Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and I am making no profit from this story, it is only for entertainment.

Chapter Summary: In which Rio and Jiraiya go on a field trip and Shikamaru gets the gossip (Ino would be proud)

Hi all!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the lovely comments! I also just wanted to clarify for those who are asking that this is going to be a three part series. Sunshine is pre-canon to just before the time-skip, then there's going to be a one-shot on a special mission Naruto is involved in but I won't say too much about because 'spoilers' that happens during the time-skip, and then the third part is Grey Skies, another multi-chapter story covering just after the time-skip until the end.

I'll admit that this isn't a small project of mine but I hope you can tell how much I genuinely love these characters. They write themselves at this point!

Please enjoy and again thank you so much for not only reading but your kinds words.


Chapter 38: Road Work Ahead? Uh Yeah, I Sure Hope It Does

Naruto reluctantly removed his arms from around Rio, ruffling his short blond hair before he took a step back.

"Come back safe, okay?"

Rio rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to fine, Nii-san," he said exasperatedly, as he'd heard those same words from every single person that said goodbye to him that morning. "I'm going to get this Tsunade lady and she's going to come back and help Kashi and Kazu-nee."

"Good," Naruto smiled, trying to hide the still lingering worry. "We're all relying on you."

Rio threw him a thumb up before he turned and jogged to where Jiraiya was waiting at the village gates. Naruto made sure to get in one last glare at the Sannin before they set off away from the village. He loitered in front of the gates for a few minutes before he shook himself out of it; Rio would be fine. He had to have more trust in him.

He shunshined to outside the administration offices, nodding at the chunin guards on duty. It wasn't long before he reached the double doors of the Mission Assignment Desk and he entered, making his way to stand behind the long, oak desk. The early morning sunshine filtered in from the massive windows behind him and reflected off the mountains of scrolls. There was a quiet hum of activity as other members of the desk handled their own workload around him. He looked up at the shinobi in front of him with a grin.

"You actually let him go then?" Sasuke asked with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, his amusement coming through despite his neutral expression.

The rest of them had said their goodbyes to Rio in Kazuya's hospital room about an hour ago. Kazuya had been more upset than usual but that was to be expected considering it was only a few days since their village was attacked and he was still confined to his hospital bed. Naruto really hoped they found Tsunade sooner rather than later.

"I could always assign you the Tora mission solo," Naruto replied easily, though they both knew that was an empty threat.

He looked down at the paperwork in front of him to orientate himself.

"Team Seven and Ten, due to the absence of Rio and recent promotions, I'm rearranging your teams."

He looked up to see Chouji's hand over Ino's mouth and a very unhappy Shikamaru. Sasuke was surprised but unconcerned and Sakura just nodded.

"The Council said that we were going to remain with our teams in a leadership position," the young Nara finally said.

"That's a waste of resources that Konoha cannot afford right now," Naruto replied firmly. "I cannot allow two chunin to perform genin duties when I need them elsewhere."

He felt the tiniest twinge of guilt as he saw their unhappy expressions but he stomped it out. They may be Rio's friends and he may know them better than most genin, but he couldn't afford to be soft right now. He had to view them as the shinobi they were.

"Sasuke, I'm assigning you to guard duty," he threw a scroll which was easily caught. "You are to report to the front gate until told otherwise. Go."

Sasuke nodded shortly, vanishing in a shunshin. Naruto had given him a lesson for making chunin, like Genma-sensei had done for him. He was impressed that the Uchiha had learnt it so quickly but he should really know better with Sasuke.

"Shikamaru, you're going to work with the desk," he continued. "We need more hands on deck and I know you're smart enough to keep up. You'll be reporting to me but if you go through that side door and continue until you reach a room with a massive map on the wall, the others can start teaching you about how it all works."

Shikamaru nodded much more reluctantly than Sasuke and slouched over to the door, vanishing from view. Naruto turned his gaze back to the three genin remaining.

"Sakura, I'm placing Team Seven on hiatus until Rio returns and Kakashi wakes up so you are being placed in Team Ten. You need to remember that for anything paperwork related for the next while, okay? You are Team Ten for the time being."

Sakura uttered a quiet 'okay' and Naruto could understand; despite being at the academy together, the bond between teammates was different. Being thrown into a brand new team that already knew each other could be daunting but he had complete faith that she'd be able to handle it. He'd watched her grow since that first dinner after the bell test and Kazuya and Hana had done an amazing job with her. She was finally comfortable living with them and when Naruto spoke about 'his kids' he included her within that. He'd have to make sure she knew that.

"Ino, Asuma is assigned on other missions so you're going to be the team leader, okay? You're responsible for coming to the desk for missions, handling the mission debriefings and any other paperwork that comes with the team. You also need to coordinate with other team leaders on the ground to make sure the rebuild is going as smoothly as possible."

It couldn't be Sakura since she was new to the team and as strong as Chouji was, he had a lot of confidence building to do. Ino was assertive and a good kunoichi. He knew there was a risk due to the competitive rivalry between the two girls but he hoped they realized that doing their jobs was more important. This would be a good test for them.

He threw another scroll at the Yamanaka and she caught it, her pale blue eyes hardening with resolve.

"Today, you're going to the Hokage Mountain to help with displaced civilians. Chunin Aiko is in charge over there and she'll give you more details. You'll be reporting to the desk every morning to receive your assignments and to hand in the mission reports from the day before. Dismissed."

The three responded with a shallow bow and turned, leaving through the large double doors. The fleeting thought of how strange it was to call his first academy teacher by an official title was quickly dismissed as Naruto spotted the genin of Team Eight coming through the door. This would be a long day.


Rio concentrated as hard as he could on the rubber ball, trying to rotate his chakra like Jiraiya had said. Nothing happened and he threw the ball to the ground, watching grumpily as it bounced away from him.

"Patience, gaki, even your father didn't learn the Rasengan overnight."

Jiraiya sat nearby with his legs crossed, his chin propped up on one hand as his elbow rested on his knee. Since they'd left Konoha two weeks ago, Rio had learned a little about his brother's godfather.

First, he was a massive pervert. He'd spent a good chunk of the first few days bemoaning the fact he couldn't go to the hot springs in the towns they visited. When Rio had asked why, a haunted look had crossed the man's face; he suspected Nii-san had done something considering Kashi used to get the same look back when he'd started visiting more regularly. Second, the man loved toads. Not frogs, he was really insistent on that, but toads. He had a summoning contract which he'd offered to Rio but he'd had to say no. Kashi had already promised him his dog summoning contract and he didn't want to go behind his godfather's back like that. He hadn't been able to read Jiraiya's expression that time. Third, he was very dramatic. He constantly struck poses and gave himself random grandiose names that Rio had quickly lost track of. Overall, the man was strange but no more so than the likes of Gai. He also asked a lot of questions.

"So the Uchiha knows about Minato and Kushina?"

Rio gave up on the next rubber ball and stomped over to the Sannin, plonking himself on the ground.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "He moved in next door after what happened with his family and he was round at ours so much that Nii-san wanted to tell him."

Jiraiya nodded thoughtfully. Rio knew that something had gone down between Nii-san and Jiraiya but the man was Nii-san's godfather so he was family, just like Kashi. He didn't see any harm in answering the Sannin.

"How many of you are there in that flat?" Jiraiya asked curiously. "He talks about 'his kids' a lot but is there more than you and Sasuke?"

Rio lay back onto the warm grass, staring up at the canopy of green leaves above them. He'd had to stuff his forest green jumper into a scroll and was resting in a plain green t-shirt and black shinobi trousers. His hitai-ate on his forehead kept his hair out of his face slightly and he'd kept on his black shinobi sandals despite the heat.

"There's me and Sasuke, but Sasuke lives next door but since Nii-san blew a hole in that wall it's like we're in the same flat now. Sakura moved in and took Sasuke's spare room a while after we graduated; I think she had some problems with her parents and Kazu-nee unofficially adopted her or something. That's who lives there but Kiba and Shikamaru and their teams come over all the time and Hana and Genma-sensei too…I don't actually know how many people come over to our flat but usually we have some sort of foot traffic all day. Kazu-nee usually makes enough food for like eight people just in case."

He missed that. Before Nii-san and Kazu-nee had left on that shitty mission, their home had rarely known silence. Kiba used every excuse possible to invite himself to Kazu-nee's breakfasts, and by extension his team, and he always caught Hana and Genma-sensei lounging across a sofa at least once a week. He even saw Shikamaru's dad at the kitchen table once having tea with his brother. It was never quiet and that was the way Rio liked it; he associated silence with the days that Nii-san was in the hospital, both back when Nii-san was a kid and more recently.

"Naruto's a popular man then," Jiraiya grinned, laughing boisterously even as there was something in it that rang hollow. "Any ladies come to visit?"

"No way," Rio couldn't help but laugh. "Ino asked him about it once and I thought he was going to run away."

His mirth faded.

"Actually he might and I wouldn't know," he said quietly. "There have been loads of people that know Nii-san that he's never mentioned. Like there's this kid who was in the exam and Nii-san taught him for a whole year and I never knew; and another kid in a whole other village, he'd been writing letters to Nii-san for months and I didn't notice."

He sat up.

"I think there's a lot about Nii-san that I don't know; probably about Kazu-nee too."

"I'm sure he's not doing it on purpose, kid."

Rio shook his head.

"I know he isn't but that makes it worse. You could ask Nii-san anything about me and he could answer easily but if people asked me about Nii-san, I couldn't do that. I don't ask Nii-san about himself. I didn't care about his work or his missions or even about the people he met up with around the village because it just didn't occur to me to ask. He was just Nii-san to me but the more I find out the more I realize that there's this whole other person."

There was a moment of silence that followed his words and Rio listened to the leaves rustling above them in the warm breeze.

"You know, gaki, that isn't your fault."

Rio turned to argue but Jiraiya held a hand up.

"Do you know many kids who know anything about their parents beyond their roles as their parents? You're only starting to realize now because you're older but Naruto was your primary caretaker when you were younger; you didn't think to ask because you didn't know it existed. Why would a little kid think that their mother or father had a life beyond them if they couldn't see it? This is a part of growing up."

Rio considered the man's words. That did make sense even though it did nothing to lighten the guilt still swirling in his gut.

"The important thing is that you've realized it now and can start to ask the right questions."

Rio nodded, grinning mischievously as he looked at him.

"Since when do you sound smart?"

He huffed as Jiraiya pushed his shoulder, shoving him over.

"I'm always a genius, gaki, you just can't always appreciate it."

Rio hauled himself back up, the laughter fading slowly as he tilted his head to look at the Sannin.

"You know, it's not too late for you either," he tried. "Nii-san isn't the type to hold grudges. I'm sure if you made an effort he would forgive you. He says life is too short to spend it mad at people."

He didn't know why Jiraiya flinched at that last sentence but he hoped it was because he was listening to him. He knew Jiraiya hadn't been there for Nii-san like Kashi had been there for him. From the past couple of weeks he'd spent with the Sannin, he knew it wasn't for lack of love or wanting to try. Even he could see the guilt Jiraiya had for not being there for Nii-san and Rio could relate to that a bit; he wished he'd done more for his brother when they were younger.

"I know it was harder for Nii-san raising me and juggling the academy and his job than he'll ever admit to me, but if we don't try now that we know that, that's even worse."

"Sure, gaki."

Jiraiya stood, brushing off his haori.

"Come on, we can make it to the next town by nightfall."

Rio nodded and scrambled to his feet, running off to find the rubber ball he'd thrown away earlier. He would find Tsunade and master the Rasengan and when he got back, he would be the best brother ever. Believe it.


Shikamaru dumped the pile of scrolls onto Naruto's desk and groaned as the feeling started to return to his arms. If anyone said that the paperwork chunin had the easiest job in Konoha around him ever again, he would not hesitate to punch them in the face.

Since that first day two and a half weeks ago when he'd been given a quick rundown of the map, colour system and the mail tubes he'd barely had a chance to think. So much information was crossing his desk at any given point and he didn't know how everyone was coping. He knew he had the easiest workload. He wasn't actually organizing missions, just helping the chunin with contacting other departments and keeping track, but it felt like much more. Every day he left and collapsed into his bed, his mother dragging him back out of it for dinner. His father understood his pain and made sure to find time every few days for them to unwind with shogi.

"Thanks, Shikamaru."

Rio's brother was sat behind his desk, smiling tiredly at him. He'd flung his jounin vest onto one of the wooden chairs off to the side and rolled up his sleeves to his elbow, exposing more of the tattoo on his left arm. His red hair was tied up into a braid that Shikamaru was sure he'd left in for at least three days now and there was a dark patch on his black shirt that Shikamaru knew was ginger tea. The jounin had been drinking it constantly and Shikamaru didn't know it was possible to ingest that much ginger. Blue eyes scrutinized him for a long moment.

"Have you had a break today?"

"Not yet," he shrugged. "The finance department was being a drag so I ended up staying an hour longer than I was supposed to."

"Yeah, they can be a bit weird about stuff," Naruto laughed. "There have been many disputes between them and the desk; just the nature of two departments that work so closely together."

Shikamaru nodded and looked out the window behind the tokubetsu jounin. The clouds looked particularly nice today.

"Shikamaru."

His gaze was drawn back to Naruto.

"It's about eleven now," he said kindly. "Continue working until twelve then take the rest of the day off. Don't come in until nine tomorrow."

He couldn't help but show the surprise he felt. Despite the attack happening just over two weeks ago, nothing showed signs of slowing down and he knew they needed everyone they could get not just at the desk, but in every area.

"You're of no use to us tired and burned out," Naruto continued as if reading his thoughts. "You're still pretty new at this and you've done incredibly well. Take the day, sleep, play some shogi, look at the clouds. Come back tomorrow in top form, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

Naruto pulled a face.

"Please stop calling me sir; I've already tried and failed to stop the rest of them but I can at least make sure it doesn't get passed to the next generation."

He said it with good humour but Shikamaru just eyed him, nodding once before leaving the office. He made it back to his tiny desk in the midst of the chaos of the office and took a seat, pulling a file to look at but not opening it.

He knew from Rio growing up that his brother worked a lot. Every time Shikamaru saw him at the Uzumaki household he had a seal or file in hand and when he came over to his house with his father, they always ended up talking shop over the board. It was one thing to know and another to experience it for himself. For every file that Shikamaru managed to pass on to its destination, Naruto had assigned and debriefed at least three missions. The last time he'd been allowed to start at nine instead of the usual seven, Naruto had already had two meetings, a shift at the front desk and a walk with Momo. The real mind-fucking thing about it was that Naruto had no idea how much he actually did compared to the rest in the office.

He never expected anyone to do more than what they could handle and was very firm about people taking breaks and making sure they ate something, but that apparently went out the window when applied to himself. It was part of the reason Shikamaru suspected why he still tried to get people to address him more casually; he didn't think he deserved it. He'd accepted his defeat for most of them but Shikamaru could see that he thought they were teasing him. Shikamaru knew they weren't; he'd overheard a lot of talk about the eldest Uzumaki during his time here.

Last week a guy named Iwana had started complaining about him. He thought it was a waste for Naruto to work at the desk; someone who graduated at seven and became a chunin at ten shouldn't be a paperwork ninja. Naruto should be taking the jounin exams or the ANBU entrance exams and should be out fighting for the village on missions. His teammates were the strongest Inuzuka and the best combat medic nin bar Tsunade and the fact he was still at the desk after being promoted was proof of either laziness or cowardice. Shikamaru had been furious but almost the entire department had turned to tell him to 'shut the fuck up' in unison. He'd later found out from another guy called Koutarou that Iwana didn't like Rio, and by extension Naruto, so he liked to chat shit about him. They all ignored him.

Shikamaru hadn't known someone could be so liked and respected while still being an uncompromising taskmaster. He was fair but firm and didn't suffer mistakes, but instead of building resentment it made everyone work harder to be better. He'd asked Haru once why that was; she'd told him that Naruto never asked for something he wouldn't expect of himself. If anything, he held himself to higher standards. It was hard to dislike someone so genuine and that worked so hard. Shikamaru had ended up agreeing with her.

Asuma-sensei was a great teacher but Shikamaru knew he was more lenient than the other teams from their year. He'd heard about the paint dodging exercise Kakashi occasionally released on Rio's team and was thankful Asuma-sensei had never thought to do that to them. He'd always loved the relaxed style of teaching as it'd given him more time to nap and look at the clouds but now he slightly regretted it. He knew he would always be lazy at heart, but even his father, who had the same tendencies, was able to work hard when it was needed. He needed to wake up a bit; he'd chosen to be a shinobi and maybe it was time to act like it a bit more.

He'd heard from others that Naruto had been working this hard since he'd been assigned to the desk so he probably didn't notice how much his workload was compared to the rest of them since he'd been doing it for years. Shikamaru had seen that for himself; the Mission Assignment Desk would fall apart without him. How he still had time to visit Kazuya and Kakashi in the hospital while still ensuring he was there for a few meals with Sakura and making sure Momo got her twice daily walk was beyond him. It made him feel a little ill to think about how much energy it would take to maintain it all. He later found out he was doing all this on what was supposed to be his lunch and dinner breaks and Shikamaru didn't know when he had time to sleep or eat. In the past two and half weeks since he'd started this job, he'd only ever seen Naruto eat four meals; he was hoping that the man was grabbing something to eat on his excursions out of the office.

It had only gotten worse last week when he'd walked into Naruto's office last week to find him going over seals with a member of the Barrier team. Turned out that instead of sleeping, when Naruto left the office in the evenings he was designing and providing fūinjutsu for the newly built village walls. When he'd finished that project he'd moved on to making seals for the hospital. Apparently he was the only person in Konoha certified in fūinjutsu and if that wasn't enough of a burden.

It was a unique perspective to have on a guy he'd known for so long. He'd always thought of him as Rio's brother and his father's work friend and hadn't really gone beyond that. Now he was seeing up close just what Naruto and his office team did for the village and Shikamaru felt out of place. The way Naruto spoke to the Clan Heads and the ANBU, that wasn't normal for a paperwork ninja. He had so much authority within the village and Shikamaru hadn't known how much his life as a genin had been influenced by decisions Naruto had made. He knew his father was one of the highest officials of the village but it hadn't clicked that Naruto was too.

He was even spearheading the creation of a logbook for the new Hokage; it would detail what had happened since the attack so they could be up-to-date as quickly as possible. He hadn't seen it for himself but he knew Naruto even had some measure of responsibility in the other departments.

He was only three years older than Shikamaru; the same age as Temari. It was easy to underestimate him because of that despite the fact he gave off the demeanor of someone at least a decade older. Shikamaru had also had another realization; nobody had ever seen all of Naruto. The people at work saw the hardworking boss, Rio saw the happy, caring older brother, Asuma saw the busy fellow comrade, and his father saw a young leader and good friend. The only person he could think of that would have seen the most was Kazuya but Shikamaru had a feeling that there were things that Naruto hid from even him. Even the people who answered directly to him didn't know the full scope of his duties and responsibilities.

He looked up and noticed that the hour had already passed and he was free to go. He stood and caught the attention of Haru.

"Are you heading out for food? Can you get me a bucket of coffee?"

"I'm done for the day," he shrugged, feeling bad despite knowing he probably needed it.

"Nice!" She grinned widely at him. "Enjoy it for the rest of us."

Shikamaru shoved his hands into his pocket and nodded, walking out of the office. The urge to go and find a nice place to look at the cloud was almost overwhelming but he shook his head. He could work on his shadow jutsu first; he needed to build some stamina so he didn't have to forfeit his next match. He knew he could be better and he felt like he owed it to his team and new coworkers to try.


A slow drip bounced off the stone walls of the dark cave. It was soon eclipsed by the sound of footsteps entering the room.

"We have found her, Orochimaru-sama."

"Where is she?"

"Tanzaku Quarters."

A low chuckle filled the cold room.

"Excellent work, Kabuto. I think it is time that I pay a visit to my old teammate. We have much to talk about."


"I think I have it!"

Rio grinned as he skipped along the road to catch up to the Sannin. He proudly held out the rubber ball and concentrated his chakra, building it up bit by bit until the rubber ball burst, the material launching itself in all directions. He looked up and caught the impressed look Jiraiya quickly tried to hide.

"Not bad, gaki. There's just one step left."

He pulled out a balloon and blew it up, tying it off and handing it to Rio. Rio took it and frowned.

"I thought I already did the balloon step?"

"That was a water balloon and the aim was to burst it," Jiraiya explained. "This time, you have to do the same chakra spinning and power build-up but you have to do it without popping the balloon."

Rio groaned. It had already taken him over three weeks to get to this point and everyday he wanted to hit something in frustration. He'd been so excited when Jiraiya had told him he was going to learn his father's technique but it was proving much harder than he expected.

"Maybe once we get back to Konoha you can teach your brother this technique?" Jiraiya continued.

"He would learn this so fast," Rio grinned. "Nii-san has amazing chakra control. I saw him walk up a waterfall once and I tried it after Kashi taught us the water-walking technique and I couldn't even get a grip on the surface!"

"Did he ever say why he worked so hard on his chakra control?"

Rio had to actually think about that question. He came up empty.

"I don't think so," he said slowly. "Nii-san and Kazu-nee always told us about how important the basics are so I figured they were just following their own advice. They were always coming up with training exercises for us."

"What kind of training exercises?"

"Once they tied me and Sasuke to chairs on our first day of our last year at the academy. We had to escape in time to make it to class," he laughed. "That was the first and only time Sasuke has ever been late to class and he was so mad, but now we know how to get out of restraints on our own."

He thought back to all those 'training exercises' Nii-san and Kazu-nee pulled on him when he was younger. At the time he'd thought it was just an excuse to prank him but now he realized exactly what they'd been doing. It was something to laugh about now.

"It sounds like you had a lot of fun."

"Yeah, it was the best."

A silence fell over the pair as they walked along the dirt road.

"You haven't asked me about your father."

Rio's head snapped to the Sannin and he cocked his head at the Sannin's frown.

"What do you mean?"

"I just thought you'd be curious about your old man," Jiraiya tried to laugh it off. "You know I was his jounin-sensei so I just figured you might have some questions about him is all."

Rio blinked.

"I guess I didn't really think about that," he realized. "I mean, Nii-san told me some stuff but I didn't know him. He died the day I was born, same as my mom. I get that they were great shinobi and everything but I don't really need to know much about them as people. I don't need to; I have Nii-san and Kazu-nee and Kashi and Sasuke and the Inuzuka and even Sakura. I guess I never thought I needed to know anything about people I'll never meet."

"They're your parents, dead or not." There was something in Jiraiya's voice but Rio couldn't pinpoint exactly what. "They brought you into this world and you should want to know about them. It's the least they deserved."

"No offence but they chose the village," Rio rolled his eyes. "Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad thing, but they didn't just leave me they left Nii-san too. They didn't do anything except bring me into the world. There are loads of people who helped me and raised me and I think they are way more important than people who died before they could even name me."

He met Jiraiya's brown eyes head on. He knew the man had been close to his father but that wasn't Rio's problem. Rio didn't have to be curious or even like his parents just because they were his parents. He didn't mention his feelings about the matter to Nii-san because he always looked so happy to tell Rio stories about them. That's what was important to Rio; his family, the people who were right in front of him. He'd had the same outlook since he'd found out about his parents; why did he need them when he already had Nii-san and Kazu-nee? Sure he'd pay his respects at their graves but that was more for Nii-san than himself.

"Do you actually know where Tsunade is yet?" He abruptly changed the subject, uncaring as to how unsubtle it was. "Where are we going now?"

Jiraiya took the out even though Rio could tell he wasn't happy about it.

"Of course I do, gaki, my reach is far and wide and all powerful."

Rio waited but when the Sannin didn't elaborate, Rio nudged him in the side.

"Well?"

"Tanzaku Quarters, about five miles from here."

Rio nodded before looking down at his balloon. He could do this before they reached wherever that town was. He concentrated his chakra and winced as the balloon almost immediately exploded.

Okay, it might take a bit longer than that.


"I think we might need to call it a day, gaki."

Rio wasn't about to complain and just followed the Sannin further into the city. They had reached Tanzaku Quarters about three hours ago and they'd come up with nothing. He hadn't been able to work on the final step of the Rasengan once they entered the city proper so he'd just been taking in the sights while Jiraiya fruitlessly failed to find Tsunade. There was a festival going on that day and Rio had enjoyed the colourful sights and lively music. It was something different than the endless roads and quiet towns that he'd suffered the past few weeks even if he was happy to be out of the village for a bit.

He hopped up into the barstool next to Jiraiya as they settled on one of the stalls facing the streets. He asked the stall owner for ramen but a voice caught his attention.

"Jiraiya?"

"Tsunade?"

Rio peered around the large man to see two women sitting in another couple of barstools. The woman who had spoken seemed a lot younger than Rio pictured she'd be; wasn't she supposed to be the same age as Jiraiya? Her straw blonde hair was pulled back into two low pigtails with shorter stands framing her youthful face. Brown eyes were latched onto Jiraiya in shock and Rio tilted his head curiously at the purple diamond in the middle of her forehead. She had a green haori, similar to Jiraiya's red one. Rio looked at the other woman beside her. Shorter, straight black hair that hung to her shoulders and equally dark eyes, she looked only a few years older than Kazu-nee in her black combat kimono.

"That was way easier than you made it sound, Jiraiya," he commented lightly as the two women looked at him in surprise.

"Shut up, gaki. I'm just that good."

"Kushina?"

Rio's eyes snapped to the blond woman. He knew he looked like his mother from the pictures Nii-san had shown him, their violet eyes were identical, but he had his father's blond hair.

"That was my mom," Rio answered her question.

"Kushina's kids died during the Kyūbi attack," she said faintly, unblinking as she stared at him.

"Rio was born just before she died," Jiraiya explained quietly. "Naruto also survived but we changed his name. We didn't want Minato's enemies targeting them before they could protect themselves."

"My godson is alive?" If possible, Tsunade's voice was even fainter but her words caught Rio's attention.

"Wait, Nii-san has a godmother?" he demanded, leaning his elbows on the table as he leaned over.

"Yeah, gaki, Tsunade and I were named godparents just before your brother was born," Jiraiya spoke up and Rio threw him a glare.

"Wait, so both of you abandoned Nii-san?" he scowled.

"I didn't know he was alive," Tsunade was quick to respond.

"You would have if you'd visited the village at least once over the past twelve years," Rio mumbled underneath his breath but Jiraiya cut in before Tsunade could retaliate.

"Look, Tsunade, you need to come back to the village. We've been sent to offer you the Hokage's hat."

Rio almost fell off his chair. Jiraiya hadn't said anything about that; he'd only told Rio that Tsunade was needed in the hospital.

"So the Sandaime really died then?" The dark-haired woman spoke up quietly and Rio felt the words like a punch to the gut.

He'd been desperately trying not to think of the people they'd lost since the funeral. Seeing Jiji's picture among the rest of the fallen shinobi had been so hard and he didn't know what the future looked like without him. He knew he hadn't been visiting Jiji much and that he'd kind of let things between them fall to the side since his graduation from the academy but he'd always thought he'd have time to fix that. It hurt to think that he'd lost that chance; 'what-if' had circled in his thoughts for days after they buried him.

"Orochimaru killed him," Jiraiya confirmed gruffly. "That's why they need you, Tsunade."

Tsunade scoffed as she slammed back the rest of what had been in her glass.

"Only fools become Hokage," she sniped back. "All Hokages are good for is dying and leaving the rest of the village to pick up the pieces. Look at Minato; he left two kids behind all to 'serve the Will of Fire'. It's ridiculous."

"Hey, you can't say that!" Rio shouted, pointing a finger in her face. "The Hokage is the one who protects everyone in the village! You can't talk shit about something you don't even understand!"

"Oh I understand far more than you, brat," Tsunade glared. "I've lost enough to that Hat to know that anyone who takes it is cursed."

"Tsunade, even if you don't take the hat you still need to come back to Konoha," Jiraiya tried to mediate. "We have injured that only you have the skills to help. We can talk about becoming Hokage after that."

She laughed but Rio didn't like the harshness of it.

"I am never going back to that village." She bared her teeth in a ghost of a mocking grin. "It's stolen too much from me."

"You act like you're the only person who's ever lost someone!" Rio couldn't help but interrupt. "So what? You lost people; everyone I know has lost people and they still somehow managed to not be complete assholes! Nii-san lost his parents, his mentor, and practically both his godparents since neither of you have bothered to show up! Kazu-nee lost his mom, dad, and a bunch of his friends at the hospital!"

He scoffed.

"My teammate lost his entire clan in one night and you want to claim that you're the only person with enough loss to excuse you from being there for the people who are still alive."

Silence followed his words and he could see the fury building up within the woman. He knew they were supposed to be trying to convince her to come back but Rio couldn't find it in himself to soften the blows. Kazu-nee and Kashi needed help and Tsunade just wanted to wallow in a pool of self-pity. He didn't know who she'd lost and he had Kazu-nee's voice in the back of his head saying 'everyone grieves differently' but he'd lost any semblance of patience he had.

"Rio, why don't you go to the hotel with Shizune?" Jiraiya finally broke the awkward tension. "You can take the chance to calm down."

Rio scoffed and shoved his chair back heavily.

"I'm not the one failing my village," he shot back petulantly. "She doesn't even deserve to be the Hokage; she's barely a shinobi of Konoha."

He stomped away, following the dark-haired woman away from the stand.


Thanks for reading!