Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

The sound rushed back to the room as I looked up at Minato who had made his way over. He looked between me and Jiraiya, panic wrote wide upon his face. "You weren't supposed to find out this way. Either of you."

Jiraiya audibly swallowed and said "Just who is this kid Minato?"

"Ah, er, perhaps that might be better for the Hokage to explain." Minato replied nervously

At this point I spoke up "you mean the Hokage knows as well, just how long have you been keeping secrets from me Minato."

Minato got even more panicked hearing the disappointment in my voice but had no time to respond as the assistant called from her desk that the Hokage was free now.

"Well I'm coming in too, I want to get to the bottom of this." Jiraiya growled getting up

I followed behind though Minato made to stop me. I answered him with a glare and he gave in knowing I wouldn't be dissuaded.

The Hokage looked tired but seeing Jiraiya he sat up a little, he smiled uncertainly seeing Minato come in after him but then sunk further into his chair seeing me following them both.

"What's going on sensei, you leave a message at the Ame outpost for me to return as soon as possible and when I get here I discover…" He looked at me in askance from my name,

"Keiko" I provided

"Keiko, who looks like a bad henge of a younger me."

"I will answer your questions Jiraiya but Keiko will need to leave" the Hokage said.

I narrowed my eyes "What are you hiding from me, obviously he's related to me in some way, why am I not allowed to know. Can I not be trusted?" I asked incredulously.

There was silence for a moment, Minato stood to my side more uncomfortable than before, the Hokage rubbed the bridge of his nose before reaching for his pipe.

"You… don't trust me?" I asked quietly.

The Hokage remained silent for a moment before he turned to Minato, "You can make your report tomorrow Minato, I have most of it from your correspondence." it was a clear dismissal and Minato nodded before looking between Jiraiya and myself and leaving.

"Take a seat Keiko, Jiraiya." I did gratefully, if my world hadn't been tilted on its access before it was making an exit from the solar system now.

"I'll stand." Jiraiya responded though he stepped forward next to where I sat, putting himself almost between me and the hokage.

The Hokage nodded though he paused for a moment and I felt an outflow of chakra I had come to associate with a seal activating. "Keiko. When you first came to this village we marked you from day one as a possible spy."

"What!" I exclaimed "But I was 3."

"And we were at war." the Hokage said implacably, "Understand Keiko, we are are on high alert for spies at the best of times but you appeared during wartime with a very high intelligence, advanced abilities and in addition to that you displayed some skills that may have indicated prior training, combine that with you baring a resemblance to one of our top shinobi and a student of mine. In those circumstances there was little else we could think."

I sat there for a few moments considering, "So why tell me now, why not just lock me away as soon as I arrived?" I asked

"We may be killers, but we aren't monsters." the Hokage said dryly "I was not going to lock you up and potentially have you tortured on no evidence at all. As to why I'm telling you now, well… I have little choice and since you're bound to that chair I don't have to worry about you trying to make an escape."

I suddenly felt my insides go cold as I realised he was right. I couldn't pull myself away from the chair.

"So what now?", I asked, "Are you going to torture me now that I know your suspicions."

The Hokage shook his head "If at all possible I would like to avoid that"

"So what are you suggesting Sensei?" Jiraiya finally asked

"We have," he looked at the clock "Two hours before I need to go to this evening's council meeting, between then and now Keiko you are going to convince us of your innocence." he didn't need to say what the alternative was.

I suddenly felt ill.

I wanted to hate this man sat in front of me but, honestly, if I were in his place I might have made the same decision. Actually I'm not sure I would have even been so lenient.

I had spent the first half hour trying to think of anything that could prove my innocence but with nothing definitive coming to mind I was beginning to sweat. The Hokage had taken up a spot looking out the window at the rapidly descending darkness of night time.

Jiraiya had taken up residence by the door sat down on a couch. He hadn't said anything since this 2 hours started.

I had to strain my neck every few minutes to see the time and it seemed to be passing both too slowly and too quickly.

One hour had passed and I was staring at my knees coming to the realisation that this was where this life might end when the Hokage walked in front of me, leaning backwards against his desk. He spoke for the first time since the two hours started.

"Please Keiko, give me something. You will be sent to interrogation should we end these two hours like this. You will be mindwalked aggressively. Few come out of those sessions with their minds intact. You are a promising ninja, anything you can think of might be helpful."

I shook my head, "I don't have anything. I tried to live as best I can since I came to this village, but there's nothing I have done which I think could clear a suspicion like this." At this point I had resigned myself.

Another half hour passed and Jiraiya asked for my file which was passed to him. I had given up thinking my way out.

Jiraiya stepped forward after after a few minutes and said "Listen kid, honestly there's not much against you here, mainly it's just the lack of evidence that you were ever at the orphanage you claim you came from, we have records recovered from the orphanage that show everyone else that came from there definitely lived there but your records weren't among them."

I looked up sharply, I did have records from the orphanage, I had seen them myself but as quickly as my hopes were raised I slumped back down in my chair.

"What is it kid?" Jiraiya demanded, "What did you remember?"

"My records were there. I removed them the night of the fire so I could try and find out who my parents were. When it only told me my mother was dead though I threw it into what was left of the fire."

The Hokage stepped forward, "Can you remember the contents"

I nodded, "I could."

He put his hands on both my shoulders, "In detail?"

I frowned nodding, "My memory is perfect. Why?"

The Hokage ignored me and walked past my chair, I heard the door open and close behind me but I couldn't turn my head far enough to see if the Hokage had left.

I looked up at Jiraiya who was smiling "looks like you might have just earned a reprieve kid. By the way I don't like the idea of these secrets being kept from you for so long on so little evidence so here's your file." He held it in front of me and I scanned through the document. The fact that my journal wasn't keyed to me was a concern and I felt it was an unnecessary falsehood Minato had sold to me. I would be having words with him later. But I knew enough to seal it properly now so at least I was aware of it. The main thing that I took away though was that not only was the man stood in front of me related to me, he was my father.

I looked away from the file and to Jiraiya "you're my father?" I said. It wasn't really a question but it seemed so alien to finally have a solid tie to this world after so long. I had created my own, given time. But this was one of the earliest most solid relationships you could have in any life, family.

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head looking slightly uncomfortable, "It feels odd to hear it said but I guess so kid."

I was going to ask another question, another thousand questions but the door opened again and Jiraiya deftly closed the folder before anyone could see.

"Keiko," the Hokage said, striding back into view, "This is Toshi Yamanaka," he gestured to another man that stepped into view, "He is able to see specific memories if you call them to the forefront of your mind. In this way we may be able to alay all suspicions. He has been briefed on what he is looking for should you agree to the procedure."

I didn't see that I had much choice but I indicated that I understood.

Toshi then stepped forward looking somewhat nervous, "What you need to know is this procedure... It's not without risk. My clan have been advancing techniques involving the mind since we began but it's still not well understood. Things can and do go wrong and subjects don't always recover. Having said that this won't be a full mindwalk so the risk should be reduced. Do you understand?" I nodded, "Are you still willing to undergo the procedure?" I nodded again and Toshi smiled comfortingly and placed his palm on my forehead. "What I need you to do is concentrate on the memory you want me to see, bring it to the forefront of your mind, if you can try to imagine it overlaying what you see in front of you. Close your eyes if it helps."

I did close my eyes and a few moments later I could feel Toshi's chakra pushing into me. It was an alien experience and not at all pleasant but I endured. Moments passed and my memory of the day I woke up beneath the tree near the ruins of the orphanage started to become clearer, brighter, more solid. I seemed to hear, as if from a distance, Toshi asking me to go through the memory, to where I picked up the folder.

I tried to concentrate, the chakra coming from Toshi was beginning to burn. I played through the moments where I picked up the folder. Toshi said something again but I couldn't make it out.

I started flicking through the pages of the folder. Pausing the memory when I came across significant documents such as the official looking one I had initially dismissed after looking over it. There was a high pitched whining in my ears now. I got to the part of the folder where the matron had left her own notes. My vision was going white at the edges. I thought I could hear shouting but I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure what I could hear, was there sound? The folder I had in front of me bled into darkness, the darkness warring with the white that had seeped in at the edges of my vision and then I was sinking down into it, sinking into white and black. And then just black.

I came back to awareness slowly, like I was pulling myself from quicksand. Consciousness began as a fleeting thing I tried to cling onto but it slipped away. When I first opened my eyes I thought everything was still white but after I blinked I realised it was a light. I was layed down in a bed staring at the ceiling. It felt like I had been there for a while.

"Careful kid, you're OK, just in a hospital bed, Kakashi was Here earlier but he had to leave" I looked around blearily for the source of the noise.

"Who're you? Where am I? Who's Kakashi?" I said, the face that I had fixed on flinched and worry starting mixing in to his features.

"Er, wait here, I'll go get someone" He said making to get up.

I couldn't hold it any longer, I started laughing, it hurt my head but it was worth it.

Jiraiya looked down at me from where he got to at the foot of my bed and his face morphed from concern to confusion and then fianlly he sulked. "Haha very funny brat" he said making his way back to his chair.

"Your… face." I managed to get out between fits of laughter.

Eventually I calmed down, Jiraiya was still sulking though.

"That was a pretty mean joke kid" he said at last.

I hummed "Maybe. How often does an opportunity like that come around though?"

He was quiet for a few moments before he asked if I wanted any water, I nodded and he helped get me sat up by piling more pillows at my back. My head swam unpleasantly from the movement but with Jiraiya helping I was eventually comfortably sat up.

Sipping at the glass of water he gave me I eventually asked "So. What happened?"

Jiraiya looked at be before clearing his throat "Well the good news is Sensei got the evidence he needed and your name is cleared. I'll still be speaking to him about this later though." I nodded waiting for the rest of it. "The bad news is the stress the procedure put you through almost caused you to have a stroke. You went into a seizure immediately after."

I looked up from my water, I hadn't noticed any weakness in my limbs or any side effects of a stroke, "Am I going to be OK?"

Jiraiya grinned, "No need to worry about that kid we have the best medic in any of the elemental nations."

As if on queue Tsunade appeared at the doorway. "A good thing too, by the time you had gotten to me you were literally minutes away from having a massive cerebral hemorrhage." She shook her head "I don't know what the Hokage was thinking, your mind would have been unrecoverable had that happened."

Jiraiya waved that away, "Not a chance with you here Tsunade" he said, I heard her scoff and then Jiraiya turned back to me, "Anyway, your memory of the document has been judged accurate and valid so all suspicions have been cleared, the Hokage has given me permission to tell you that you're.… my son. That still sounds weird to me. But you already knew that. Hmmm I think that's everything. Oh the war ended, the peace treaty was signed 2 days ago. Including today you've been unconscious for 5 days"

I nodded along with what he was saying but almost jumped when he said I was here for 5 days "How have I been here for 5 days!?" I exclaimed

"You nearly died brat, I was leaving and if it wasn't for Jiraiya begging me to come back you'd have probably been left to some other medic and I don't think I would have betted on you living."

I shuddered at that thought and then asked "What do you mean leaving?"

Tsunade's mood soured a little and she said "With what happened with..." She waved a hand, "In the war. I had asked Sensei for some time away, kind of like a holiday with no definite end. I was on my way with little Shizune when Jiraiya caught up with me babbling about you, honestly I already knew about your relation and wasn't about to turn around even with Jiraiya begging me but he more or less dragged me back and here we are."

I nodded and after a few moments passed with no one saying anything I asked "Do you think you'll be leaving again?" I could understand running away from your grief but in the long term it never ended well in my experience. That was to say nothing of the lives that might be saved if a medic of her caliber was available. If she had been around would Tuechi's wife have died? We'd never know but if she was still planning to leave I would like to try and convince her against it.

Tsunade grimaced "It's weird the difference 5 days can make. If you had asked me 2 days ago my answer would still have been a 'hell yes'. Now though?" She shrugged "I'm starting to feel like I'm making a difference again and if nothing else I did make a promise to make sure Jiraiya took full responsibility for his actions in the past."

It took a moment to put together what she was talking about but when I did I turned to Jiraiya "We have got a lot of catching up to do."

"Damn right kid," he said grinning suddenly he jumped up from his chair striking a pose "For I am Jiraiya, the great toad sage of moun-"

There was a blur from the doorway and Jiraiya was on the floor "What have I told you about your stupid introductions" Tsunade seethed, she kicked his side eliciting a grunt from Jiraiya before calming and turning to me. "Visiting times are up at the moment, it's 11pm but that kid Kakashi will probably be back tomorrow. He's come in every day since you were admitted. You'll be in for a few more days yet. Just as a precaution."

I nodded smiling "Will you be staying?" I asked again.

Tsunade sighed "Sure brat, I'll stay"

AN: Kinda short but it felt right to end it here. After all getting Tsunade to not leave the village is the first significant difference Keiko has made so far. Hope you enjoyed. See you in the next chapter.