The brunette woman looked to Naruto, her featureless white eyes met the blue of the Hokage as she inquired, "you're sure of it?"

"Yes. As far as I've been told, they've been in this stasis since around the time of my birth. That's why when she was here, Chiaki didn't come across them," Naruto answered.

"Ahh, if only this girl had thought to reach out to one of her own, she could've gotten this finished a long time ago," Hanabi moaned in dismay. The young woman had been drinking, it was evident by her behaviour. She didn't have a gloomy nature, in fact she was often strict or joyful depending on if she was interacting with her students or a peer.

She looked to Naruto and asked, "you want me there because of my skill with Byakugan, I'm guessing?"

"It could be helpful. I'm also going to request Shikamaru, Sasuke and maybe Sakura. I guess Sarada could either stay with her grandparents or maybe Hinata could watch her, or I could see if there's a mission I can send team seven on," Naruto replied, then proceeded to think out loud.

Hanabi Hyuga nodded a little as she added, "hopefully we can keep Boruto and his friends from getting involved. I would hate to think of something happening to him."

"Speaking of Boruto, it would seem this woman is able to make food that even my son finds too spicy," Naruto remarked.

"Huh? She can actually make something that spicy? Maybe trying to reach out to the extended family for help wouldn't be a good idea," Hanabi suggested. He knew she was being intentionally cryptic about whom she was speaking of. Chiaki had joined the Hyuga clan through marriage, although in her world she was the heir to a lesser noble clan, and as such retained her clan name after marriage. Before marrying however, she'd birthed a little girl, Hikari. Hikari was a direct descendent of the Hyuga clan through her father, Chiaki's husband. At the time of her conception, her father had still been alive, and human while Chiaki was the grand kido chief of Soul Society. The entire situation had been something that would've caused her to be exiled had it not been for other events that made an exile pointless.

"Yeah, they never got along with spicy food," Naruto agreed with a chuckle.

On the other side of Konoha Sakiya finished making another stew and began packaging it. She knew full well that he could cook, she'd taught him everything she knew or knew of, sparing nothing except details pertaining to why she and her family were sent to his world so long ago. She looked over the freezer, satisfied with how well stocked it was. If he came home from a mission too exhausted to make himself anything all he had to do was heat up the contents of a container within that freezer and he'd be set.

She felt disappointed in herself that she could soon be leaving him, but she had to keep reminding herself that he was now fourteen, in two years time they'd appear to be the same age. She cared for him greatly, as much as she could care for a human she wasn't related to, but she also had to recognize her limitations. She'd done what she could for him. The rest was now in his hands, but she wouldn't leave him fully alone. She'd saved up enough rio that he'd be able to survive on the savings plus his commission from genin missions for at least three years if need be, if he became a chunin next year, or even the following, he'd have enough left over to put towards a down payment on a house instead of having to pay rent all the time. The amount she'd saved would be enough to cover rent and bills for those three years, food, clothing and extras would be on him to provide for himself.

She was also doing all she could to give him a head start on meal planning. She knew he knew how to do this, but when she did end up leaving to complete the mission her mom and second cousins had started, she may not be able to return to him.

She had known this since she decided to take on the responsibility of raising and protecting him as a toddler, but knowing the day would one day come that she'd have to leave him as well didn't make it any easier. 'It may not be like I'm leaving him forever. Unlike his parents, there's a chance I could come back to visit him—even if others don't see me. He's become spiritually aware. He can see my mother's locket, and that should be impossible. For his own good, I have to leave, before I turn him into a hollow magnet,' she placated herself.

Sakiya closed her eyes remorsefully when she heard the door open and close. The knowledge of what was coming weighing her heart down as if it were a boulder being dropped in the middle of an ocean. She knew giving him a chance to say goodbye was the least she could offer, but she'd be hard pressed to not burst into tears. She owed it to him to continue a sense of normalcy until she had to leave. They were planning to awaken Kiyoshi first, maybe they wouldn't be able to wake Minori and her mother for a while yet. Even still, the mission to awaken them one by one wasn't going to be easy, and the first one would undoubtedly be the most dangerous.

She knew why they'd gotten injured and how she'd survived. While she had been heavily trained most of her life, she had very little practical experience fighting against her own kind where as they themselves, the ones who had been so severely wounded, had fought in wars. Opening her eyes again, she swallowed the lump in her throat before she called out, "welcome home!"

Footsteps and in the doorway of the kitchen stood Iwabee. His black eyes me the grey, and although she'd plastered a smile on his face, he only needed to observe her for less than minute before asking, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing exactly umm, I'm going to be going away for a while. Not immediately but, been doing some preparation for it," She answered as she started on the dishes. Wordlessly he walked to her side, picking up the yellow and white gingham patterned towel and wordlessly dried the dishes as she washed them. He didn't know exactly what was happening. He could guess it had something to do with her mother's mission, but in all the time he'd known her he'd never felt her so tense before.

"Thank you," he spoke.

She stopped washing and glanced to him, her one eyebrow arched in silent query. He gave a small smile as he admitted, "when my mom died, I was left without any family. If you hadn't stepped up there's no telling what would've happened to me."

"Oh someone would've taken you on. The leaf isn't a village to let their own suffer, especially not with Naruto Uzumaki as Hokage," Sakiya retorted with a slight jestering tone to her voice.

"I'm serious, Sakiya. You went out of your way. Put your mission on hold, you risked a lot to help me," he pressed.

She thought back to the dark skinned toddler, with shoulder length straight black hair and dark eyes who held out a solitary dandelion to her while beaming a blindly bright smile. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she dismissed his insistence, "no, I didn't."

She met his gaze as she concluded, "I saved someone who had saved me with a very simple gesture of kindness. I was only repaying what you'd willingly gave me for no other reason than the fact that you were an innocent child, unaware of the horrors of the world around you. When I saw that you were the most vulnerable you'd ever been—I couldn't in good conscience leave your future to chance. I knew I likely couldn't be there for everything. Fact is in two years time I may not be able to pass myself off as a legal guardian for you anymore. I won't look the right age, even if I keep blaming it on good genetics."

She gave a bitter laugh at the last bit although a genuine smile did easily return to her, "however—I've never regretted my decision to protect and provide for you. Not even for a minute, on the most exhausting, draining days. I was in a very dark place before I met you. I was ready to give up. You revived me. There's nothing in the universe that will ever replace that gift."

Iwabee blinked before shrugging his shoulders and suggesting, "shall we call it even then?"

"That was the idea," Sakiya agreed.


AN: If you don't know who Chiaki is, or why Hanabi knows her, I suggest you stop now to read 'In your Eyes' and 'A New Beginning'. You'll also realize who she's referring to, and how they may make an appearance in later chapters.