Six years had passed since the event that affected Konoha's children so much, the event that came to be referred to in general as the Great Change. Kushina's claims had proven accurate, for the next two years any infant born had been born a demon regardless of who the parents were. In the third year though, more human children started to be born again, and by the time the fourth year started, no more demonized children were being born.
The weirdest thing of all was there had been an unforeseen victim of the Great Change. They were the puppies of the Inuzuka ninken, who all had been transformed into hellhounds. Kushina honestly didn't understand exactly how they got involved despite the fact no other animal did, but apparently they had been. Her guess was their chakra systems were close enough to humans to be affected. In any case, the hellhounds were still able to bound with partners who were also demons, so Kiba still got Akamaru as his partner.
Kushina taught them all how to disguise themselves as humans and release the disguises to take on their true forms so they could be out in public without attracting attention and also be comfortable at home too. Being able to take on their real forms in the comfort of their own homes was always relaxing for them.
Some of them didn't have to worry about having two different forms to live with. Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba, Hinata, Ino, and Lee could all easily pass for human even in their demon forms, as long as they didn't use their demon powers. Some of them preferred to be in their demon forms more though when given the chance. Tenten enjoyed the flexibility and natural attacks of her cat demon form, and Shikamaru had to admit he felt better balanced when in his crow demon form. Hanabi was similar, preferring her harpy form and hating having to switch between it and her human form since it affected her limbs.
Naruto had gotten used to being a fox demon, but what surprised him the most was the treatment he got from the villagers now. Some of the adults continued to look at him with unconcealed hate, but now he wasn't the only target they had. In that time, Konoha had gotten used to their children being this way and had learned to adapt to their kids unique needs. But there were still some small groups that still had some resentment towards the demon children; however they kept what they said quiet, lest they face the wrath of Kushina. While some of the adults learned that he wasn't the kyuubi, but still connected so they were cautious but not spiteful. But when it came to the kids, none of them felt any need to avoid him even if their parents told them to. They were too much like Naruto now and had some enemies among the adults; now was not a time for the demon children to turn against each other.
One of the problems they had to face was becoming actual genin. The first year to attempt this apparently resulted in a lot of failures. Some of them seemed to not understand the point behind the second genin test while others were deemed not ready to take it or the first. The Academy Director told Mito that they were still adjusting, but she suspected a hint of sabotage was involved. Without proof, it couldn't be changed, and thus the first class of demon students had only one passing team, the team led by Gai.
To this day Mito and Kushina still found it weird that a team that had Neji, a dog demon, and Tenten, a cat demon on it could succeed where the others could not. They also found it odd but not unexpected that Lee, in natural doppelganger fashion, tended to mimic Gai so much. For now, Kushina was willing to accept the possibility that they just lucked out over the others, but she still suspected foul play had been involved.
For Naruto's class, she would not accept only one team passing again. Even if it was Naruto's team.
With Naruto's class, all the tests to see who qualified as genin had just finished. The teachers Iruka and Mizuki were taking a brief break to add up their scores and see who passed and who didn't. So for now the students just relaxed.
"Hey Ino, you still coming to the Namikaze Mansion to celebrate tonight?" Sakura asked her friend.
"Oh absolutely. A party for all us who graduate being held by Mrs. Namikaze? I'm there. Especially if there's karaoke."
Sakura shook her head. "No way. The last time we let a siren like you sing like that you had us all this close to ripping each other's clothes off." She held her index finger and thumb less than an inch apart to emphasize her point.
Ino smirked deviously. "I doubt that you would be complaining if you got a chance to see Naruto without a shirt on." She said slyly and then added. "I know I wouldn't'"
The banshee blushed and looked away. "Why would you think that? I live with the guy. You think I've never seen him or one of the others shirtless? It's nothing new to me."
"Then why are you blushing like Hinata does around him?" Ino asked.
"Shut up."
"I… I would not mind seeing Naruto without a shirt." Hinata said timidly as she appeared in the seat next to Sakura.
Both she and Ino jumped from their seats "Where did you come from?" They both said together.
"I like being up here better. It's right under the air vent so I can stay nice and cool… and I can get a good view of Naruto." She said as she pointed to Naruto who was talking with both Kiba and Chouji.
All three girls sighed as they stared dreamily at the blonde.
Naruto was well aware he had an audience at the moment. His mother explained to him that female demons tend to gain an interest in the strongest male they knew, even if he wasn't of the same species, though they favor their own kind if they can. As a three-tailed kitsune, and son of the woman they all most respected, he was easily the most eligible mate-material they knew. Only Sasuke was considered his equal in terms of appeal and had a fan club of his own.
Fortunately no one's mating drive had kicked in yet so there was no pressure for Naruto to pick a girl he wanted. And right now he was too concerned about hurting any of them to give them ideas that he liked one more than the other.
Unfortunately for Naruto, the fourth member of his fanclub decided to make herself known. "Good morning Naruto." She said with a purr. She was Yakumo Kurama, a fellow kitsune though only a two-tailed one. The Great Change affected her kekkei genkai just enough to fuse her Id persona with her normal persona in an unexpected way, but didn't do much regarding her genjutsu skills. Without the fear of her mental monster, Yakumo had grown to become a vibrant confident vixen with great battle skills. She was currently the top ranked kunoichi student.
"Good morning Yakumo." Naruto politely replied.
"The party is supposed to start at 7:00 right?"
"6:00 actually."
"Oh, my mistake. Should I bring anything?" Yakumo asked, almost in a flirty way.
"Bring some hibachi. That sounds good." Chouji saidd.
Yakumo gave him a flat look. "I wasn't talking to you fatso."
Chouji snarled and stood up, slamming his hands on the desk hard enough to crack it but not destroy it. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"
Yakumo did not look intimidated in the least. "You're going to suck at being a ninja if you lose your cool with a single word. That's a weakness any enemy would love to exploit."
"I've told him the same thing, but it still strikes a nerve with him." Shikamaru stated.
"Yakumo, you better apologize before Chouji hurts you." Naruto told the vixen demon.
She sighed. "Alright, I'm sorry Akimichi. But I'm serious, you're going to get in trouble someday if you never learn to handle criticism."
"Ok class, sit down." Iruka called out as he and Mizuki came into the room. All the standing students sat down in the closest available seats. In Yakumo's case that was the one right in front of Naruto. "Today we'll see how much you've learned and if you've got the skills to become genuine ninja. Let's start off simple with the written portion of the test."
"You call that simple?" Naruto complained.
"Compared to actual ninja work, yes." Iruka said before he and Mizuki started handing out the tests.
The day went by with several tests for the genin-hopefuls. There was a written test, a speed test, an accuracy test, taijutsu spars, and of course the jutsu test at the end. Originally that consisted of only three jutsus, the henge, kawarimi, and clone jutsus, but not anymore. Those three remained as the henge and kawarimi did come in handy, and the clone jutsu while rarely used did qualify as a good test of chakra control, but Mito required more added to it to truly show how much the students had learned. One more requirement was a display of an applicable jutsu or skill that each student learned outside the academy curriculum.
That night everyone in Konoha could see the lights from the Namikaze Mansion where the party celebrating everyone graduating from the Academy. All the attendees were in their true demon forms for maximum comfort showing off their new hitai-ates.
The place had been wonderfully decorated. Balloons, streamers, banners that said 'Congratulations', there was music, lights, and tables stacked high with food.
Chouji, given his family and the fact he was a troll, was immensely enjoying the wide variety of food, filling his plate with great amounts.
Shikamaru stood next to his friend and rolled his eyes "Hey save some for the rest of us would you."
"Oh please, I could have five helpings and still not make a dent in it." Chouji grunted as he grabbed a fork.
"Just save some room for dessert." The crow demon said.
The troll boy laughed and patted his belly "I always have room for dessert. Besides, why do you care? You eat like a bird."
"I am a bird."
Meanwhile on the dance floor, admirers circled Lee and clapped as he performed impressive dance moves. Being a doppelganger he had the ability to copy anything he saw. And this was just not limited to fighting styles. He used his skill to memorize various dancing techniques and was performing them with expert precision. He and his teammates Neji and Tenten had been invited to be a sort of inspiration to the genin-hopefuls. Currently Neji and Tenten were regaling some of their more exciting missions with the younger demons, trying to ignore the cat and dog jokes they kept hearing.
"Naruto come dance with me please?" Sakura said as she gently grabbed the kitsune's arm.
"No, Naruto wants to dance with me." Ino told Sakura as she grabbed Naruto's other arm a tad bit more firmly.
Naruto looked at both girls with confusion. "Wait, I never said-"
Suddenly both girls started pulling on his arms, trying to get the other to let go.
"Let go of him Forehead!" Ino shouted.
"You let go Pig!" Sakura yelled back, not quite a banshee yell but it was still loud.
"If you both don't let go, you're gonna rip me in half." Naruto cried.
And then, from out of nowhere, Hinata appeared, a blush on her pale face. "I want Naruto to dance with me."
Yakumo then showed up. "Hey, I'm the mesugitsune here so I get first dibs."
From across the room Kushina and Mikoto, two of the adult chaperones at the party, laughed lightly as they watched the four girls argue over who Naruto would dance with. It soon got to where it looked like they were going to attack each other for it.
"Ah young love, there is nothing cuter." Kushina said.
Mikoto nodded "Indeed. This reminds me of when we were children and every girl in the village was trying to get Minato to go on a date with them."
Kushina smiled. "Like father like son. By the way where is Sasuke?"
Mikoto looked around and after a moment she pointed over to the corner, where Sasuke was having a conversation with Tenten and Neji.
"It's good to see him getting out and being social with others." Kushina commented.
"I was a bit worried that he might not want to come to the party, but when your son invited him he seemed very happy." Mikoto replied.
"It's good that our boys are becoming such good friends. I had thought that they might turn into big rivals like Fugaku and Minato were during their youth."
"Remember how when they went up against each other in the Chuunin exam and nearly destroyed the arena?"
Kushina laughed "I do. Sarutobi had to call it a draw until they could rebuild the place."
Both of them women laughed, enjoying the happier memories they had of their late husbands.
It was then that Kushina sensed someone coming up behind her, so she turned around to see Iruka and Mizuki standing there.
"Greetings Lady Kushina." Iruka said politely and bowed his head and Mizuki did the same.
Kushina smiled. "Hello to both of you. I didn't know that you were coming to the party."
"Well we heard that you need some adults to help watch over the kids while they celebrated. So we figured we would volunteer." Mizuki said.
"Plus as teachers we wanted to see our students off one more time before they all go off on missions." Iruka added with a grin.
"Well it's good that you are both here, because one of the kids vomited in the other room and we need someone to clean it up." Kushina said with an evil smirk.
Both chuunin looked mortified. "Why us?" Iruka asked.
"Because none of the other chaperones will do it." Kushina replied pointing to the other adults enjoying the party. "I'll make sure you're paid."
"Fine, I'll do it. Where is it?" Mizuki said, sighing.
"In the kitchen, you can't miss it. Oh, and it might be a good idea to make sure it doesn't actually touch your skin." Kushina said, trying not to laugh at the teacher's horror.
"Is it really that bad?" Mikoto quietly asked when the men were out of earshot.
"It came from a fire demon. You tell me."
While the girls were arguing, Naruto slipped away and moved to the back corner to take a breath, and there he saw Sasuke, leaning against the wall and watching everyone.
Naruto walked over and leaned against the wall next to the vampire, the two of them watched the others in silence for a bit, until Naruto spoke.
"So are you enjoying yourself?" He asked.
Sasuke looked over and nodded. "Very much."
"Why aren't your fangirls hanging around you right now?" Naruto asked.
"Because I'm enjoying a drink and I think they're afraid I'll bite them if they get too close." SAsuke said while drinking from a cup of blood. "I probably would. Blood always tastes better when warm."
"Guess I better get away then." Naruto joked, taking a step away from the vampire.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Oh please, if I bit you I'd get rabies or something."
A girl came up to them both. "Hey Sasuke. Got any extra on you? I'm starving." This was a vampire like him, a girl in their class named Kaede Shizuka who was one of Sasuke's fangirls. She had long black hair and grey eyes that almost matched the grey eyes Sasuke had. She wore a green kimono top but the bottom of her outfit was a white skirt, complete with blue shoes and white knee-high socks. Her most unique feature was a gold brooch she wore at her collar with a bat symbol on it.
"Sorry, no. But go ask my mom, she might. She sometimes keeps some on hand for me." Sasuke told her.
"Thanks. Don't get too busy while I'm gone." Kaede said as she walked off.
Naruto smirked. "Looks like you're going to be forced to dance too."
Sasuke groaned and frowned at his kitsune friend. "If you really want them to leave you alone, you could go alpha on them. Then they'll have to obey you."
Naruto shook his head. "Doing that will encourage them to get into their mating frenzy early and that will only cause more problems."
"I guess you got a point."
"What's the matter? Impotent? Is that why you two aren't near the girls?" A new voice asked from behind, startling both boys. They turned around to see Sai smiling as he always does. Sai was a tanuki, meaning he had dark rings around his eyes and a raccoon tail ears, and as a tanuki he tended to be blunt and liked to talk about genitalia for some reason.
"Shut up Sai." Naruto said.
Sai just smiled. "If I had a girl after me, I'd let her show me a good time."
"Until you open your mouth. How many girls have slapped you already?" Naruto asked.
"I've never counted." The pale artist answered, still smiling, making Naruto and Sasuke anime-sweat.
Everyone was too busy partying to notice that Mizuki had been away for a long time. Too long to simply being doing what Kushina asked him to. Fortunately everyone had been on the ground floor except for the youngest children who were trying to go to sleep. A sound barrier jutsu had already been put in place between the two floors so they wouldn't hear the downstairs party.
'Lucky for me that means they can't hear me either.' The blue-haired teacher thought. 'Demons may look like humans, but they're as dumb as animals most of the time.'
Even if the big threats like Kushina couldn't hear him, Mizuki was well aware that the ones in this floor could, so he moved as silently as he could, trying to find his quarry. 'Hmm...If I had something incredibly valuable, where would I hide it? It would have to be where none of these kids could get to it, but accessible for the head bitch here. I should probably look for her room then. Now the only problem is finding it.'
Some of the doors had decorations on them, telling him that children used those rooms. All of them were closed due to the occupants trying to sleep. But the one thing they all had in common were two slots on them filled with name plates to reveal who used these rooms. Judging from the looks of things, each room was shared by two children, probably because the estate wasn't big enough to give them all individual rooms.
With nothing else to guide him, Mizuki scanned the names until he would find either a door without or one that said Kushina on it. First he found an unmarked room, and carefully opened the door.
This room was a restroom. Not what he was looking for.
Closing the door, Mizuki continued his search.
"Sakura?" Kushina called over to the girl.
"Yes Miss Kushina?" She said as she came over.
"Could you please find Mizuki? He and Iruka came over to help out with the party, but I think he might have gotten lost."
Sakura nodded. "Of course Miss Kushina." She said as she left the room in a hurry, wanting to find her former sensei so she could get back to the party right away.
"Finally!" Mizuki said happily when he found what he was looking for. All the stored Namikaze jutsu and equipment room, the only light source came from a single window, he would not risk turning on the lights. He moved quickly, moving over to a large chest, opening it he discovered it filled with scrolls containing various jutsus, with Mizuki nearly drooling at the sight. "With this, I can finally become a jounin and quit my teaching job." He got out a large scroll that had all the preparations for sealing drawn on it, though it hadn't actually been used yet. With this, he could easily take everything away and hide it before Kushina found out it was gone. He placed it unfurled on the ground and gathered up everything he could.
"Mizuki-sensei?" A girl's voice called out behind him, making him freeze up. Slowly turning around, the blue-haired chuunin saw Sakura looking at him in shock from the doorway. "What are you doing? You can't-" She was cut off by a kunai thrown at her throat in an effort to silence her. Unfortunately in his hurry Mizuki forgot that weapons didn't work on banshees, meaning the kunai went right thru her harmlessly.
Right away Sakura started screaming, partly out of fear but mostly to alert everyone in the house something bad was happening. Even the soundproof jutsu Kushina had set up earlier couldn't block out a banshee's scream, so everyone on the main floor would hear her.
The Scream of the Banshee was so strong that it drowned out the sound of the music and the punch bowl cracked and shattered, allowing the red juice to spill everywhere. Everyone in the Mansion covered their ears, trying to block out the sound of the scream. Thankfully those on the first floor were not affected by the sound so much.
Mizuki unfortunately was only a few meters away and he could not press his hands over his ears hard enough at that moment. He thought his eardrums were going to explode. Thinking of no other way to escape the sound, Mizuki grabbed a single scroll from the pile and ran for the window. He jumped through, thankfully Sakura's scream had broken the glass so it made it easier for him to get through.
He jumped onto the ledge of the roof and then slid down it carefully before jumping once more and landing on the ground, however due to the disorientation caused by the banshee scream, he did not land with grace.
"Ahh, dammit!" Mizuki cursed as he rose from the ground, stumbling a bit. "That little bitch, she ruined everything." He looked at the scroll which he clutched tightly in his hand "At least I was able to get something out of this. Now all I have to do is get out of here." He turned towards the gate and was about to run when a kunai zipped past him, clipping the edge of his cheek.
"AHHH!" The shinobi yelled as he spun around to see Naruto standing there. "You little brat!"
Naruto withdrew another kunai. "How could you do this Mizuki-sensei? You steal from my mom and you try to hurt Sakura. I thought you were our friend."
Despite the pain Mizuki laughed "Me? Friends with youkai? I would never affiliate myself with you freaks. I was just working to gain your trust so I could get this." He held up the scroll.
"One scroll?" Naruto asked, thinking the idea was stupid.
"Oh I wanted more, but I'll have to settle for this until I can get the rest." Not wanting to hang around longer and risk getting caught by Kushina, Mizuki ran off into the forest, hoping to get to a hideout until the heat was off and he had enough time to use what was on the scroll.
Once in the trees, he saw a large cluster of ice kunais rain down at him. Mizuki dodged, though one did hit his left thigh. He stopped on a branch to pull it out, then saw another volley of the ice weapons. He jumped to the ground to avoid these ones, and there he saw a Nara shadow technique coming towards him.
"Damn, how did they get here so fast?" Mizuki asked himself before running up a different tree. More ice kunais came at him but he was prepared and threw one of his metal kunais between the projectiles towards where they were coming from. Then in a quick move fitting a chuunin, he spun to get to the other side of the tree before the weapons could hit him, then kept on running.
'Looks like my chances of being able to convince anyone I'm not involved in this are now slim to none. In that case, I better get out of the village ASAP and find somewhere else to go.'
A stream of fire shot from behind Mizuki, his only warning behind the sound of the approaching attack. He jumped to a higher level of the canopy, but once he did a sonic blast hit him like a tank and made him fall to the ground, hitting a few branches along the way.
'Ah... damn that hurt.' He told himself. When he opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Shino, all looking ready for battle. Kiba was in his human-wolf form, looking like a wolfman from a movie, and Hinata had a set of ice claws formed over her hands to maximize any damage she could inflict. Shino was hanging from a tree by a spiderweb strand, looking like he was waiting to Mizuki to make a wrong move.
Naruto, while angry and looking ferocious, smirked. "Bad move Mizuki-sensei." He said the sensei suffix sarcastically. "While I was keeping you busy, my friends got ahead of you ready to ambush you no matter where you went."
"You're smarter than I gave you credit for, but I'm not beat yet." The blue-haired chuunin commented, trying to sound tough.
"Oh yes you are, thief." Kushina said, making an appearance. Now Mizuki was nervous. "You didn't think I wouldn't follow, would you?"
"You can't do anything to me. This is a matter for the hokage, not a creature like you." Mizuki told her semi-confidently. 'If I'm going down, I'm sure as hell not going to let these things be the ones to do it.'
Kushina smiled, but it did nothing to make Mizuki feel better. "Alright then, how about I go get her right now?"
Within twenty minutes, Mizuki was bound by wires, handcuffs, and chakra-repressing seals, tied to a chair in the Namikaze training grounds. The scroll he had stolen had been taken back by Kushina and all the kids went back to their party. He sat in silence, hearing only the nocturnal wildlife in the area.
At the twenty minute mark, Mito Kajotenpi appeared before him. "Mizuki Touji, I've heard from trusted witnesses that you tried stealing clan property. Care to explain yourself before I pass sentence on you?"
"What are you going to do? Destroy me like that guy at your inauguration for mouthing off?" Mizuki asked, trying to sound tough to mask his fear. A lot of people in Konoha were afraid to get on this hokage's bad side because of that demonstration.
Mito smirked. "Oh that? Here's a secret, that guy was a shadow clone I planted in the crowd specifically to show disrespect and get killed by me. It showed everyone I'm not a figurehead or someone who needs bureaucrats to approve before I act. And I'd say it did the job quite well."
Mizuki gasped, making Mito chuckle. "Now, Touji, explain why you stole from the Namikaze. Refuse, and I'll hand you to Ibiki and the one who taught him. I hear paired together those two can give even the dead nightmares."
Mizuki sweated, and remained firm. "I don't need to explain myself to someone like you who makes a mockery of the hokage title. The Yondaime died to keep demons out of our village, and you dare to allow multiple monsters live here and even insist they be treated like human beings? You're the one who should explain yourself bitch."
Mtio frowned but did nothing. "They were human once. Their bodies changed, not their souls."
"Demons with souls? Ha! That's a good one." Mizuki retorted. He stopped when he saw the floor and walls burst into flames in random spots.
"I'm in no mood for your insolence Touji. Now I asked you a question, why were you trying to steal Namikaze property? Answer before my ability to incinerate reaches you and you're silenced forever as opposed to a possible lighter punishment."
Panicked, Mizuki ended up blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "I'm tired of being a teacher so I wanted to advance to jounin and get a better job and I knew the Yondaime's techniques would help me and besides I know he'd rather they go to making humans strong enough to keep the demons here from getting too powerful."
Mito frowned and flames danced around Mizuki's feet, causing him to pull his legs up before he got burned. "I can understand the desire to improve your lifestyle and change your career path. However..." She held out her right hand palm up, and a yellowish flame formed above it. "I do not approve of your methods nor your view regarding your own students. No matter what, I will remove you from your teaching job. But before I do more, tell me one thing Mizuki Touji, do you at least repent of your crime?"
"Repent? I did nothing wrong. You should be punishing those monsters for attacking a human like me. If you don't those kids are going to think it's okay to attack the humans here and Konoha will be destroyed and you will fall with it!" Mizuki all but shouted like a desperate doomsday prophet.
Mito sighed and shook her head. "I take that as a no. So be it. Mizuki Touji, for your crime of stealing clan property, endangering the lives of children, and conspiracy to continue the latter act if not the former as well, I the Godaime Hokage will pass sentence on you. You will serve no less than a year in prison at the end of which I will determine the extent of your punishment depending on your behavior during your year locked away. If you show signs of reforming, I'll keep you enlisted but you will be demoted to genin. If you don't, I will either extend your sentence or have you executed depending on the degree of your actions."
Mizuki grimaced. "Why don't you just kill me now and get it over it?"
The flames flickered. "Don't tempt me further thief." The flames then died down but did not go away completely but the fire in her hand was extinguished. "Be smart Touji. You could avoid a lot of problems by cooperating here. Let go of your demon-phobia and you could live a peaceful live here, or things could get a lot more difficult for you." She gave him a forceful, almost threatening look.
Mizuki tried to return it. "How could possibly allow those things to live here?"
"Because an extermination will only hinder us and raise questions to the outside. Questions we don't want our enemies or allies asking. Also, if you're so threatened by the demons here, wouldn't it be wiser to not give them reason to target you later? You saw what they did when you offended one of them, so imagine how worse it could have been had they actually wanted to kill you?"
Mizuki gulped, and Mito closed her eyes. "I see I'm not going to get any further here tonight. I'm going to leave you in the custody of the T&I department until you're transferred to the prison. Next time we meet Mizuki, pray I'm not disappointed in you."
"Did you find anything?"
"Nothing physical Lord Danzou. Under the circumstances I believed it would have been unwise to try anything."
The cripple looked intriuged. "Go on Sai."
The pale tanuki nodded. "Chuunin Academy teacher Mizuki Touji had already made and effort to pilfer the Namikaze Mansion for valuable materials and jutsu, and was apprehended by my classmates who caught him before he could get away. Miss Kushina got involved and thru her the Hokage as well rather quickly. If I had tried anything, it would have only made matters present and future worse. Was I wrong?"
Danzou shook his head. "No my boy, you made a good call. You recognized the objective was now impossible and chose not to continue. That is wise, not foolish. Tell me though, did you at least learn anything in your time there?"
"I learned my social skills still need adjustments. And if I go by the chuunin's actions anything of value would not be on the first floor of the estate." Sai told his mentor.
Danzou was silent. 'Doesn't narrow it down completely, and with this Kushina is likely to increase security. An unfortunate setback, but I have time to prepare.' Now he cleared his throat. "Very good Sai. You may go now."
Sai left, leaving the old warhawk by himself. 'It appears far too unlikely now to have someone move in to take the Namikaze jutsu. Tonight proves that. Fortunately that was not my only option for getting my objective. After six years Kushina will not share her husband's power, but maybe.. her son can be convinced.'