Final chapter, y'all. Thanks for all the love via comments/favs/hits.

FOUR

Kushina felt that the door to her hospital room must have lost some structural integrity from the hours of stares she gave it that night. She seemed to see a flash of yellow, a swirl of white out of the corner of her eye every time she looked away from the door, so she kept her gaze steady and whiled away the hours by making plans.

She did not know what this plan that she and Minato had hatched would mean for her quest - with the Kyuubi imprisoned, would she be able to consider her mission completed? Would that fulfill her promise? She had planned to find some way to neutralize the Kyuubi, which had destroyed her home so many years before – if that job was done, though not by her, could she really find rest?

Then there was the matter of family. She still had to find them – if there were any left to find.

But what of this family – her husband, her son? And what if Minato was right – what if the Death God still required his sacrifice?

What on earth would that mean for Naruto?

Nonsense. Minato was going to walk through that door – tired but alive; babe in arms. Victorious. They were going to be married. Kushina would do her duty and search for a month or two, and then, no matter what she found, they would be together.

And there could be peace.

She was tired, but she would not doze. She wouldn't give up when her everything was hanging in the balance. Even if she was not in a position to act herself, she would keep vigil.

The dull explosions and shouts were no longer echoing into her room from the outskirts of town. The hospital was like a tomb. Kushina waited, but no one came.

Screw vigil. She wanted to know what was going on.

Gingerly, she swung her legs over the side of the hospital bed and hoisted herself into a sitting position. She perched there for a few moments. Her head was swimming and every muscle protested. She argued back by shoving off the bed and trying her feet across the room. The floor was icy, and the floaty hospital gown combined with her baby-free belly made her feel light and brittle like a dried leaf. She took a few shaky steps and glanced around the room for clothing. The dreaded maternity jumper was MIA, but she snatched up a discarded doctor's jacket from the armchair in the room. It was a little small, having belonged to Rin, but this was no time for fashion concerns.

She padded silently down the hospital halls. No one scolded her for being out of bed. Kushina found her way through the labyrinth of hallways to the street below. The unearthly lightness that she felt seemed to possess the entire town. A few citizens were out and about, but they all looked dazed, and they took no notice of Kushina. Pre-dawn light made Konoha ghostly and ethereal.

She wandered in the direction where she'd last heard the sounds of battle. The sun began to peek over the tops of the buildings, jarringly bright. Before she reached the end of the town, she began to hear the sounds of hundreds of whispering footfalls accompanied by the occasional shrill cry of an infant. She stopped and squared her shoulders as the approaching crowd rounded the bend.

It seemed all of Kohoha came around that corner. Shinobi supported one another in a weary plod down the street. Hundreds of familiar faces noted her and glanced away. At the front of the procession, a familiar silhouette seemed to be cradling something in his arms. The figure looked up and saw her.

It wasn't Minato.

Sandaime placed the baby in her arms, and Naruto's wailing dimmed marginally. She looked up at the Third Hokage, questions swirling behind her lips, fighting for precedence. Before any one question could win out, the wave of people broke around them – two stationary figures in a tide of shuffling humanity – and she saw what was approaching.

Her Yondaime was laid out on a stretcher, his filthy hair barely reflected the early sun, but she could tell it was him from the way the parade gave him a wide berth. He was borne by the oddest set of shinobi she had ever seen: Kakashi, his expression troubled, was readily apparent by his shock of silver hair. Opposite him was Jiraiya who was forced to stoop considerably to keep the stretcher level. The sannin's expression was positively tortured. A faceless ANBU took up the third position, and the fourth was occupied by little Rin, whose nose was red and whose cheeks were tearstained so that her lavender tattoos looked striped with rivulets of grape jelly.

None of them made eye contact with her. None of them stopped; they marched on in a daze. Sarutobi, the village's remaining Hokage, patted her shoulder absently and passed her to continue down the street with the crowd. She followed Minato with her eyes as he passed on the stretcher. Kushina couldn't make her lungs take in air when she saw his profile. His face was ashen – free of all expression. That face was never free of expression, not for her. She watched him, willing him to wink or to grin or something – anything. But nothing came. The crowd closed in around Minato's body, hiding him from her view.

Kushina looked down at the child in her arms. This was not the same baby that she had given birth to. Yes, the hair was Minato's, the cries were still hearty, but he had three deep indentations on each cheek that had not been present before. His eyes, still deep newborn blue, were somehow more slanted, and bloodshot. His belly bore an ugly black brand like a curse mark. Kushina felt a sick dread grip her stomach. What have we done, my love? What have we made?

She looked up at the people still filing past her and noticed for the first time the way that they were looking at her, looking at Naruto. There was disgust in the eyes of young chuunin, terror in the posture of a little genin kunoichi, and pure unadulterated loathing in the sneer on Danzou-sama's face.

She knew what the meeting was about. She knew those gathered in the Hokage's study were discussing the future of her little boy – correction, her little monster. Kushina puttered around the near-empty apartment in Hokage Tower, erasing signs of recent habitation. This was not her home without Minato in it. Naruto was peacefully asleep against her chest, snug in the baby-carrier slung across her chest. She glanced at his little whiskered face and stifled the urge to cry.

What on earth was I thinking? My greatest enemy is now inside my own little boy.

She supported his downy yellow head in her hand and crouched down to roll up the vibrant orange area rug on the floor of the former nursery. When she stood and turned, Sarutobi was in the doorway.

"Sandaime-sama."

"Kushina-san. Isn't there anyone who can help you with this?" The old man sounded tired.

"Heh, I'm not exactly the most popular person in the village right now." Sarutobi had the decency to look baffled at this comment, so Kushina elaborated. "I'm the one who kept distracting their beloved Yondaime from his job. It's my bastard son who now carries the Kyuubi."

"Give them time, Kushina-san, they will embrace you both once they have mourned for a while."

"I don't intend to stick around to find out if you're right. We'll be going soon." Kushina thoughtfully rubbed her baby's back and addressed the bundle in a childish voice. "We're going to go find some more Uzumakis, aren't we fish-face? Get out of these nice people's hair?" Kushina glanced back up at Sarutobi and noted his reserved expression.

"That's not possible, Kushina-san."

"Hm?"

"Naruto cannot leave the village."

"What do you mean?" Kushina didn't bother keeping the warning tone out of her voice. This might be Sandaime Hokage, but she wouldn't allow anyone to take her kid away, even if he was a monster.

"The council has decided that in the interests of security, Naruto must not leave the village. You know that he is a jinchuuriki now, and whether Minato intended it or not, his powers will eventually manifest. Do you really think that you can protect him from those that would want that power – all by yourself?" He sighed. "Also, the sealing technique used on him was too volatile – it had too high a price. We are classifying it as a forbidden jutsu."

"Too high a price!" Kushina snorted in rage. "So now you plan on putting my son in a cage to study him? Don't you think that's just upping the price a little too far, old man?"

Sarutobi's voice was cold but even. "It's the best I could do. There were those in the meeting who would have seen Naruto killed in order to destroy the demon inside of him."

"Those inside the meeting! You're talking about Danzou, aren't you, admit it!" When Sarutobi didn't deny her accusation, Kushina felt her cheeks heat and had the nonsensical desire to claw at the old man's face with all the pain that was inside her. Instead, she screamed. "I will kill that traitor! After his little power play, you're still listening to him? What kind of an idiot are you?" The baby stirred and began to cry at the sound of his mother's fury.

"That's enough, Kushina." The old man's voice was quiet, but Kushina couldn't tell how angry he was because hot, stinging tears were flooding her vision, and Naruto was drowning out the tone of Sandaime's voice. She felt them drip off her nose and splatter between her fingers, which rested on baby Naruto's head. "Danzou was at the meeting, but it was not to give suggestions, it was for disciplinary action."

"Disciplinary action? I hope you cut his freaking head off!" She patted and rocked Naruto absentmindedly until his shrill cries turned to more muted whimpers.

"No, unfortunately I couldn't maneuver that one." Sarutobi sounded genuinely saddened by the fact. "He's too much of a favorite with the Daimyo. He was shuffled off the council. We put him in a sector of ANBU where he shouldn't be able to do much damage." The old man shook his head. "No doubt he'll still find some way to spin his little webs of political deceit, but at least he'll have to answer to me." The old man took a step forward and offered Kushina a handkerchief. "Kushina. I would never let anything happen to Naruto. If not for his own sake, for yours and for Minato's. You must believe me. You will adapt. The village will adapt. They will learn to respect you both as heroes."

"Sarutobi-sama, you don't understand." She took the handkerchief and gently wiped off Naruto's tear splattered head before using it on her own face. "I still have to go, but I can't leave Naruto behind. I vowed to find any survivors of my clan – I am still bound by that." Kushina gulped down the sob trapped in her throat.

Sarutobi reached out a weathered hand and stroked Naruto's chubby baby fist. The infant grabbed at his finger. "My dear, you must also attend to this survivor of your clan. Don't forget that."

The sob escaped with a visceral gasp. Kushina's head began to throb, and she clenched the handkerchief in her fist. There was no honorable way out of this situation. A decision had to be made, and she did not have the strength to make it.

It didn't rain the day that they added all those names to the monument. The sky wasn't even respectfully overcast. The sun beat down on the black-clad shoulders of those congregated and dark sweat stains appeared on every collar just as tears were dripping off every chin. It still didn't rain when they all moved on to Hokage Tower for the second ceremony. Kushina didn't want to go, but she did anyway. The blond baby in Kushina's arms cooed and squirmed and tugged her hair. She glanced down at his cherubic face – so like his father's.

And yet not.

Kushina's eyes were dry by the time the crowd dispersed. They weren't giving her dirty looks anymore. They weren't even acknowledging her. There was no whisper of the demon inside Naruto because Sarutobi had made a point of forbidding such talk. Kushina thought wryly that it may have been better to just let the talk dissipate naturally, but what did she know?

Nothing – she still knew nothing.

She was on the point of changing her mind all day: when she stepped forward to put a flower on the shrine in Minato's honor, when she returned to the little rented apartment to pack her things, when she made the rounds to inform everyone who might care of her plans (which didn't take long). It would only have taken one person telling her to stay, just one person.

But Sarutobi didn't say anything more against her leaving when she informed him of her mission. Jiraiya didn't criticize her when she approached him to request he keep an eye on his godson till her return. He merely suggested that she stop by the hot springs on her way out of town. Kakashi and Rin didn't say much of anything when she let them know. Kakashi looked thoughtful and nodded, and Rin promised to look out for Naruto when she had time.

She brought Naruto by the children's boarding house just before leaving the village. It was a cold, grey building that served as a sort of long-term day care for the children of ninja who were on missions. Kushina knew that all too often, kids left there became permanent residents – orphans in an orphanage – until they reached academy age and could care for themselves, more or less. She knew when she caught sight of the sour-looking woman that ran the place, that she was making a horrible mistake.

The matron, a battered old crone, held out her twiggy arms for the infant, but Kushina didn't place him in her hands. She backed off a step, repulsed, and images of her escaping this place with Naruto filled her mind. They wouldn't be able to stop Uzumaki Kushina. She could sneak out of Konoha in the middle of the night with her son and no one would be able to track them. The matron moved forward at Kushina's hesitation and made to take the baby.

"Hey – hey grandma! Chill for a minute, okay? Let me at least say goodbye to my son!"

The old woman pursed her lips in distaste but nodded and backed off. Kushina turned away and rocked on the balls of her feet, murmuring to the baby in her arms.

"Well, what do you say, kiddo? Should we make a break for it?"

Naruto gurgled and blinked at his mother.

"They're right, you know. I can't protect you like you need protected…"

The baby blew a spit bubble. Kushina, unable to produce a tissue, dabbed at the saliva with a clean spot on her sleeve. Naruto went a little cross-eyed trying to keep his mother's hand in focus. Kushina chuckled and stroked his pudgy cheek with her index finger. She sighed.

"I will miss you more than anything, Naruto." The little boy giggled and grabbed at Kushina's finger. "You know, this is just a mission, after all – I'll be back before you know it." Actually, the journey was in the village records as an 'extended mission' – meaning there was no telling how long she'd be away from the village, searching. Naruto just slobbered on Kushina's finger and cooed like he knew he was adorable. Kushina felt sick and her eyes began to sting. She screwed up her face in an effort to prevent the coming tears.

"Just remember, your daddy was a hero, and so are you. Wear a night cap so you don't catch cold. Don't let anyone tease you because of your name." The baby looked perplexed. His mother freed her hand from his fist and tickled his tummy. He grinned, a toothless baby grin.

"I meant it, Naruto. I promised your dad I'd come back, and I meant it. That promise is yours now. You can count on it."

Kushina stood there a while longer, just staring into that face. She could see Minato staring back up at her through the eyes of her son. She took in a deep breath and released it, blinking rapidly to cool her stinging eyes, and she turned back to the hag who was ready once again to receive the infant. Kushina shifted Naruto into the waiting arms, hating herself as she did so. She considered warning the old woman of what tortures she would receive if anything happened to her son, but realized that threatening the child-care specialist may not be the best way to ensure that they learn to love Naruto.

Instead, Kushina nodded briskly, managed a sad smile, and turned away from her baby. She stepped out into the raging sunlight, shouldered her small field pack, and left the Village Hidden in the Leaves.