A/N: I swear I'll let Leah lay off the Fate schtick next chapter, I promise.

o.o.o.o.o

Leah trains Rin to manage Hel. The girl finds the work distasteful (especially when she is set to the task of punishing her countrymen), but she does the job she's been given, and does it well. The enchantments take care of most things, but having Rin helps more than Leah expected.

(The girl is not a handmaiden, but the joke flits through Leah's head nonetheless. She has the memories of Leah the Child. Loki gave her that.)

Rin has worked for Leah for a year when Konoha's death toll just suddenly peaks. It is not the slow peak of illness or war. It is the peak of a natural disaster.

Konoha is dying.

And somehow, Leah thinks, it's all hers. So many of them, hers.

Leah looks at Rin's ashen face, and smiles. "There is work to be done, my dear. Shall we?"

Rin gulps and nods. She is the first lieutenant of the Queen of Hel. She knows her job.

Leah opens a portal to Konoha and steps through. She needs to see. Needs to know. Needs to be there.

"Take care of things while I'm gone, will you? I'd like to see what's causing all this. I trust you. You can do this."

She steps through before Rin can say anything, and finds a city in shambles. There is screaming, crying, fire everywhere. There is also a giant fox with nine tails.

Leah is fairly certain she's found the reason for her sudden bounty.

She sees a bench nearby. She's landed in a children's park and there are quite a few places to sit scattered about, so she finds the one that gives her the best view of the rampaging demon and takes a seat.

She hides the smile on her face and placidly watches the creature destroy things.

She watches people die.

She ignores the shinobi that attempt to escort her to safety.

She bats away a boulder that threatens to crush her while they attempt to escort her to safety.

After that, they no longer attempt to escort her to safety.

Leah watches the Kyuubi destroy Konoha with a vague sort of interest, and a distant sort of amusement that Rin had died to stop the Sanbi from destroying this city, only for the same thing to happen just a year and a half later. It may even be worse, if the tails are any signifier of power. They might be.

The blond man fighting the beast summons Shinigami and sells his soul to seal the demon. She can't have that one. She can't have many of the dead shinobi, either. They died honorably in battle, futile as it was. She could try to argue them for herself, but there isn't enough weight to her words.

The redheaded woman with the demonic taint, however…

"Self-sacrifice," Leah says as she comes upon the woman, just seconds before one of Jashin's reapers arrives. The air of self-sacrifice is stronger with her than with any of the other dead; the scene of her death and the cause of it play over and over in front of Leah's eyes. "Not childbirth. She threw herself in the way of the demon's claw to save her son."

"Honorable death in battle." The reaper rasps, but it bows out after a few seconds of staring. "You were the first to arrive."

"Indeed." Leah turns to the woman and reaches for her shoulder with a smile. The woman backs away, looking nervous and suspicious.

Right. Ninja.

"Why were you talking about how I died?" The woman asks, glaring at Leah.

"We were deciding to whom your soul belonged." Leah explains, tilting her head. "Self-sacrifice falls under my jurisdiction."

"But, my son—" The woman turns back to her body, and then towards the blond man that Shinigami devoured. Leah stays back and quiet until the woman's eyes land on the small blond child that has not yet been discovered. "Naruto!"

Leah follows behind, more interested in seeing what happens than in getting back to her queendom immediately. Fate is wrapped tightly around this woman. It's different from the stranglehold on Rin (if Rin is a wrecking ball for Fate, then this woman is a strong foundation for some larger building), and weaker, but it's definitely there.

Leah nearly stops breathing when she sees the small blonde boy with whisker marks. She thinks she might know why Fate has an interest in this woman, now. There is something special about the infant.

Fate rests more heavily on his shoulders than anyone else she's met. Leah can almost taste the obsession.

"Oh, now this is an interesting one…" She mutters, drifting closer as the woman tries with futility to touch what Leah assumes is her child.

The child is not a wrecking ball. He is not a foundation. He is…

Well, if she's going to keep using this metaphor, then he's the entire construction company.

"You can't have him." The woman says with as much ferocity as she can manage, which is quite a lot, considering she's a dead woman trying to stand against a god.

"I don't want him." Yet. "He's not dead." Yet. "Children are returned to the cycle of reincarnation immediately, so there is no place for him in Hel."Yet. "He is not old enough for me to claim him for the future." Yet.

Leah looks at the woman, weighs her options, and then sighs and leans down to pick up the child. The woman looks terrified. "Whom do you trust?"

The woman blinks. "Er… what?"

"This child will be important some day. I have reason to see him grow to adulthood. Whom do you trust that is not yet dead?" Leah hasn't held a newborn before. It's strange. There is so much life in her arms.

"The Sandaime Hokage." The woman finally says. "Or Mikoto-chan. Or Kakashi-kun."

Leah doesn't know who these people are. She doesn't really care. "Lead the way, then."

The woman does so, and Leah sees her shudder every time she passes through something instead of bumping into it. Leah has long since wrapped herself in an invisibility spell, and weaves around the people that the dead woman just soldiers through.

It's amusing.

They find 'Mikoto-chan' first. She looks pale and drawn, and is ordering about a contingent of soldiers that look like they might be related to her. There are others nearby that look like they aren't related, but they don't interact with her nearly as much. Fate wisps about her, but less than the dead woman. It's still more than most people.

Leah drops the spell and steps forward, holding the infant close to her for the moment. "Are you Mikoto?"

The woman and all the people around her are on guard and nervous, alternately staring at her and the little bundle in her arms.

"…yes, why do you ask?"

"Here." Leah holds the child out. "I was informed that you were to be trusted with the care of this child for the time being."

Mikoto edges forward cautiously, darting the last few steps to take the boy. The dead woman at Leah's shoulder makes a wounded noise, but doesn't move.

"Who are you?" Mikoto asks, her eyes demanding.

"Leah." She says, and tilts her head to the side quizzically. "Do take care of that child. I'm rather interested in seeing what becomes of him."

"Naruto," The dead woman says, "His name is Naruto."

Leah turns to look over her shoulder with a raised brow, and then turns back to Mikoto. "I've been told his name is Naruto."

What an odd name.

Mikoto's eyes narrow. "Where did you find him?"

"Near the dead blonde man in the flaming robes." Leah sees no point in lying. Well, she is, technically, because the dead woman was the one to find him, but that's irrelevant.

"The Hokage…" Mikoto whispers, and what little blood is left in her face drains out.

Leah's starting to get bored. "I'll take my leave, then."

"Wait!" The cry comes from both the dead woman and Mikoto.

"Who are you, really?" Mikoto demands. Just a name was clearly not enough for her. Smart woman.

"Tell her to get him to the Sandaime," the dead woman pleads.

Leah feels her features smooth out into a blank expression that signals her annoyance to anyone that knows her. "Who I am is none of your concern. Take that child to the Sandaime. Farewell."

Leah tears a portal in the air beside her, wreathed in green flames, and steps through to her throne room. She ignores the gasps behind her and pulls the dead woman along.

Rin is waiting for her, keeping an eye on the enchantments and the mindless creations set to the task of punishing those in the deepest levels. She's got a clipboard on hand, a humorously anachronistic object that Rin insists makes her work easier.

"Rin-chan?" The dead woman gasps, and her voice is a mixture of shock and relief and possibly disappointment. Rin looks up sharply

"Kushina-san?" She's surprised. Definitely not happy about the fact that this woman is dead. "You… what happened?"

"You mean you don't know?" Kushina (apparently) asks, her dismay very apparent.

"I don't… no, of course not, I've been busy managing the sudden influx of dead from Konoha. I haven't actually stopped to ask what was happening. I had to wait for Lady Leah to come back." Rin's eyes flicker over to Leah, who's standing back with her arms crossed, watching this all unfold.

Kushina stiffens a bit and turns back to the woman that brought her to what is clearly some realm for the dead.

"Yes, that would be me. I assume you two knew each other in life?"

"She was my teacher's fiancée." Rin says, mechanical pencil nervously tapping against her clipboard. "I… didn't expect to see her this soon."

"And why is that?"

"Healing factor." Rin says promptly. "Um, may I speak with her before you send her on?"

Leah watches the shock on Kushina's face grow with something akin to amusement. She obviously wasn't expecting the deference that Rin is showing. Perhaps she hasn't realized where she is yet. "Actually, she's managed to intrigue me. I was thinking of offering her a job. Talk, and then see what you can do to convince me she's worth it."

Something sharpens in Rin's eyes and she nods decisively, grabbing Kushina's arm and dragging her to the edge of the room to speak in hushed whispers. Leah takes a seat on her throne and takes a look to see what's happened in her pretty little kingdom in the time she's been gone.

She doesn't bother listening in on the conversation between two dead Konoha kunoichi.

She already knows she'll have a new subordinate by the end of the day.

o.o.o.o.o

Next Time: Kushina is going to be ninja Steve Irwin.