhere I looked. The streets were mostly empty of people, but I could have sworn that the farther we got from the gates the busier it was getting. "My parents were chūnin, but I know my dad's always had a passport, too..."

"Haruno isn't a ninja clan from what I remember," Tsunade commented.

"It isn't," Sakura admitted. "My grandfather worked for the daimyō and was sent to Konoha when they opened the mint and printers here. Tou-san was the only one who stayed here." She said this with the vague embarrassment that came from knowing a bit of family history that wasn't just unglamorous but distinctly uncool. Konoha having at least some involvement in currency production made sense and explained why their symbol was on the money, thinking on it.

"That'd be why," Jiraiya said, scratching at his chin. "Government civilians tend to take identification forms pretty seriously. Most folks who stay active ninja don't get one because it's a liability if you make jōnin, and if you do, it's not like you'll need one anyways as long as you don't push your luck."

"Then why did we have to get them then?" Shikamaru asked, irritated.

"Because carting around a bunch of children that don't have any identification is a bad look," Jiraiya shot back. "They're technically fakes, anyways."

Naruto yanked his out from where he had crammed it into his shorts pocket to squint at it under the street lights. "How's it fake?"

"Because they weren't signed off on by the Hokage or put into the system," Kakashi's voice said quietly, from behind us. "That can be changed, though."

Sakura and Naruto let out shouts of surprise, and once I turned around fully, both of them were mobbing him, Naruto latched onto him with both his arms and legs. Even Sakura had gone in for a hug.

I settled for waving.

"Nice to see you all again," Kakashi said, voice tight with awkwardness. "Now let go of me."

Sakura backed off first, and Naruto dropped off of him, still beaming, but both of them kept close to him, Naruto more so.

"Tsunade-sama," Kakashi began, clearly trying to ignore Naruto's clinginess, "welcome back to Konohagakure." Having Naruto just barely not physically attached to him somewhat dampened the moment.

"Jiraiya was right, you did turn into a weed," was Tsunade's response, after a moment.

Kakashi's reaction was to pretend that never happened, apparently, because he directed his attention at the others instead. "My ninken alerted me when you were approaching the gates. After they let me know, I sent them to inform others. Sakura-chan, your parents will be waiting for you once we're done at the administration building. Everyone else's will be meeting us there." He patted her on the head, as if to punctuate the statement, and began to walk.

Sakura tolerated it for once, which really underlined that she must have missed everything. Instead, she focused her attention on his words, frowning. "Why will theirs be there?"

"Well, their fathers," Kakashi corrected, "Since they're clan heads and jōnin. As many of them as possible are going to be gathering under the tower."

Tsunade twisted sharply to look at him. "What? It's the middle of the night!"

"Those were Jiraiya's instructions before he left," Kakashi immediately answered. He was shifting the blame before it could stick.

"I did say you were going to be dealing with everything the second we went through the gates."

"I didn't think you were being literal!" Tsunade smacked Jiraiya's back hard enough to stagger him and left him barely avoiding smashing into the ground.

"Well, you have the Daimyō's approval in writing, all you need are the jōnin who are present, and the sooner the better..."

Shino asked something I didn't catch.

I blinked awake in bed.

I rolled over just enough to check the time. It was a little past three, which wasn't too awful considering the last several days and the fact I hadn't gotten home until it was almost four in the morning, after the bars had closed and we had ended up at an IHOP despite my protests against pancakes.

There was a text from my mother reminding me again about brunch with Abuela tomorrow. I shot a quick reply, set my phone to vibrate and with sound, stumbled out of bed long enough to pee and get a glass of water, and then rolled right back in to doze again.

Long time, no see.

Sorry for the long delay between chapters! The last few months turned out to be busier and more stressful than expected and I bit off a little more than I could chew. My mother was in a car accident back in June, and against expectations, her recovery's been on the slow side, which didn't mix well with moving, among other things. She's improving however and things have settled down from this last move, which gave me time to work on this chapter and finish it up. I'm hoping to get other things out and back to a more regular schedule now, especially now that I have my own plans laid out. I'll be attending grad school starting in January. :)

I hope everyone's doing well, staying safe and healthy, and for those that are in school themselves that you're having a solid return so far, especially with mid-terms around the corner.