"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down..."

-Robert Frost, from his poem Mending Wall

.

.

.

Kakashi stared at the little child urgently tugging him to the door.

"Ikki stapped! Ikki stapped!" Naruto was repeating over and over.

Even as his mind translated that as "Ibiki has been stabbed," he glanced over at the still-sleeping Idate on the couch and wondered how the older boy hadn't woken up with all the noise Naruto was making. It made him wish Kushina's genes hadn't featured so predominately in her offspring; he was being extremely loud now that he was actually talking—such a rare feature that it made the Jounin blink rapidly.

But the fact that he'd just been napping quietly moments before this grand speech and the kid's words themselves confused his patient babysitter. Where would the little boy have gotten such an idea? What made him think his guardian was injured? It wasn't as if the child knew Ibiki was on a very dangerous mission...right?

"Uh..." Kakashi thought for a moment before trying to reassure the hyperactive blonde that his father-figure wasn't in any danger. "No, I'm sure he's fine. When he comes back, you'll see for yourself that..."

But the blonde just pouted, crossed his arms, and walked away.

In one ear and out the other. Yup, that's just like Kushina, alright.

As he watched the boy walk towards the sleeping Idate, Kakashi analyzed the tiny person. Naruto and his current guard didn't know each other very well yet, mostly because the young man had been busy with ANBU missions ever since the day of the Kyuubi attack. He'd really only started watching the two children a few weeks ago, but what he'd learned so far had shaken him to the core.

Even at such an unbelievably young age, Naruto didn't trust easily. All overtures of friendship had been pointedly ignored and even backed away from, even though he was rather lively and friendly towards the younger Morino brother. In fact, from what Ibiki had said, the only ones Naruto had problems with were adults and that it had taken quite an effort on his own part to get the boy to trust him. He'd only gone into Ibiki's custody a few months ago; what had happened to him before then? The Hokage's looks of extreme guilt didn't do anything to ease his mind, either.

No matter how many times he had demanded an answer of the Hokage, no matter how many hours he'd given to his private investigation, he still found nothing. So...either there was no one willing to talk or the only possible witnesses had been forcibly silenced.

Whatever had happened, it warranted around-the-clock protection from ANBU itself. There was at least one agent hiding in the woods at all times, and even though Kakashi wasn't in uniform, he was still ANBU himself and assigned to watch the children in the house whenever Ibiki was out. The Hokage wasn't taking any chances and had only chosen the most trustworthy for this task: Kakashi, who would never harm his sensei's only son, and the strange kid named Tenzou, whom the Sharingan user had been training for the last year.

Whatever had been done to him—by both society and the Hokage—was serious.

But his suspicions had to wait, because Idate suddenly let out a very loud howl as Naruto stuck a wet finger in the older boy's ear and twisted it around. To Kakashi's extreme annoyance, Idate began crying and screaming just before hitting Naruto, who then started crying and screaming himself.

"'choo 'it me!"

"Is you faul'! Why you lick me!"

"'cause 'choo snore!"

"Nu-uh!"

"Ya-huh!"

"Nu-uh!"

"Ya-huh!"

Naptime was clearly over.

Kakashi sighed, dragged out his book—which was not Icha Icha, for once—and opened it to the first page. "Hmmm...peanut butter marbled brownies? Oooh! Let's see...preheat oven to 350 degrees..."

"Oh, boys!"

They both stopped and looked at him with tears and snot still running down their faces.

"How would you two like to help me make brownies?"

Immediately, Naruto and Idate were grinning, their argument (and fears) forgotten and both were running towards the kitchen to jump and chant. "Brownies! Brownies!"

Kakashi smiled. He couldn't wait 'til Ibiki got home. He was going to leave the man's kitchen an absolute mess.


5:00 p.m.

Ibiki was not having a good day. It was the first time he'd failed a mission given to him by the Hokage, he had a new scar to add to the already-overwhelming number, and he'd lost a teammate. All of it had happened in one day.

The only truly good news to come out of it was the fact that the baby had survived, thanks to a technique perfected by the legendary medic, Tsunade, herself. Now, it was possible to actually transplant an unborn child into another woman's womb. Although it was by no means easy and required a whole team of medics, it had proven necessary more than once in the event of the biological mother's death. The only downside was the risk involved; the strain it put on the host mother's body could be extreme, depending on how far along the baby had developed and the general health of everyone involved. If the medics tending to Rin weren't very careful, she could easily die and the child with her.

For that risk alone, Kakashi would kill him when he found out, and Rin herself would probably be in for quite the tongue-lashing. But Ibiki? Yeah, he'd be dead for failing the mission. But how was he supposed to have known the whole thing would be a set-up? He'd thought he was leading them away from Dragon, not towards him! That...humanoid thing had been nothing more than a distraction.

Oh, like the temperamental Jounin was going to care...he was still going to die. "That egotistical little..." Ibiki continued grumbling oaths and curses to himself as the nurse stitched up his arm.

"There, Morino-san! All better!" the nurse, a petite brunette cooed at him in a chipper, grating tone.

He lifted his eyes toward hers and glared. "Are you going to give me a lollipop, too? Or are you through treating me like a three-year-old?"

She gulped. "E-er..."

Ibiki mentally slapped himself. The poor nurse hadn't meant anything by it; he was just irritable and he knew it. "Great, another potential date down the drain. Good job, Morino. This is exactly why you're still a virgin! Gonna have to rely on Idate for grandkids, Mom." Rather than embarrass himself and scare her further, he merely apologized gruffly and left. He did, after all, need to get back home to check on Naruto and Idate, regardless of his impending demise.

But even as he walked away, Ibiki found a reason to smirk. That nurse was checking him out. The interrogation specialist turned his head around and winked.

She blushed beet red.

Maybe there was hope for a family of his own, after all.

IF he lived.

At that thought, Ibiki suppressed a groan as he headed home. The outside air chilled him almost instantly, and he bit back another groan. "Why does our country have to be so weird? Other people have winter during winter. We get all their leftovers when they're finished with 'em...jerks."

He passed through the town, walking by villagers as they gossiped, bartered, and ate. Families headed home, children hanging from their joined hands, and shopkeepers began closing up even as customers made their final purchases. It was getting colder, after all; when it was warm, stores and stalls often stayed open all night. Some people, he noticed, were whispering amongst themselves that it would probably start snowing soon. He believed it; the clouds were especially gray and heavy-looking and the bite in the air was intense. Ibiki hoped he'd get home in time.

He really, really hated the winter and had no interest in dragging bits of it into his house. Who knew what destruction Naruto and Idate would wreak with puddles of snow?

...which reminded him: what kind of shape would he find the house in after being gone all day long? He groaned out loud. Kakashi was absolutely no help in the keep-the-place-in-order department. In fact, in Ibiki's opinion, the legendary Copy-nin was in serious need of a psychological evaluation. Anyone that disorganized needed a check-up. The interrogator smirked to himself; perhaps something could be arranged.

As he wound through the crowd, however, a few flakes began falling all around him. He noticed one family in particular—a man with long, blonde hair carried a child on his back while a woman with a similar appearance held his hand as they traveled home. He recognized his former teacher and his wife and daughter immediately but didn't stop or give them a second glance. They'd had a...falling-out of sorts some time ago. Still, as he and the Yamanakas passed each other, an image seemed to cover them, and the blondes' hair shortened as the girl disappeared entirely. Instead, a teenage boy with a hat-covered, bald head walked in between them and smiled as all three participated in a long-forgotten conversation.

But he blinked and, a moment later, the image was gone, as was his former friend. Neither Ibiki nor Inoichi had paused or flinched in the least. Still, the special Jounin wondered if another image had overtaken his form in a similar manner; he wondered if his old teacher had seen the boy he'd once been—the confused, frightened child he'd taken in and trained after the Mission from Hell—and regretted it as much as he did.

And they both continued home unimpeded, one to his family and the other with his family. Ibiki couldn't decide, even as he left the civilian traffic and approached his house, which he thought to be more lonely.

"Well, at least it's still standing," he mused as he arrived at his home in the woods. He spotted the ANBU agent outside as the man nodded, letting the scarred man know it was safe to enter. It gave him a moment of hope that, for once, perhaps the inside hadn't been destroyed again...for the fourth consecutive time.

Gingerly, Ibiki opened the door, stepped through, and tensed, expecting someone or something to jump out and bite him. It was...clean. The paint and crayon markings were still everywhere, but other than that, no damage had been done. And what was that wonderful smell coming from the kitchen?

"Kakashi? You alive?"

A masked head poked out from behind the wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house. "Ibiki? You're back?"

Ibiki frowned as he closed the door. "No, this is a figment of your imagination. An enemy infiltrated half an hour ago and cast a genjutsu over you, creating the illusion that I'm here when, in reality-"

"Ok, ok, I get it. Geez...I was just surprised, that's all. Thought you'd lead them on a wild goose chase 'til tomorrow. There's no need to get snippy..." The Copy-nin trailed off, noticing the bandage wrapped around Ibiki's arm. "Ibiki, what happened?"

Unable to keep the facade up any longer, his head lowered as he sank to the floor, hands shaking. "Naruto and Idate—are they safe?" He noticed his voice shaking, as well.

Kakashi quickly moved over and sat down next to him, and Ibiki had to hold back hysterical laughter when he saw that the teenager had a frilly apron on and chocolate stains all over it. "They're safe and playing with their toys in their room. Tell me what happened."

"The mission failed. I couldn't...she died, Kakashi. Satomi's gone."

The ANBU tensed. "And...everyone else?"

"Fine. Everyone else is fine, even her baby. Did a host transplant," he muttered indistinctly. "But Satomi—he was just too stubborn! He wouldn't listen to me! And even when I was finally leading, we walked right into it."

"Right into what?"

"It was a trap, all of it, and Dragon—or what was left of him—was nothing more than a distraction while the main group picked us off one by one. We'd all have been dead if the ANBU squad hadn't shown up."

"W-what? I don't understand-"

Ibiki let out a short, bitter bark of a laugh. "Neither do I. The clan was extinct, and yet the last living member just happens to show up before he kills the Hokage's oldest son and then goes after the youngest? Someone's pulling strings and I don't like it."

Kakashi looked confused. "I don't understand. What happened? What clan are you talking about?"

He just shrugged. "Clan never really had a name that I know of, but it was supposedly wiped out decades ago. The members had a special ability—not a bloodline, mind you, but a forbidden jutsu. At birth, twins are taken and have something done to them that combines the two into a single body."

"You can't be serious!" Kakashi all but exploded with wide, horrified eyes. "The risks to the babies would be-"

"Very high, yes, I know. That's one of the reasons why the clan is...was thought to be extinct. The infant mortality rate was through the roof, even with twins being very common, thanks to some obscure medical technique." He rubbed the back of his head in frustration. "I refused to believe it until after Sandaime-sama confirmed Dragon had probably been the last living member."

"Why? Didn't that make the most sense?"

"Not to me. You have to understand that the descriptions I'd read were very sparse. All it really mentioned was some parasitic jutsu that let them take over their enemies' bodies and it said nothing about some strange, black fire. Everything else I told you came straight from the Hokage. I guess that means Sasuke knew about it, too. He went through a lot of effort to get us out of there..."

"And that's what I don't understand. You were the most powerful team in the village; if you had stayed together, you probably would've beaten him, er, them."

But Ibiki just shook his head; he'd thought so, too, in the beginning. "No, not likely. Like I said, the whole thing was a set-up, and I meant that from start to finish. Whoever is behind this was after the Sarutobi family specifically. And when the first ambush attempt didn't work, he or she simply set up another one." He sighed. "That's all Dragon ever was—a distraction. Maybe he was powerful before the Hokage's son got ahold of him, but we could've beaten him, no problem. It was his backup that would've killed us. Sasuke must have sensed them."

Kakashi lowered his head for a moment and closed his eyes. "Then, the targets were always Sasuke, Asuma, and maybe Satomi because of the child."

"Exactly."

"This whole thing was planned from the very beginning."

"Most likely."

"And we have a traitor in our midst, since only a handful of people knew about Satomi and Sasuke's relationship and even fewer knew where they were on their mission."

Ibiki sighed again. He hated traitors even more than he hated the melted snow seeping into his clothing and numbing his posterior. "Yes, which means I've got a lot of work to do." He began standing up.

"Wait."

He stilled in an awkward, half-crouched position.

"You said that Satomi died and then something about the baby living."

Ibiki answered with a cautious "yes."

"Who...?"

With that, the interrogator stood all the way up and leaned against the door. He knew exactly what Kakashi was asking. "I wasn't there at the time, but a young medic volunteered to be the host. They...tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted, and they performed the procedure right there, just before Satomi took her last breath."

Kakashi's eye narrowed. "Who?" he demanded as he, too, stood. It was a well-known fact that the legendary Copy-nin had a few friends among the medics, thanks to Rin. And it was also well-known that the Copy-nin was rather...insistent on keeping his friends safe.

"The baby was only a couple of months along, so the risk to her health is comparatively small, but-"

"Who, Ibiki?"

"-they're still taking every precaution and watching her like a hawk, so she's in good hands and should be fine-"

Kakashi grabbed Ibiki's shoulders and shook him roughly. "WHO IS IT, IBIKI!"

His voice was quiet as he answered one of the very few friends he trusted fully. "...Rin, Kakashi. It was Rin."

Abruptly, the ANBU's hands dropped to his sides, almost as if he'd been a puppet whose strings had just been cut. "No...no...not Rin..."

Ibiki wondered if he should be leaving now before Kakashi got his brains working again and attacked. But he couldn't just abandon a friend like that! His father, while drunk and abusive, had also been known for his excellent advice: "My son, a friend you can count on is worth more than any price you name. If you ever look in the mirror and find yourself unworthy of such a comrade, then it's time to get out of the ninja business. Another can always take your place, and it's not worth losing your soul over." So, Ibiki stayed where he was and warily put a hand on his friend's shoulder. And, just as he'd predicted...

"...none of this would've happened if you'd just done your job."

He sighed. "If I'd been able to do my job, Satomi most likely never would've gotten killed, yes, but this was entirely Rin's choice, and you know it. No one could've stopped her, including you."

"That's not true," Kakashi whispered. He knew the risks of that jutsu, having seen it done firsthand, and he was worried.

"Yes, it is. You know how stubborn she is better than anyone. No one," he stressed, "could've stopped her. She took an oath to help all those in need as best as she can. Would you really want her to break that promise?"

Th ANBU shuddered. "No." Then, his eyes met Ibiki's. "No, I wouldn't." And then, Kakashi actually looked at his friend's injury. "Hey, Ibiki?"

"...yeah?"

"Tell me you didn't get injured."

"Er, I obviously did."

"...and the type of injury...? Kakashi almost sounded hopeful, except for that tinge of dread.

"Stab wound. Enemy got me with his kunai...and...um, Kakashi?"

A distinctly tired and strained voice answered him. "Yo?"

Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "Why do you look like someone kicked you in the gonads and ran off laughing about it?"

Rather than answer him or take the bait, the Copy-nin, in the same tone of voice, asked, "Are you sure it was a stab and not, say, a slash? Or how about just a cut? Maybe a nick?"

He blinked in confusion. "Uh, no, I specifically remember the tip going into my skin in a downward motion before being yanked back out the opposite direction. It was definitely a stab." Ibiki had a thought. "Do you need your mental evaluation a little early this year or is there a point to all this?" Regardless of the answer, he would get said mental evaluation, but something in the scarred man liked giving the illusion of hope.

Kakashi's hands came up and covered his face. "That might not be such a bad idea, but wait 'til after I tell you, 'k?"

"...suuuure."

He removed his hands and began his tale. "This afternoon, I'd say around 2:30, Naruto comes over and starts ranting about you being hurt. I figured he was saying you weren't feeling well or something. It's likely he wouldn't understand the difference, after all, since he can't even get sick, but I was wrong. Next thing I know, he tells me you've been stabbed."

Ibiki went cold.

"Well, actually," Kakashi continued on, "he said 'stapped,' but it was pretty clear what the little guy was saying—Ibiki, are you ok?"

Feeling somewhat faint, he nodded in reply. Then, he shook his head and went over to the couch to sit down, wet clothes and all. "And here I'd thought it was just me..."

"What do you mean?" Kakashi moved to sit in the chair next to him.

"It's...well, he just...he just knows stuff, is all. Before I took him in, the people at the orphanage told me that he always seemed be aware of what was going on around him. I'm not sure if you've noticed it yet, but Naruto always knows where that ANBU agent outside is at, and he knows before I do when you're approaching this house."

Kakashi's one visible eye widened considerably. "You mean, he's-"

"Exactly. He's the finest, natural-born sensor I've ever come across. I haven't said anything to anyone yet and I won't, for obvious reasons, but it's like prolonged contact with people makes him hyper-aware of them at all times. He probably sensed the injury once I'd gotten once I was within a couple of miles of Konoha."

Kakashi whistled. "Impressive!"

"Very," Ibiki agreed. "Not even the Hokage is aware of this, and I think it'd be best if it stays just between us."

"I can understand not telling the general populace, but not even Sarutobi-sama? Why?"

Ibiki sighed. "Because...when I took Naruto in, it was with the understanding that..." He drifted off, not wanting to say the rest. It was like he'd made a deal with the devil, a feeling the Hokage shared for slightly different reasons. "It was with the understanding that I would be training him."

"Training? Training him in what?"

Desperately, he turned towards his friend, willing him to understand. "You have to understand something; those people at the orphanage were trying to give him to Danzo and there was nowhere else he could go. Rin was too busy with the hospital and other unnamed duties while you were on that mission, and no one knew if you'd be back, much less when. Kakashi, there wasn't anywhere else he could go. I didn't have a choice. Neither one of us did."

Kakashi looked like he was about to freak out, but he did keep his mouth shut.

"Kakashi...it was either this or Danzo."

"What...what are you talking about?"

"As soon as the Hokage learns that he has this kind of talent—which means that he's already accessed his chakra, by the way—Naruto will immediately be placed in a training program for ANBU."

The Copy-nin's jaw dropped. "Y-you're turning him into a weapon!"

Ibiki held his hands up. "Only on paper! The way I see it, it'll just be him starting his ninja training early. And if we can keep this under wraps for a little while longer, maybe we can even give him some semblance of a childhood."

Kakashi's bitter laugh shocked him. "A childhood? He's TWO! How long are you going to hold out? 'til he's FIVE? Oh, yeah, that's SO much more reasonable!"

"Hey, YOU were a GENIN at five!"

"Yeah, and just look at how screwed up I am!"

"EXACTLY! And he'll just be starting his training, which I will be in charge of and will take years!"

Kakashi stopped his ranting instantly and his jaw dropped again. "You..."

"Like I said, it's just on paper, but the catch is that he will almost certainly be ANBU before the kids his age graduate the academy. He'll have the best childhood we can give him, even if it doesn't last very long. However, at least he'll have one with us watching out for him."

He sighed. "I still hate it, but...maybe you're right. It is better than...the alternative." Then, he blinked and a peculiar expression took over what Ibiki could see of his face. "So, I guess that's it, huh?"

"What's it?"

"The reason why the Hokage always looks so guilty whenever anyone even mentions the boy."

"Oh, that? No, he was looking that way long before we made that deal."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. To be honest, I have no idea what his deal is, and I'm not too sure I want to know."

Kakashi, Ibiki noted, seemed to have no response to that.


Naruto's ears practically stood straight up when he heard his name being said in the next room. He didn't know what else they were saying, though, for two reasons: The "a-koo-sticks" were bad and "Ikki" and "Kaka" used a lot of big words. But he did know it was serious because he could feel their hearts speed up and stop a lot. The tall people only did that when something important was going on, and since Ikki and Kaka were the tallest people he knew, it had to be really important. Maybe they'd found the lizard...nah.

He just shook his head and tried to ignore the tingly, weirdly comforting sensation of Ikki's hand on Kaka's shoulder. It wasn't easy. All those blue-ish energies wouldn't stop reaching out for him. And he noticed the masked guy outside wasn't very comfortable sitting on that tree. Naruto didn't feel him squirming, exactly, but he shifted ever-so-slightly. Then, there was the Old Man in town whose blue energy felt like it was getting darker. It'd been doing that for awhile now.

But there was one energy that always seemed to comfort him when he "con-sin-trate-id" on it. It was that nice lady with the brown hair who had always come to see him in the orphanage. She'd always been careful not to let anyone else know she was there, but Naruto had felt the blue stuff and gone up to say hi. She'd been sitting in a tree and had nearly fallen off the branch, but she'd seemed happy to talk. Naruto wondered if Rin was as lonely as he. If she was, then it was his job to keep her company, but Rin didn't seem to be awake right now. Her blue energy was calm and peaceful, just like bathtub with no one moving the water.

He was about to back off, since he already felt better, when he felt a different energy coming from her tummy, and this one was also really still. Naruto didn't know much about all that blue stuff, but it felt to him like this person was really sad. Maybe he could get Ikki to take him to see Rin and then he could fix whatever was wrong.

Maybe he could fix Kaka and Ikki, too. They also really seemed upset right now and he didn't like that. He liked it much better when the tall people were happy, not sad like that weird Bandaged Man. No one's blue stuff should ever be that dark.


"...Hey, Kakashi?"

"Yes, Ibiki?"

"Why are you wearing an apron?"

"Ah, that! Well, you see..."


Moments later, all throughout the village, a shout was heard.

"KAKASHI! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY KITCHEN!"


Author's Corner:

So...this is the end of the third chapter, and I must say that I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'm not sure if I want the next one to have a huge leap in time or a small one. Anyway, here are a few facts in case you missed them:

1. The medical process of transferring an unborn child to a surrogate mother is extremely dangerous, mostly for the woman. The doctors might be able to create an artificial womb of sorts, but it is not natural and is therefore potentially deadly. Every medic knows this, and since Kakashi's spent so much time around Rin, he's also aware of the dangers and it terrifies him.

2. Ibiki did not have the best of childhoods. His father, as stated, was an abusive drunk, and while you'll hear a little more about his family later, all you need to know right now is that both of Ibiki's parents had a quote for every occasion. They had great advice that they never followed, leaving their son without anyone he felt he could trust but with much wisdom on how NOT to live his life.

3. Ibiki and Inoichi...this is going to be a complex relationship. To summarize it, after Ibiki had been caught and tortured by the enemy, the Yamanaka clan head had taken him in to help rehabilitate him. Somewhere along the line, they'd begun to see each other as real family. Unfortunately, family members do not always get along (*cough*Cain and Abel*cough*) and they are both too proud to admit they miss each other.

4. The Hokage...yeah, I'm going to leave this one a mystery for now, but feel free to guess.

5. Naruto's sensor abilities are NOT from the Kyuubi; they are also not a bloodline. It's purely him and nothing else. However, he's not even three years old. The emotions he understands are happiness, fear, pain, and sadness. Evil isn't even in his dictionary. Yet. He categorizes the emotions he knows by what a person's chakra is doing and what color it is at that moment, and he can also tell what the person is doing if he really concentrates. As you can see, because of this kind of exposure to other people, Naruto is already more advanced than normal. However, while he is very intelligent, he's still just a child.

Looks like my email accounts are safe. If I ever find out who hacked me, that person or people will get a boot in his/her/their face(s). Anyway, I hope you all liked the update!