Disclaimer: Naruto is like an island. In that I don't own any islands.

Chapter 14

Minato was nervous. He stared at the door behind which his future wife was getting ready for the umpteenth time. He'd been in a war, and faced death multiple times in the battlefield. His achievements were legend, and his name feared throughout the world. Yet this door somehow made him feel woefully unprepared for what was to come.

The ceremony would be simpler than Hyūga-sama's, as neither he nor Kushina had a large clan backing them up, yet it loomed huge on the horizon; mere minutes away, in a day when each second felt like an hour. He was looking forward to it, of course. He'd dreamt of marrying Kushina since he was an awkward boy in the academy. And they'd already lived together, (to the scandal of some of their elders), already shared a room, a life, for years. Heck, we have an (adopted) kid!

Still, he felt as jittery as when he'd first confessed to her. Minato wanted it to be over already. He found himself considering plans to rush the room, take the bride, and run away with her. Somewhere far, far away from that terrible clock, which never moved and at the same time ticked too fast.

Interestingly enough, he wasn't nearly as nervous for the Hokage ceremony. That one, he knew what to expect from. I know what to expect from marriage, too! ...right? Kushina's eyes (and Hinote's? How precocious is she? Women are scary) made him doubt he did, sometimes.

Either way, he was coming out of this Uzumaki Minato (her clan was the most prestigious one, even after the fall of Uzushio). The thought sent tingles down his neck. They'd go add him to her clan registry, update the plaque in front of their home... He wondered if that meant every other village would have to update their Bingo Book.

Uncle and Auntie's marriage was very low key, but sweet enough to make you cry. Uncle was the one going red this time, funnily enough. He looks like some sort of mixed red-and-yellow bell pepper.

Auntie had been dressed in a beautiful white and violet kimono, covered with flower designs and bearing the Uzumaki swirl over the chest. A wine-colored obi tied it around her waist, and all around her person were more flowers: a forget-me-not blossom (from Okaa-sama) in her hair, a sunflower (from Yomogi-san) in her obi, and a cactus flower (from me) left in the preparation room. Drat.

Uncle looked very dapper in his own black kimono, with the Uzumaki symbol sewed on it to symbolize his adoption into the clan. In fact, he looked to me like he'd fit well in a samurai movie if he got himself a sword. And maybe got roughed up a bit–that kimono looked way too fancy for a samurai, even if the shape was overall right.

As for me, Okaa-san had given me a black kimono with an uchiwa in the back, just for the occasion. I had a red obi tied around it, and my hair was in a tight bun. I wish I could look this fancy more often. In any case, I was glad I was still allowed to wear clan livery. I was an expat, after all.

The ceremony was overseen by a civilian officer, who asked them to exchange some vows, both pertaining to the marriage itself and to Uncle's adoption into the Uzumaki clan. When said vows were exchanged, Uncle began to cry. So. Damn. Cute! I could take a bite out of him right then

I was invited by Rin-chan to spend the night–surely, to let the lovebirds have some "alone time". I didn't advertise my knowledge of that, however. Uncle was already looking at me weirdly these days, and I didn't want to tip him off. Much as I trusted Uncle and Auntie, and enjoyed flustering them, I didn't want to drop this bomb on their lap. Or in the ANBU's, for that matter.

Kakashi was strangely silent–more silent–that night. His way of dealing with being emotional, I guess. My occasional babysitter was a person of many hangups. Rin-chan was having none of it, though, and gushed at us both about the ceremony, and the meaning of each small moment, while I helped her make dinner.

Helping her made me feel accomplished; Kakashi was a genius shinobi, a genin by about my current age, but he couldn't cook to save his life. He claimed seasonings hurt his nose… but that's suuuuuch an excuse. I know all about those, buddy. "I'll learn as soon as I finish my thesis!" Yeah, right. It was a tiny, worthless victory, but still a good feeling.

After dinner, Rin-chan showed me a new shell she'd acquired recently. She couldn't go to the sea shore these days, but she still had friends bring her new specimens every now and then. This one looked like a cone, with alternating bands of brown and white. She told me it was the shell of a coral snail, generally found near the coast of the Land of Rice Fields.

Her collection was pretty large, and largely pretty. She said she'd been collecting since she was around my age, before she even entered the Academy. I wonder what I'll be showing kids when I'm older? Maybe failed sealing scrolls. Not like I can show my art to kids…

When I got back the next morning, both Auntie and Uncle had their best shit-eating grins on. That got me grinning too. Good for you guys.

It was soon after the marriage that I got another piece of news: Okaa-sama was pregnant again! I'm getting another sibling, oh my! I'd probably need to keep some distance from the baby, due to chakra concerns, but I could still adore them and shower them with love and sweets.

A part of me was concerned that, if the baby was a male, I'd slip even further in the family priorities–who needs their eldest daughter, a cripple nonetheless, when they have a second son? Not most major clans. Don't go down that path, I told myself. That way lay madness.

Do I get to pat myself in the back for a cliché Shakespeare reference?

It was decided that my new sibling would be named Sasuke, after Sandaime's father, if he was a boy; if she was a girl, she'd be named Mito, after the Shodaime's wife. Those are some powerful names getting floated for you, kiddo. Don't let it get to your head, or big sis will have to deflate your ego for you!

Pride ran in the family, and it made for a terrible thing for a clan to have in spades. Pride goeth before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall, I could still hear the priests say, an in this point they were right. At least Itachi-nii seemed to have his head on straight.

Speaking of him, Itachi-nii was even more excited than me. He seemed very concerned with the idea of taking care of the younger child. Cute as always, but somewhat worrisome. A child isn't a pet, okay onii-san? You won't go all controlling onii-sama on the newcomer, right? Just because I tease you a lot doesn't mean it's okay to do it to others.

Then came Uncle's ceremony, which happened to match with his birthday. It was a beautiful occasion, with all the pomp and circumstance of a major political event. Everyone was in formal attire, including me. For the second time in a month, I wore my B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L black kimono with the uchiwa in the back. Score one for team fashion!

There was a platform in the front, with all the VIP's: the Fire Daimyō, Sarutobi-sensei, and Uncle, all accompanied by their wives, plus the Konoha Council and an ANBU attachment of boyguards. Geez, our command structure sure is a sausage fest. The Daimyō officially nominated Uncle there, with the whole Jōnin Corp (well, those who were in the village) as witnesses and backers.

They reaffirmed the pact between the Fire Country and Konohagakure, read from a long, century old document. The preamble was… well, goofy. As if written by some stateswoman version of Pollyanna goofy. And then, almost in tsukkomi to the preamble, the actual clauses started and it descended into precious minutiae, probably negotiated carefully, inch by inch.

What the actual hell.

Then Uncle gave a speech. It wasn't very long, but I knew Uncle had labored hard over every line. Some of his points I found particularly powerful:

"We've fought three world wars since the founding, each more intense and terrible than we ever thought possible. Yet we've come out of them stronger, more united, more united by the Will of Fire. We've fought for this peace. For the space in which our children, our grandchildren will grow and live. We've fought for this peace and we will keep it. Let this be my promise to you: there will be no Fourth World War."

"Seventy years ago, the Shodaime Hokage laid out a dream for our village. A dream symbolized in the Will of Fire which he passed down to us. And we've worked at it ever since, shed blood, sweat and tears for it. The Konoha of today is not perfect, but we're on the right track. We're strong, we're united. Today, we are closer to the Shodaime's dream than ever before. And we'll keep working at it."

"We've seen, in other villages, that they turn against their own. We've seen the purges in Kirigakure. We've seen the way they treat their jinchūriki. We've seen them devolve into petty squabbles, warring amongst themselves for small gains, squabbling the life of their shinobi. But that is not the way of Konoha. That is not the Will of Fire. Together, we will prevail!"

All in all, a beautiful moment… even though the loud cheering scared me a bit. There's something inherently terrifying about thousands of people, most of them effectively armed to the teeth, chanting in response to a leader's speech.

Another two months later, we found out Auntie was pregnant. I get another little sibling? Mixed feelings abounded. Uncle couldn't really take time off his job for child care–"Hokage" was a 24/7 job–so that meant everyone would have to chip in. Including Kakashi, who kept mumbling something about "brats multiplying". You know you love us, you cute grump.

I wasn't really included in the tally, however; no one really expected the future five year old to babysit. If only they knew...They'd probably still not trust me with a baby; I'd never been the best caretaker for small creatures. Or big creatures. Do they have pet rocks in this world?

No matter. I still had a lot of things to do. I had been falling behind on transcribing all the mathematics I could remember, and on applying it to fūinjutsu theory. The latter was no small undertaking; for now, I was mostly formalizing the theoretical arrangements, but already I had hit some problems, mainly on measuring chakra. It might be easier if I was a sensor or a Hyūga–or, for that matter, had access to my own dōjutsu–but even one of those would not get numerical values.

The same formalization problem applied to Orochimaru's problem. He asked for a flame "equivalent to the Gōkakyū", but what does that even mean? The same jutsu had different properties depending on who was performing it, their familiarity with the technique, their proficiency at chakra control, their affinity, and a myriad other factors. So whose Gōkakyū?

All these issues weighed heavily on my mind, day after day. Uncle's birthday came and went (I helped make the cake!), and my own approached stealthily. I got the news that Yomogi-san was also expecting a child, which I couldn't let go of without commentary:

First, damn do the Hyūga work fast.

Second, what is with all the babies at the same time? And each expected about 11 weeks after the previous one.

Third, who's next? ...Note to self: watch Rin-chan and Kakashi very carefully.

Mother's stomach had grown huge with the baby by the time Itachi and Hino-nee's birthday came around. Kushina-san, who was not that far along yet, seemed at the same time curious and terrified. Mother laughed. "Don't you remember?", she asked. "This is nothing compared to when I was carrying these two around". Itachi wondered at the fact that both him and Hino-nee had fit in there at all.

Sasuke was born a month later, on a rainy day. They were chatting in the living room when her water broke, and Father went out into the streets. He returned two minutes later, accompanied by three drenched women. Iryō-nin, there to perform the function of midwives. Itachi neither wanted nor was allowed to be there for the birth, but Fugaku spent the whole duration in the room.

This meant he was left to wonder just how the iryō-nin in the village were deployed. There certainly needed to be some manning the military hospital at all times–Hino-nee's description of the place confirmed as much–and some accompanying mission squads; but was this a scheduling or a position difference? In other words, were there two types of iryō-nin (field and base), or did all of the personnel alternate between roles?

Afterwards, Itachi was called in to see his little brother. He was a tiny thing, nearly bald and covered in blood. The room smelled like poop and sweat, and Sasuke was screaming his lungs out. And yet Itachi felt enchanted by the miracle of life he was witnessing: the coming of a whole new living, breathing being; one of his own blood, no less.

Hino-nee visited to see Sasuke some days later (and make a lot of weird, cooing noises), though Mother and Father were adamant she not touch the baby. In fact, when they thought he wasn't listening, they (especially Fugaku) expressed concerns over her continued contact with Itachi. "No matter how we might feel personally, we can't have the clan's heir put in constant danger!", Father would say.

Itachi wasn't having any of it, though. Hino-nee was his sister, and an Uchiha. Surely his duties as Clan Head would include looking out for her as well? He'd tried to indirectly broach the topic during dinner a couple of weeks earlier, but his inquiries were met with avoidance and a quick change of subject. Something to consider.

It made Itachi wonder if she'd ever move back in with them. He thought back to their birthday, and the sweets she'd given him. He'd been torn between eating them and keeping one as a keepsake, but in the end his sweet tooth won out.

He still had the drawing she'd given him, nearly two years prior, just before she was taken from the house. Itachi kept it safe inside an envelope, under one of the floorboards in his room, and would often take it out at night, when the corner of the room that used to belong to her felt particularly empty. Maybe the new baby would help him feel less lonely.

Itachi smiled.

And thus it was that I became five years old. Next year, me and Itachi-nii would be in the Academy. Getting to spend time with my onii-chan would be great, though I couldn't say I was looking forward to having to wear chakra sealed clothing everywhere again.

It would be something of a bother to replace sealed clothing every year as I grew, but Auntie had shown me how to sew the seals on myself, even though I didn't understand the principles behind them. Fortunately, these seals weren't the type one needed to activate with chakra; in fact, they were made precisely so that no chakra could traverse them.

Making them wasn't the issue, though; the problem was that, though Auntie and Uncle had made me forget about it until now, I was still a risk to everyone around me, and concerned parents had already notified the academy they wished me to wear my hazmat at all times. They couldn't ask me not to attend–exiled or not, I was still born an Uchiha, lived with the current Hokage, and was in the good graces of his predecessor.

I wasn't worried about the curriculum, at least. Even if I weren't an adult, and familiar with more mathematics than was probably required of any shinobi, Otou-sama's training plus Sarutobi-sensei's lessons would have meant I was miles ahead of the other kids in everything but ninjutsu… which I couldn't do. At all.

When I expressed my worries to Uncle, he made a scrunched up face, but assured me it was possible to graduate without any ninjutsu. In fact, he confided, Guy-san was pretty terrible at everything but taijutsu, yet he was one of the village's top shinobi.

I can do this. Uncle, Auntie, Otou-sama, Okaa-sama, Sarutobi-sensei, Guy-san! Come hell or high water, I'll break through everything in my path. I'll graduate, and make all of you proud! So witness me!

Damn Murphy's Law.

The Tenth of October.

Uncle had told me Auntie's childbirth would be complicated by her "condition", ie, being the jinchūriki (highly classified information, I gathered; how on this sweet Earth I was allowed to know, I had no idea). This meant they moved her to a secure location in preparation for the process, and I was assigned to Kakashi and Rin-chan while Uncle and Auntie were out.

I was having a fun couple of days. Kakashi was a very laid-back caretaker, and Rin-chan treated me more like a granddaughter than anything. Kakashi was miffed, of course. Particularly because Rin-chan had decided my presence meant his erotica had to be stored away. "How come she gets to read her books and I don't!?" echoed quite frequently around the house. Oh, the salt is delicious.

Currently, he was trying to sneak one of his ero books out from storage under a thick dictionary. To tattle, or not to tattle? On one hand, the books being out meant I could sneak a peek. On the other, flustering Kakashi was always worth it.

And then all hell broke loose. Or, well, a demon did.

A/N: Aaaaaaaand we're back! An extra large chapter to compensate for the wait. Sorta.

A bunch of time skips, some background information on what I envision Konoha society to be like, and the shit hits the fan. Hopefully you won't get hung on this cliff for more than a week, though.

Reviews are welcome!

Small update: Kushina's kimono was inspired by aoitorix's drawing on Deviantart / Kushina-a-bright-day-345465953