A/N:

Hey everybody! What's up?

I swear I didn't think it was possible to be crueler to SS than I was in this fic but Kishimoto did the impossible, have y'all read the Naruto Gaiden chapter? Holy crap, ok, now I'm really scared cause I killed Hinata and Himawari, wtf is Kishimoto gonna do, make Hinata cuckold Naruto and give the kid brain damage? Damn. And Naruto doesn't even care that Sasuke never saw his own kid? Holy ramen, he's been zombified.

Well, I hope this chapter makes you all a little happier about little Salad, at least in this fic she's not treated that horribly.

Salad stopped after reaching the orchard, and dropped down under a cherry tree, curling into a ball while she tried to muffle her crying.

"Go away!" she screamed as Bolt came near her.

"Your brother needs you," he replied, and sat in front of her. "Your mother is a crazy murderer and your dad is as bad as mine, but Menma has nothing to do with them and even though the Scumbag saved him, because the Scumbag is my birth dad, if something happens to me and Menma he'll fucking save me and let Menma die. And your dad is probably going to try to kill him anyways. He's got no one but you. And to be really honest, you have no one but him, so stop crying, you haven't lost anything."

Salad sat up, shaking. "What do you care if a baby lives or dies? I never saw you care about anyone! All I ever saw you do was lie! You pretended to be bad at school but you can do all those fancy jutsu, you were just fooling everyone!" she screamed.

Bolt raised his eyebrows. "So that's why you kept stalking me, then?"

"Yeah," she said, sniffling and cleaning her nose on her sleeve. "I saw you by accident once, and I was… I was jealous," she explained. "I can't do any of the stuff you do, I'm totally useless, and you know everyone makes fun of me having bad eyes and being only half-Uchiha," she sighed. "And then there was you, doing all this really badass jutsu and using a stupid rope to hang on Hokage Mountain," she laughed bitterly. "I was so angry! You had everything I ever wanted, but you hid it from everyone! Why?"

"The only reason I can do all that and know so much about jutsu is because I have a doujutsu just like my mom and your dad," Bolt said quietly, and Salad's eyes widened. "But mine is neither one nor the other, and I hate it, because ever since I saw my mom get beat up by Hiashi I see everything. Everything. I see the insides of people, and animals, and plants. I see through everything, all the layers that make up the things in the world. Remember that day Shino-sensei took us to visit a farm?"

Salad nodded.

"The animals were sick with parasites. The kids in the farm, those poor little kids, had parasites too. Worms and stuff like that. I could see the things eating them inside, Salad. Just like I can see your dad is rotting up with disease. I can also see chakra, the pathways, the way that the seals they teach us to make jutsu work as symbols that people use to represent the way they're modulating the chakra inside their bodies, so I can copy any jutsu without having to even see the seals. I can also see nature energy, the way it comes in and out of everything. And I can't turn it off, even when I close my eyes. When I sleep, all my dreams are nightmares, because I remember everything, everything I see," he blurted out, and Salad gave him a horrified, and pitiful, look.

"I saw when your mom killed mine. She stuck a kunai into her heart, and held her while she died. It took a long time, and I saw everything, from how her heart was pierced to when her brain died from lack of blood. And then Hiashi came, and talked to your mom, and killed Himawari. That didn't take so long because he broke her neck, she died quicker. I'll never forget what I saw, either."

"You asked me why I cared about your brother. After the Scumbag took him in, his body started to suck out Menma's chakra. He was just a little ugly one-eyed baby, so Kurama and the tailed beasts took pity on him, and tried to save his life. In the end, just trying to give him chakra and make him grow faster so he could produce more on his own than the Scumbag was sucking out of him wasn't enough, so they gave their lives to merge with him. I was there when it happened," he continued, and Salad gaped at him. He raised a hand to stop her from interrupting.

"Their chakra bodies mixed with his and now he's… human-like, but almost all that chakra is serving as his body because he doesn't have much flesh and bone yet. He looks like he's our age now, and the beasts merged with his mind too, so he can think and talk and do all that stuff we do, his brain isn't like a baby's. And he knows what happened when he was born, and after that, because he has the beasts' memories. But now he's blind, his eye changed and he can't see anymore. He knows that he's all alone, too, except for the Scumbag… but even so he made him take care of me," he continued, and gave Salad a wondering look. "He didn't tell me, but the Scumbag left his side, that he had been on since he was born, to watch and take care of me alone. And when I asked Menma why he didn't care that my dad wasn't giving him any attention, he just said that it was ok, because I was suffering and being in pain sucks." He blinked at her. "And it was the first time I ever saw anyone help someone else without wanting anything in return."

"But your dad…" she started, after watching him speechless for a long while.

Bolt laughed bitterly. "My dad never did anything that wouldn't benefit him personally, Salad. Everything he ever did was to gain something: recognition, attention, the Hokage title. Even when he takes care of me, he does it so I'll repay him the favor in the future," he said, drawing on the ground with a kunai. "My mom was the same, even when she took the beating from Hiashi instead of me. She did it so people wouldn't see me all bruised up, so she wouldn't have to explain why the Hokage's son had been beat up. It was enough shame for her that she had been removed from the Hyuuga clan, you know? So she took it, knowing that if the bruises were on her my dad wouldn't even see them, by then he was already out all the time."

Salad looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. "I'm sorry for you," she said. "At least Ayame-chan, Teuchi-san and Juugo treated me well without asking for anything back, or even just in front of him," she added, deep bitterness lacing the last word. "But I'm just a girl, what can I actually do to protect my brother? I'm not even a ninja," she asked warily.

Bolt smiled at her. "Menma, Inojin and me have begun to put a plan together, a plan to expose the real killers and make things right again. But we need all the help we can get, especially from people who can move about in the city without being detected. That's where you come in, because you never learned how to develop your chakra, you can pass for a civilian, and since you're just a little girl, nobody will pay attention to you. You're the perfect spy, even better than Suigetsu, 'cause when he liquefies his chakra flares up and our parents' ninja generation can detect him. You, on the other hand, are invisible to any ninja."

Salad's eyes bulged out. "I… I can be useful? Me? Really?" she asked eagerly, and the young Uzumaki nodded.

"Take me to my… my little brother... oh gods… I have an otouto! I'm an Ane!" She squealed the last, as if – and probably – realizing that for the first time.

Bolt rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching his hand to her. "Just promise you won't try to play house with him or any of that dumb girl stuff before we get out of this mess," he mumbled, and she giggled in wonderment.

Salad followed Bolt back, unmindful of her cuts and bruises, feeling a fierce love for her brother begin to burn inside her heart; if nothing else, because he had given her what no one else had, a purpose.

Inside the house, Sasuke was sitting on one of the chairs with ankles crossed and hands fisted, listening to Suigetsu and Juugo's report with an increasingly dark mood.

"And you believed him," he said.

"Sasuke, have you seen the TV lately? Sakura was actually made Hachidaime, that does sort of back up the Uzumakis' story. Besides, it explains how we only didn't find dirt on Naruto and Shikamaru amongst all the other people in Konoha's power structure: nobody had to actually draw them into the scheme since Naruto was sucking up Hyuuga's balls and Shikamaru was blindly doing what he was told because they were both brainwashed. It's ridiculous, I don't know why the hell would Sakura and Hinata team up to do something like that, but it does fit," Suigetsu replied, shrugging. "It's certainly less ridiculous than your kid having become the ten-tails, but I actually saw when that one happened. By the way, in retrospect I think when we get there you should consider apologizing, for, you know, trying to kill him at birth and all?"

"I'm not going," Sasuke growled, scowling. Suigetsu and Juugo looked startled at each other before staring at him.

"Excuse-me? What part of you have to go and reconnect with Naruto's chakra to survive did you miss?" Suigetsu nearly shouted indignantly.

"I don't care. Take the documents and go if you want, I've had enough."

Juugo took a deep, slow breath, and suddenly felt his mind crisp into freezing clarity. He nodded to himself, and in two long steps he was in front of the Uchiha, heaving him off the chair by the collar.

"You have had enough? No, Sasuke, I have had enough," he said calmly, and let him go with one hand only to slap him across the face with the other strong enough to make the man fly across the room and land in a heap against the wall.

"Juugo!" Suigetsu called out, alarmed, but Juugo turned to him peacefully.

"Don't worry, as you can see I'm in perfect possession of all my faculties," he said, and the albino ninja went quiet, nodding. He walked to the stricken man and helped him sit up, unmindful of the scowl aimed at him.

"You know, Itachi is probably rolling in his grave out of shame right now," Juugo said conversationally, while pulling a handkerchief off a pocket and dabbing at the blood pouring from Sasuke's torn lower lip. "Of all the things I think he expected you to become, an irresponsible coward wasn't one."

He stood and looked down at the Uchiha. "It's my fault, I think. I've always depended so much on you to keep me grounded that I've excused all your faults as consequences of your suffering. I made you think you could get away with doing the same idiot mistake Naruto made during the last decade by supporting you without question. But I can't do that anymore, Sasuke, and do you know why?"

The brunet gave him a challenging glare, but only received a kind, sad look in return, and lowered his head.

"I can't let you do what you want anymore, because there is a little girl out there that you made. You made Salad. And there is a boy that you made as well. It's bad enough that you wanted to kill him when he was born, and now you're just going to lie down and die on those two children? Why? So Sakura can kill them? You know those children have no use for her, she only had them thinking they would keep you close to her, but you didn't even have that excuse! Fine, she tricked you to become pregnant this time, but you didn't force her to abort and you actually did impregnate her on purpose the first time. You created those two lives, Sasuke, and so help me you will take responsibility over them, even if I have to drag your lousy Uchiha ass back to the hideout and sew you and Uzumaki Naruto together to make sure you stay alive and do it."

"He can stay and die for all I care, he's more than proved he doesn't care about family, just like my wretched mother," a small voice said quietly, and Juugo and Sasuke turned their heads to the door, where Salad was standing with Bolt sitting on the veranda behind her, putting on his sandals. "I'm going to pack and go to my otouto, he needs me."

Juugo followed Salad with his eyes, until he heard the door to the library slam shut, and turned back to face Sasuke's still bowed head.

"I'm going to pack for both of us. Don't disappoint me further by not being in this room when I come back, Sasuke," he said softly, before leaving the room.

Meanwhile, Killer B greeted the morning passing through yet another miserable, run-down farming village.

It was the fourth he passed in his journey to the Fire Country, and he was appalled at the conditions the people lived in, much worse than before the Fourth War.

The people were fearful and sickly-looking, the water wasn't safe to drink, the food at the inns was little more than cornhusk bread and thin miso soup.

There were no ninja in sight anywhere, either.

When asked what happened, the people simply told him that the Raikage and the Daimyo demanded more taxes than they could pay. B was at first unbelieving, but as he arrived at the third village he actually saw Kumo ninja collecting the "taxes", along with one man wearing modern black clothing and taking note of the cargo, and realized that the villagers had been telling the truth, for the sheer amount of grain, eggs, produce and livestock taken away.

To think he himself had feasted unknowingly during all those "prosperous" years after the war, along with the other Kumogakure ninja, while the rest of the people in the country starved was enough to make him sick.

He entered the village's tiny inn, and ordered breakfast, moving to a small table in the corner.

As the thin waitress brought him his food (thin miso and a small serving of steamed barley), a black-clad man entered the inn.

"Collector-san, I am sorry, but we have only had one customer all week, and my daughter needs medicine, can we please pay our dues next time?" the innkeeper, a wizened old man, asked.

"Pass the money, old man, you know the penalty for tax evasion," the tax collector said in a bored voice.

"Please don't take my grandson, he is our only future," the old man asked, throwing himself on the ground and kowtowing.

B felt his insides tighten in anger, and rose.

"It's the money or the kid, gramps. Hurry up, I have other places to run today," the tax collector threatened.

"How much?" B asked, moving closer.

"And you are?" the tax collector asked, unimpressed.

"Doesn't matter who I am, how much do you want to leave these people alone?" he said, picking up his money pouch.

The tax collector checked his clipboard. "For this establishment, five hundred ryo per week," he said, giving B a derisive look.

B's eyes widened behind his dark glasses; it was more than a chuunin earned, no way an inn this small, in such a poor village, could raise that kind of money in total, let alone just for taxes.

He growled and counted the coins until he reached the required amount, and put them on the table beside the prostrated innkeeper. "Pick up your money and leave. Now," he warned.

The tax collector picked the money and bowed before leaving.

"Thank you… thank you, onii-sama," the innkeeper cried.

"It's only going to delay the inevitable, though," a male voice said, and B turned to see a teenage boy entering from the kitchen, shaking his head. "They've been doing this for the last six months, after they took everything else, now they take away the kids when the parents can't pay for the taxes. Nobody ever sees them again," he said quietly, looking down.

"Don't say that, Hiro! Next week will be better, we'll be able to pay him off and nobody will take you away!" the waitress said, and coughed wetly.

B picked up his money pouch again and took the innkeeper's hand in his. "This isn't much, but I don't really need it. Please use it to pay for medicine for your daughter, and to pay for the taxes until she recovers. Thank you for the meal," he said, before leaving without looking back.

It wasn't as if he wouldn't be fine living off the land, he was a ninja, after all. And there was a good few thousand ryo in the pouch, enough to last until he reached Konoha and came back to have a very thorough talk with Darui.

"Mnmm… senbei… dango… yumyumyumyum…" Menma mumbled, and Tsunade suppressed a giggle before leaving their room.

The boy was sprawled over his futon, a leg having found its way up the side of her bed, obviously having sweet dreams. Or dreaming about sweets, at least.

She made her way to the refectory, where Ino and Inojin were already having breakfast.

"Morning shishou! Would you like some tea?" Ino greeted, pointing to the steaming teapot on the table.

"Yeah, thanks," Tsunade said, and sat with them.

"Godaime baa-chan, where's Menma?" Inojin asked, licking his fingers, and smiled wickedly when she told him the boy was still asleep, excusing himself and running off to the sleeping quarters.

Ino sighed, and Tsunade laughed. "Hey, it's good strength training at least."

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Inojin shouted with every step, as he dragged Menma out of the bedroom by a foot, towards the refectory.

Shikamaru opened his room in time to see the boy pass by, snoring softly. He shook his head and closed the door again, hoping Shikadai was satisfied with being a single child or just wanted a little sister, because more than one boy around was definitely too troublesome.

He opened the door again when it was knocked on, to see a sleepy-looking Naruto on the hallway.

"Morning," the Nanadaime greeted, coming in.

"Inojin wake you up?"

Naruto nodded, and yawned. "How can Menma stay asleep with all that racket is beyond my imagination," he said, sitting down on the bed. "I hope Bolt is all right, they should have reached the bastard already," he said, and rubbed his face.

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed, and sat beside him. "Naruto… when they come back I want to find a way to contact Suna. Maybe Gaara can help us."

Naruto nodded. "If there's one Kage I can honestly say I still trust, it's him," he said. "But we need to find a way to do it without being detected."

Meanwhile, having reached the single occupied table, Inojin let Menma's foot drop from his shoulder and reached for a sweet mochi ball, which he industriously waved in front of the blind boy's nose until it started twitching.

"Wake uuuuup… eat sweet… wake uuuuup…" he chanted, pulling the sweet out of Menma's reach as the boy began to rise after it with his mouth open.

"No waking, just yumyums," the blind boy mumbled, sleepily trying to catch the sweet with his mouth while feeling his way around the bench.

"Come on, Menma, if you wake up you can eat as many as you want," Tsunade said, chortling and mussing up his wild blue-black bedhead. He pouted, and turned his head towards Ino. "Can I have sweet oatmeal with cream too, Ino-chan?"

Ino gave him an appraising look. "Hmmmm. Sure, but I'll throw in a couple of eggs and you have to eat it all before you can get more mochi."

Menma quickly agreed, and Inojin popped the sweet rice ball in his mouth, to which the ugly little Uchiha thanked him with a tight hug.

"Um, can we talk to you both in private after breakfast?" Inojin asked the two women, while Menma ate his porridge.

Ino and Tsunade shared a look. "Um, sure, baby, what do you want to talk about?" Ino asked.

Inojin gave Menma a cautious look, but the blind boy just motioned for him to continue with one hand and kept shoveling the food in his mouth as if afraid the bowl would run away if he stopped eating.

"Well… we, I mean, the three of us boys, we kinda came up with a plan to fix things so we can go back home," the little Yamanaka boy explained, "and we wanted your help."

"Why not tell everyone?" Tsunade asked, her hands steepled in front of her.

"You are the ones we trust the most," Inojin said, and Menma heaved a breath as he put his spoon down.

"And we think Papa won't be able to help us much, what with helping heal Uchiha Sasuke and all. Not to say that Shika-san won't even hear what we're saying 'cause we're kids," the blind boy continued. "You're both women, too, and Tsunade baa-chan was Godaime back when it took smarts to be Hokage, so we thought it'd be better to talk to you first, and then you talk to Shika-san. He'll listen to you."

Tsunade gave Ino a smile. "I like the way these boys think," she said, and Ino chuckled softly, nodding as she ruffled the boys' heads. "You guys are definitely smart, I'm proud of you. Ok, let's go up to the training room, we'll 'train' together."

They passed the two men on their way up and greeted them, excusing themselves saying that Inojin would show Menma his mind-transfer skills. After reaching the training room, they all sat down in a corner.

"Ok, spill it, brats," Tsunade ordered with a twinkle in her eye.

Both Uchihas, along with Juugo, Suigetsu and Bolt, left the farm after lunch. Both Sasuke and Salad had had their hair styled differently, and wore some of Bolt's ninja makeup to look less pale. Salad had again said she didn't care about Sasuke coming, but Juugo had stated he was taking the Uchiha patriarch willingly or not, and since Salad liked and respected Juugo, she accepted.

Besides, it had been fun seeing Pa- no, Sasuke – being forced to endure Bolt applying the makeup on him. Salad had admired herself in the mirror, realizing she very much liked her new look and promised herself to eat as many carrots as she could from now on – Ma- no, Sakura – had always forbidden her to eat those, saying they made skin darken and she had to be as perfectly Uchiha-white; and if there was something Salad didn't want to look like, after knowing how both her parents really were, was an Uchiha.

She shook her head, the two small pigtails Bolt had painstakingly affixed to her hair waving a little.

Sasuke was, of course, feeling entirely the opposite.

He felt first humiliated by Juugo's speech – yeah, Itachi would've done the same to him if not worse if he knew, so what? Itachi was dead and had abandoned him in Konoha in the first place, damn it – even though he grudgingly admitted that yes, the man had a point and since Sasuke was the reason there was now a damn half-human Juubi alive, then it was Sasuke's obligation to deal with it. And yes, there was the girl, whose existence was also his fault, forcing him to delay his plans of a peaceful death.

Then he had to endure further humiliation at the deadlast's surprisingly intelligent – and completely disrespectful – spawn, who had even directed Juugo how to cut Sasuke's hair to better blend in with the peasant look he wanted to disguise the Uchiha with. He was now walking with a coarse wooden staff and rough spun clothing, and his hair had been tied up on a high ponytail, except for rugged bangs that framed his face and partially hid his features.

He scowled, remembering Salad looking at him and saying he now looked like Iruka's long-lost hobo brother.

A/N:

Ane – Japanese for elder sister

Darui is the Godaime Raikage of Kumogakure, as of chapter 700