Obito did not consider himself too arrogant - no one in the Elemental Nations was as arrogant as Kakashi (that stupid bastard). The young Uchiha's dream to become Hokage was a completely natural thing; he was after all a damn good ninja. However, despite his innate modesty, Obito sometimes could not get rid of the impression that the whole world revolved around him. Otherwise, how was it possible that every time, he went to meet team seven, no matter how early he would have left, he was always (seriously always) late? And what was the worst, it was never truly his fault!

If not some old lady needed help carrying her shopping or painting the fence, then some idiotic cat could not get down from a tree, what resulted in a bunch of crying children. Seriously, what was the possibility that almost every cat Obito met had the same climbing indisposition in feline nature?! In all this little coincidences was something abnormal, as if some higher force had planned everything just to give the stupid bastard more reasons to glare at him.

Ok, maybe being late was not a good thing, but at least he was trying. Exactly like now.

The boy ran as quickly as his twelve year old legs could carry him, bolting through the roofs like any of these freakish cats should; quickening his pace to an all-out sprint. The pounding noise of his ninja sandals hitting the tiles with a clanging echo that matched the heart throbbing inside his chest with the thick frustration he felt.

Completely ignoring two jonins standing before Hokage's office window, the dark-haired teen jumped into it and with a grace of a drunk cow landed in the middle of the room, focusing all present eyes on him. Sensei's blues were more resigned than disappointed, recognizing that this one of his cute students, would always be late, Hokage present or not. The mentioned old man's eyes were blank, at least as far as Obito could tell, because right now clouds of smoke from Third's pipe hid them rather well. Rin's doe-like pools of brown were sympathetic and comforting – his sweet Rin, Obito could turn into a puddle of warm goo right now and there. Her eyes were so comforting, totally different than the grey ones, so dark that they were nearly black, yet they were not cold, just mocking. The bastard's glare was so smug, so knowing that he screwed up again.

Unfortunately, all of this was a norm, at least for him. He had known how they would react even before entering the office. Nevertheless, there was the last gaze which he did not expect. As if the bastard was not enough, next to Minato-sensei stood another bane of young Uchiha existence. The Uzumaki woman was rude, loud, bold and energetic like a stoned bunny; Obito could not fathom how their cool teacher could be with someone like that. Well… it was not true. Even he had to admit that Kushina was attractive. Men had to rip their eyes away from her every time she walked into a room. There was sunshine in her smile and her voice went right to a brain like a shot of baijiu. But now one of her brows slanted in strong disapproval while she cracked her knuckles. The redhead tried to catch him, but thank goodness sensei was faster.

Hokage was a rather patient man but he had seen enough of his shinobi antics to know that sometimes it was the best to stop their squabbles before they began, at least if he thought about making it for a dinner with his wife and sons; unfortunately, in times of war it was almost an impossible feat.

"Uzumaki Kushina, Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin," he began, causing an immediate silence. "The four of you were requested for a B rank. It's an escort mission to the old ruins. There, you will help the client find and examine fuinjutsu formulas. On the way back, team seven will perform one more mission, this time D rank. Do you accept?"

He was answered by harmonious "Hai, Hokage-sama!"

Hokage gave to the adults their scrolls with the mission details and took a solid breath of smoke from his wooden pipe.

"So, Sensei is going with us?" asked Rin blinking questioningly at Kushina.

The woman reading their scroll opened her mouth to answer but the next moment her lips formed perfect "o" only to slam with a loud smack. The air in the room froze. Nothing moved except of the beautiful, ruby locks that had already begun to float and divide into nine parts.

"Minato…" it was a whisper resembling arctic tundra that at any moment could turn into a raving volcano and explode in the face of sheepish golden-haired jonin.

Said jonin was smart. He ran.

Ω

"What, in the name of Rikudō Sennin, where you thinking? No, wait, have you even thought at all?"

"Listen, Kushina…"

"Don't listen to me now, mister, dattebane!"

Minato dodged behind their kitchen table. The cookbook flew through the spot where his head was second before, and broke an elegant vase they got from Hizashi's wife. Well, it's good he never liked it. Hyuga's sophisticated taste was a little too much for him. But when the raging woman grabbed his current reading material he reacted.

In the blink of an eye, Minato was behind her, closing trembling with anger redhead in firm but gentle embrace.

"I was worried, ok?" he tried to reason with her. "You had this nightmares like forever but the last two months was a living hell. Every day you were waking up screaming and crying. The previous few nights you were too scared to even try to sleep."

"It would be better in time! It always is," she protested.

"When? You are a kunoichi, Kushina, and sleep deprivation is a serious thing. Few more nights like this and you would be too exhausted to focus properly. You could die." He spoke clearly, in a snappy tone, his sharp eyes never leaving the lovely red before him. He buried his nose in thick curls and inhaled her scent. Sandal wood and oranges, it was intoxicating.

"They practically never sent me out of the Village, especially now and you know it," her protests were weaker, calmer.

"With every passing day you're going mad and I with you. I didn't know what to do, so I asked Inoichi. He said that confronting your fears should make it better."

"So you dragged it to the Hokage," her voice had a mocking and bitter edge to it.

"Actually, no," he denied. "And I asked Inoichi also not to do it. Sarutobi-sama thinks it's just my curiosity about Uzu shielding system. It could be useful to Konoha. He thinks you're a little apprehensive about it, that's all."

She snorted at that.

"A little apprehensive my ass. I totally freaked out in his office."

"Well, maybe it wasn't the best way to inform you…"

"You think?" She huffed, at least not wanting to throttle him anymore. "And now I will have to bear your team for at least a week".

"Come on, it won't be so bad. You know you like them, especially Obito".

"The brat", she huffed with a hint of sympathy, putting her hands on Minato's arms that were still around her. "But you know, I have an idea how you can make it up for me".

The blond man feeling her hands, slowly going to his shoulders, had an inkling of what she had in mind.

"Oh, pray tell…" his lips smirked before sliding to her neck for a kiss.

"My eyes!" an unexpected shriek of the young Uchiha snatched the lovers from their blissful unawareness. "What the heck, Sensei, it's the middle of a day?! At least get a room!"

"We're in our own home, brat!"

Minato sweet dropped. He would never be able to keep up with the temper of his princess or his team craziness. Sometimes it was easier just to let it go.

Ω

They were traveling for two days now and steadily approaching the ruins. It turned out that their client was no one else but Minato-sensei and objective - the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools, the old home of the Uzumaki clan. Konoha's resident Uzumaki was getting quieter with every step they took. Even Obito jumping from tree to tree in complete silence could feel the somber mood. Gone was their usual bickering and Kakashi's taunts.

The mountains were getting lower and the forest thinner. At dawn of the second day, they jumped from branches and ran on grass. When they stopped on a seaside cliff, the redhead uttered a low, painful whimper. Kushina wanted to cry, shinobi training be damned, but she knew that if she started, she would not be able to stop upcoming tears. The warm fingers wrapped around her hand reassuringly, making it clear that she was not alone in this.

Thanks to chakra control they easily crossed the treacherous waters surrounding the islands and stood in the middle of something that once was a Hidden Village. The three young chunins were growing up during the war, but until now they had not seen it long-term consequences. The streets that once thronged with life stood empty. There were no food vendors and the women with bright hair selling hand made goods from carts and baskets; no children who played amongst the crowds with their games and laughter; no shops with windows of fine clothing or fuinjutsu scrolls. Now even in morning sun all they could find was the dusty street with only the wind for company.

Uzu was a skeleton, stripped of its flesh long ago. All that remained was the concrete structures themselves, no glass, and no wood, nothing that could be used. Though the air was blowing as fresh as any sea breeze, this was a graveyard with unburied dead and the last standing Uzumaki was emotional bankrupt. There was nothing left to feel, nothing left to say, nothing left but the void that enveloped her mind in swirling blackness but before she could take a step back to run, there was a sound of vomit.

Green faced Obito was leaning on a nearby boulder that had once been a part of one of the famous barrier pillars. She knew there was the reason the boy was her favorite. He was not a very good shinobi, heck, he was pretty awful at it but contrary to his vocation, he was a good human being. Kushina was not alone here, there were others and she was responsible for them. She looked at Minato and for the first time in long time she had no remorse, no regrets that she was alive when they were not.

"We should go to the main barrier center, it's somewhere in the middle of the Village but I don't know where exactly. I've never actually been inside."

The blond man nodded and they went forward. As they walked on, the ruins seemed to be larger and more ragged, as if they were explored multiple times. Minato thought that with Uzumaki's fuinjutsu reputation it had to be true. Finding old seals in here was only an excuse, but since they were already in Uzu, they might as well look around. There could be something previous expeditions overlooked. Fuinjutsu was a tricky art and Kushina and he were one of the best of its masters.

"Rin, go with Kushina, Kakashi with Obito. If you find something interesting use flares. Kids, don't touch anything. This place, even after so many years, could be full of traps."

The Uchiha protested but no one was listening. Why he always had to be paired with oh so perfect Kakashi? Why he could not go with Rin-chan? Hell, even Kushina would be better.

"Come on, dead last, you heard Sensei." Kakashi not waiting for him had disappeared around the corner.

The Village was a dreadful sight, everything here was so silent and still, but of course the bastard was able to completely ignore it. The silver-haired boy thoroughly scoured every nook and cranny, not giving a thought about people who lived and died here. The remains of the buildings were covered with growing greenery that in the end would probably consume all Uzu ruins.

Obito sighed and followed Kakashi, pulling with chakra on nearby bushes and pinning their leaves to his body. Maybe he could scare the bastard pretending to be a forest monster?

"What are you doing, idiot?" as if reading his mind Hatake appeared behind the boy, giving him a nice heart attack. As clearly as sun at sky, it was followed by an exchange of insults typical for these teenagers and even few kicks and hits; what left sulking and battered Obito walking away from his adversary.

"Stupid, heartless, arrogant, selfish, pushy, bossy, holier than thou bastard. If I wanted to kill myself I'd climb his ego and jump to his IQ." It was not true that Obito hated him, well not exactly. It was just that if Kakashi was on fire and the Uchiha had water, he would drink it.

"Rules this, rules that blah, blah, blah. He's so high and mighty but I'm sure the bastard doesn't even know what he's looking for." Obito obviously would never admit that he also did not know what he was supposed to find. Frustrated, he intended to pick off a stick and break it into hundreds of small pieces imaging it to be Kakashi's stupid face. Unfortunately, there were no bushes within reach. Actually nowhere nearby grew any plants.

The boy climbed on the highest, protruding from nearest rubble pillar and looked around. Empty, bare terrain had the shape of a perfect circle. He, Uchiha Obito and not Kaka-baka, had found something. The young chunin could not stop overwhelming him with glee.

With a big smile he ran toward Kakashi to show him who was the true boss here, only to feel the ground underneath his boots give-way. A small gasp left his lips as his arms flailed in the fading light, gravity taking him down and he let out a scream. After a few moments Obito splashed into frigid water right up to his chest, the air knocked from his lungs. Once blinking the splashes of dirty water away he squinted upwards, the remaining sunlight barely was a small circle in the distance.

"Obito?!" Kakashi's flabbergasted voice echoed in the stone tunnel.

"Fetch Sensei and Kushina! I've found something."

Kakashi muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like fortune favors the fool and disappeared from sight.

It turned out that the tunnel that Obito discovered, was exactly what they were looking for. It was one of the entrances to the barrier facility, which emergency protocol included not only total shut down and an entire mountain of most deadly seals but also something that left Minato speechless for a few minutes after which his silence changed into full sized gawking and delighted squeaks. Kushina called it an eight-pointed bloodline star seal, preventing anyone but full-fledged Uzumaki from the main family to break it and enter.

It took them three hours but they were able to pass in. The cave changed into corridors leading down and then into gigantic caverns. It was a dimly lit fuinjutsu laboratory; nothing but lines of standing huge, arrayed stone blocks met their eyes. There was no movement of any kind. The lights like the stars in a night sky did little to lift the blackness, showing only the most deeply grooved swirls of texts that children could not make sense of. It was like sorcerer's den just in the size of a stadium, with black endless roof above and white shiny floor below. Every step echoed around, not loudly, but enough to give away their position.

For a moment Obito considered going back on the surface but then he stopped, they all did. Stopped moving and breathing, while their hearts sped up to running ANBU's rate. What they had thought to be abandoned shambles was nothing of the sort.

Kushina's skin was greyed in a way that made it look thicker, gristlier, as if all the blood had reached into her core or drained into the shining floor. It hung on her skull like pastry draped over a cut apple. The awful hollowness, the waves of misery threatened to engulf her mind, body and soul. In that moment even Kakashi could sympathize with her. In that suspended moment, a fraction of a second drawn out to eternity, his brain offered an explanation and yet rejected it at the same time.

What they had perceived to be a next odd block laying on the ground was a barrier seal. The lights glowed in its lines. They moved in great swaying bands of color like a living organism, giving birth to soaring sparks dancing into air, creating a dome.

"Sensei, Kushina-san, something is there."

Rin was right. Something lay not only inside of the barrier, but partly also on the outside. It was the lower part of the body, or rather what was left of it. The bones were covered by small, weathered cloak. Normally they would treat it like a next corpse, they were ninja, and they had seen dozens if not hundreds of bodies but it was not normal. Someone who loved this corpse was in their group. That was when the atmosphere changed, when the present shinobi started to feel the strain.

Children and Minato tensed but for Kushina it was only another proof of the past horrors that plagued her since they set out on this damned mission. Seeing Senpai like that was painful like shit nevertheless other things were far more important.

"We must unseal it." Her tone was urgent and nervous.

"Kushina…"

"You don't understand, Minato. It's special kind of Uzumaki Sealing Technique. It creates not only a protective barrier but also something like a stasis seal."

"Wait, you mean that whoever is inside could be alive? But how? I've never even heard of anything like that." He remarked doubtfully.

"It was more of a theory that practical seal because it requires huge energy inputs. Suzu-senpai probably connected the key seal with energy loop of Uzu barrier making closed correlation of six degree, fine-tuning their amplitudes."

Obito understood exactly the whole nothing of what the two fuinjutsu masters said and were doing but looking at the half of corpse made him want to vomit. Minutes and hours passed but for the young Uchiha as well it could be days in this hellhole. His thoughts became nonsense about Kakashi's superiority and he knew he was falling asleep.

He woke to the noise of arguing adults and light poking. It had to be Rin, his other teammate would treat him with a kick in the head. Next nudge to his ribs made him jerk awake to see the young kunoichi's smiling face.

"Sorry, Obito. I had to wake you up because you weren't listening."

"I wasn't sleeping," protested the boy wiping the last signs of sleep out of his eyes.

"Of course you weren't." Kakashi kept his tone cold and monotone, the blackness of the room reflecting in his unmoving eyes like shards of void. "You're drooling even when awake."

"You…"

"Could you two stop?" the girl's tone was sharp and begging for mercy at the same time. It was not only known whether she begged for herself, or for them when she finally lost her patience. The Nohara girl was kunoichi and every kunoichi was a feral beast when irritated.

"We should be ready to retreat if necessary" declared Kakashi, deciding to ignore Rin's whole existence, yet stopping his jabs. "Sensei and Kushina-san may end taking out the barrier even if they don't know how everything'll react."

Kakashi's posture clearly gave away what the boy thought about this unnecessary risk but his devotion for Minato's judgment outclassed attachment to rules.

It was one of the rare times when Obito was glad he did not had a sharingan. Having in his head the picture of red faced, fuming Kushina and disgruntled Sensei was not a happy perspective. The memory of their kissing was more than enough for him. The mentioned woman shrieked and slammed a hand into the shimmering wall of chakra, apparently against her boyfriend's protests.

There was not a flash of light, loud noise nor quite a pop. In one moment the barrier was in place and in the next it was not. Nevertheless, for sure in place was the second part of the corpse that was breathing. Obito stood there gaping when Kakashi shunshined next to Sensei ready to strike and Rin was already forming Mystical Palm Jutsu, but the eyes of the half decomposed girl stopped her. They were frightened yet after focusing on Kushina the gold irises held a sudden content.

"Good" was the only word that left her lips before they froze in an eternal smile.

Surprisingly it was Obito who broke the silence.

"We should move her, otherwise the blood will reach the kid."

Kushina whined again, it was disturbing how much of pathetic noises gave off the woman in the last few hours. More disturbing was the fact that they had not noticed a pool of blood leaking from fresh part of the body or the next, smaller one lying in center of the barely glowing seal.

The kid was young, dirty yet unmistakable cute. If they did not know better, they would say the little girl was sleeping while having a bad dream.

"Shiori-chan…" Kushina couldn't believe in it.

"Kushina, stop." As if confirming a warning of the blue-eyed man, the cave rocked on its foundations. "She should wake up. Something went wrong."

"We can't leave her." it came out as a low, harsh, angered wheeze.

"We won't." He said in all calm seriousness and Kushina couldn't quite understand how he could do that in this moment of pure panic. She could almost cry or maybe bite him. "The seal is still working, keeping her in stasis. Responsible formula must be somewhere else. The two of us must find it while the kids will watch her. Kakashi, if she wakes up or something goes wrong send your dogs."

The masked boy nodded and the adults were gone in a flash.

Team seven sat quietly around the seal, glancing cautiously at the child and the ceiling. It would have been wiser to go back outside, but they just could not leave their sensei and Kushina in here.

It was dark, darker the further down they went, their ears nearly popping from the rapid descend into the vast depths of the underground base. It was far larger than any of them thought so they decided to split. Checking all passed seals Minato pushed forward, his focused eyes scouring the vast expanse of black void that laid out before him. He felt a stab of lingering chakra if only just barely. In fact ever since they came in here, he could barely feel anything even if it was right in front of him, and not knowing why really unnerved him. It was like everything in this damn place was a ghost, only an image that wasn't really there.

Almost ready to believe it was all a mistake, an imagining of a nervous mind, his eyes caught a glimpse of a much darker swirl of a seal on the ground nearby and he instantly changed his direction.

Ω

The child stirred. It was not sluggish as it should be after nearly twenty years of sleep. The girl abruptly sat and looked at them with large plates of molten gold, blinked and muttered something that for Obito sounded like a total gibberish.

Rin being the sweet and caring soul she was, hurried up to the disturbed child.

"Hello, sweetie, how are you?" she asked with the gentleness of summer breeze.

The small girl blinked once more and Obito thought that no one should be allowed to have eyes like that. They were too adorable.

"Hello, kunoichi-san. I'm ok." That voice was also far too adorable.

"My name is Rin and that's Kakashi-kun and…"

"I'm Obito-kun." he cooed butting in, giving Rin time to look her up and down for any visible damage. "What's your name?"

"It's nice to meet you all, Obito-san. I'm Uzumaki Shiori, age five. I like reading, sweets and sunny days; please take care of me." With a wide grin plastered on her face, she bowed so low that she hit the ground with her forehead. "Ouch…"

Two thirds of team seven was officially sold. Well, more like three fourth because Sensei also was there. Obito could hear his joyful laughter. It echoed through the halls and into each and every corner of the cave, announcing the arrival of the blond jonin.

The girl found herself in the arms of the kneeling man in one fluid move.

"And my name's Minato. It's lovely to meet you, Shiori-chan."

Obito could not stop a snicker seeing these big, innocent eyes unable to unglue themselves from Minato. He had the kind of face that stopped people in their paths. The Uchiha guessed Sensei had to get used to it, that swift pause in a person's normal expression when they looked his way, followed by overcorrecting with a weak smile. Of course, the blush that went along with it was a dead give-away. It did not help that he was so modest with it, it made the ladies fall for him even more. Regardless of all the opportunity that came his way he was a one-woman-man.

"Hello" the little redhead stammered out at last, earning another heart stopping smile.

"Shiori-chan, Rin-chan here is a medic-nin. You know what they do, right?" a nod and quiet hum answered him. "Great, then she'll examine you, ok?"

After one more nod the teenage kunoichi got to work. The small Uzumaki with awe admired green light dancing from older girl's hands.

"You're so cool, Rin-san, and pretty."

The girl blushed from the praise.

"Thank you. You're also a pretty and healthy little girl."

"If everything is all right, we should find Kushina and get going." Announced the man, hoisting up the child. "What you say, Shiori-chan?"

"I'd be glad to go. I don't like it here very much, Minato-san."

"You don't have to be so formal, little one." He assured ruffling her hair. "You can call me aniki or however you want."

"I'll also be your Obito-nii, what do you say?"

Two blinks of molten gold later the girl chewed her lips.

"Obi-nii and Mini-nii?"

Sensei was beaming, Obito could feel it but none of them could say anything, because an accusing shout tore the air.

"What the hell are you doing?"

No one on team seven could understand what got into the spitfire of a woman standing in the doorway. They thought she would be beaming even more than Sensei, who was beaming mainly for sake of his girlfriend and her newfound family.

"Kushina?" Minato was bewildered like hardly ever before.

"Not you, Minato, her!" the redhead pointed an accusing finger at the sweet child while she approached them. The three teenagers reasonably took a few steps back. "Why you're so childish, dattebane?!

Shiori's shy smile lingered for a moment before it vanished completely.

"I'm five. No one can accuse me of being too premature and cute."

"You never were premature, even in your diapers; and who told anything about being cute?"

One Uzumaki was force everyone must reckon with, but two was able to turn the world upside-down and inside-out. In some odd twist of time and space the little redhead was in the arms of her cousin who tried to hug, nuggy or break her neck – Obito was not sure which one. Shiori had shown admirable defense putting her elbow in use, pushing it in Kushina's face. Suddenly the little one cased her brave resistance and went limp.

"Shiori-chan?" Kushina's sharp glare cased and became concerned seeing the child's uneasiness.

"Kushina-san, that's Suzu-onesan, right?

Everyone froze. They were certain that someone so short couldn't see the corpse that Kakashi moved away but failed to take into account the girl gained height when lifted up.

"Yes."

Kushina's straightforward answer seemed a little too harsh to Obito, but on the other hand how could anyone say something like that any gentler? The girl's brows furrowed as her mouth turned grim. Her unique eyes seemed to reflect the black of the cavern. Her size said she was five or six years old, but her gaze showed that she was far older than that. Obito guessed a war and death could make everyone like this; felt like they had grown a thousand years older though it had been just a few heartbeats.

"I know it's hard and you don't understand many things right now but we should bury her or something." Continued the uncertain woman. "Do you know how she wanted to be…?"

"Burn her."

The dark-haired boy expected shouts and tears – not an answer.

"Suzu-senpai wanted to…?"

"I don't know and it doesn't matter. Funerals are for the living not for the dead".

In that one moment Obito knew that the little, sweet looking girl was nothing like Kushina and the thought frightened him.

All my thanks to all you guys who have reviewed/faved/alerted/lurked/read. I adore all of you, and of course mrsmiawallace88 as well, who is as invaluable and awesome as ever. Until the next time ^^