Author's Note: A lot of you seem surprised by the Genma and Anko relationship reveal; I've actually been dropping some subtle hints in previous parts of the story, but a lot of them are easily glossed over due to this being Mirai's POV and her not noticing it either. There will be some eventual POV Change scenes in the Sideshow that will show some of the much more obvious hints that Mirai missed!

Fun Fact: This chapter is super odd because about halfway through it a thing happened that was not in the outline at all and I had to suddenly shift gears and everything just took a step to the left. So I guess the fun fact here is that Naruto is a bit more of a detective than I originally gave him credit for.

Chapter Twenty-Two - Circumvolve

[circumvolve—verb : to revolve or wind about]

"I thought the Hokage gave you early graduation."

I looked up from the shogi board to find Sakura standing beside us, hands folded behind her back as she rocked nervously back and forth, waiting for a response. I shook my head and moved a pawn. "He offered. Again. I turned it down. Again."

"Why?"

"Hmm?" I glanced to the side as she sat down, her gaze now fixed on my game with Shikamaru. "Why what?"

"Why did you turn it down?"

"Because I'm not graduating early. I don't want to leave Na—"

"What's the real reason?" Her gaze flicked to me, steely. Sakura immediately looked away, flushed, once she realized what she'd done. "I— Sorry. Um—" She looked back, nervous this time.

I tilted my head to the side, considering her. Then I straightened. "Do you want to play, Sakura-chan?"

"Wait, what?" Shikamaru asked, finally paying attention to our conversation. "Soph, we're not done yet."

"Well, we play all the time. I've never played Sakura before." With that, I dragged my pieces back into place despite the Nara's grumbling complaints. "Do you know how to play?"

Sakura hesitated. Shikamaru shuffled to the side and motioned to her. She sat down across from me. "Um, I've played a couple times. With my Touchan. I'm, I'm not very good."

"That's okay. Why don't you go first?"

Sakura stared at the board for a long moment. Off to her right, Shikamaru sighed and just sprawled out on the ground, throwing an arm across his face to shield his eyes from the sun. She glanced at him. "Um, I'm sorry for taking your spot, Shikamaru-kun."

He waved his other hand. "It's fine. Just play. I'm exhausted from Study Group anyway."

"Right. Okay." She turned back to the board and moved a pawn.

I made my move quickly. "Do you know who Shimura Danzo is, Sakura-chan?"

Shikamaru shifted and peered at me, frowning. Sakura looked startled. "I— Um, isn't that the guy that was at Study Group that time? The one you got angry with?"

"That's him. Take your turn." I nodded to the board. "He wants me to go train under him and I don't want to; he's not a great guy. But as long as I'm in the Academy, I'm still technically available and so his focus is still on me. If I leave, he'll go after Naruto."

"Oh. If . . . he wasn't around, would you have done it? Graduated early?"

I frowned. "Maybe. I'm not sure."

She nodded and we played quietly for a little while. Then she cautiously asked, "What makes him bad?"

I hesitated. "He . . . loves Konoha. I think he does. He just goes about loving it wrong. Um . . . ." I sighed. "Okay, remember what Iruka-sensei said about working to make our bodies into weapons, where we can fight without needing something else? When he says that, he doesn't mean it literally; he knows we're still people and he wants us to stay that way. But Danzo has— He looks at shinobi as just weapons. As just tools. And if a tool has to break in order to get something done, he doesn't see anything wrong with that."

"I can see that your eyes are open. You know that, right?"

Hanabi groaned. "It's so boring," she said, flopping back onto the floor. When Natsu made a disappointed noise, the girl immediately sat back up, looking bashful. "I'm sorry."

I tilted my head to the side and considered her for a long moment. "Are you having trouble sitting still?"

She looked guilty and dropped her gaze.

"That's okay," I soothed. "Natsu-san, would you mind if we moved this lesson to water?"

Natsu straightened. "Water?"

I glanced at her. "Hanabi-chan does know how to swim, right? Or float, at the very least?"

"She . . . does. But I'm not sure I'm comfortable with what you're suggesting." Natsu glanced at her charge. "I will have to speak with Hiashi-sama."

"I understand." I rose from my seiza. "Maybe it would be better if we ended our session here for today, then."

Hanabi scrambled up. "I'll walk you out, Mirai-sensei!" A sharp look from Natsu made her pause. "I will walk you to the gate, Mirai-sensei," she said, carefully this time.

I stopped short at the form of address. "Oh. Okay. I'd like that, Hanabi-chan." I gathered up my things and sealed them away, slipping the scroll into my pocket. I followed her out of the dojo and to the gate.

Neji was waiting there.

"Gargoyle," I greeted, though not without a certain level of confusion. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Could I walk with you?"

I glanced at the gates as the guards opened them. "Well, I'm off to train, but sure." I nodded to the girl by my side. "Thank you, Hanabi-chan. I'll see you next week." I reached out and hooked my arm through Neji's, guiding him out to the street. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure. I just—" He cleared his throat. "Wanted some company. I'm sorry."

"Oh." I beamed at him. "Don't apologize for that. If you'd like, you could come back to the apartment for tea after my training if you'd like."

"There is a clan dinner tonight that I'll be at."

"Oh. Some other time, then. Maybe . . . next week. My normal sensei for Sunday will both be on a mission. So we can have tea together right after my lesson with Hanabi."

Neji's gaze flicked to me and there was something soft, relieved, about his expression. "I'd like that."

It was our first day back in the classroom since the year-end break and there was a new student sitting in my row. I stopped in the doorway, not taking another step into the almost-empty classroom.

Iruka looked up from his desk and then smiled. "Oh, Mirai-chan! I wanted to speak with you about the jutsu from your file. I have time today to go over them with you so you can try them. I'm free both after the Academy and during the class's exercises outside, since Mizuki is more than capable in leading that. So if you want—" He faltered. Then he followed my gaze. "Ah, we have a late Academy admission. Mirai-chan, this is Inoue Sai. Sai-kun, this is Uzumaki Mirai, one of my top students. If you have any questions—" He hesitated and glanced at me. "That is to say—"

"That's fine." I nodded. "If you have any questions, you can ask me," I finished.

Sai nodded and the smile he gave me looked like it had been ripped straight from a plastic doll. He was sitting ramrod straight, hands folded on his bare desk. "Thank you, Uzumaki-san," he said, voice rasping with disuse more than a child's should.

I forced myself to turn my back to him and I stepped up to Iruka's desk. "You were saying?"

He smiled softly. "The jutsu you studied from the file. I can work with you today so you can try them. I can work with you during exercises outside, as Mizuki can lead the class. And then I'll be free after the Academy if you need additional time. In the meantime, I'd appreciate if you spent class time reviewing the jutsu so you're prepared to attempt them."

"Right. Of course, Iruka-sensei. Thank you." I bowed and moved up to my seat. I stood there and tilted my head, considering Sai and my options. "If you're new, you might need some help catching up. You can join my Study Group."

He turned his stare to me. Then he just nodded. "I'll be there." He paused in thought. "Thank you."

I just nodded and sat in the chair beside him. I took out my work and started studying while I waited for the others, fully aware that Sai was watching me the whole time.

"Morning. Who's this?"

I glanced to the side. "Maru, this is Sai. He's new and will be joining us for Study Group this weekend."

"Ah." He frowned a little but then shrugged. "Good. Someone else for you to focus on."

I narrowed my stare at him. "This doesn't get you out of training tonight, you know."

"Aw, c'mon."

"Besides, you mom already knows you're training with me and staying at my place. What do you think she'd say if you bailed?"

Shikamaru winced. "Fine. Alright, then." With a groan, he slumped over his desk.

"I will do my best to not distract Uzumaki-san's attention from you," Sai said flatly.

Shikamaru squinted at him. "Right. Okay. You do that."

"You're dying, aren't you?"

"Hmm?" I asked, eyes still closed.

"What is it? Some sort of disease, right? Or you were cursed? And your life is slowly draining away?"

I made another curious sound, only half paying attention to what he was saying with the rest of my attention going to how warm the sun was.

"Cancer? Stroke? You really can see the future and you saw someone stab you?"

I finally opened one eye to stare at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You're relaxing," Shikamaru said pointedly.

"Yes," I said slowly. "You should try it. Would make you seem less . . . manic."

"That's not—" He wrinkled his nose. "You never relax. This is just wrong."

"Resting before a training session with Gai is generally a good idea," I pointed out, closing my eyes again. "Would you rather we go to 44 to warm up instead?"

I felt the way Shikamaru's chakra shuddered. "44? Are you insane?"

"It's not that bad. Really. I actually find it kinda fun."

"You've been to Training Ground 44?"

I flinched in surprise at the unexpected voice and sat up, staring. "Hayate? What are you doing here?"

"Gai had a mission, so Hokage-sama decided to go ahead and replace him as your teacher. He said your sensei told him that you've been working on toton?"

I climbed to my feet. "Just started trying to execute the jutsu today. Are you going to help me with that?"

"That and Hokage-sama wants me to check on and improve your kenjutsu skills." He held a hand out to me. "We'll start with the jutsu."

"I'm not meeting with Gai again?" I asked, taking his hand and letting him pull me to my feet.

"No. Though I think he's decided to keep working with your friend. Now," —he turned his head briefly away and hacked out a cough before fixing me with a stare— "you've been to 44?"

"I've been there lots. And I'm fine," I said, cutting off that thought before he could develop it further. "I've been going for a couple years now. And I'm fine."

Hayate looked a bit doubtful, but he didn't push the way I know Genma or Kakashi would have. Instead, he motioned to me and stepped back. "Show me the hand signs."

"What do you do here?"

My gaze flicked behind Sai to where Shikamaru wasn't being subtle about sharply studying the boy. Then I smiled and shrugged. "Train. Help each other on things we're having trouble with. We often have themed things we work on. We've been doing nature chakra work for a few weeks now. Do you know what chakra nature you are? We could put you in a group with that others of that nature."

"I am earth natured."

"Oh, you'll be with Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino, then." I nodded in Shikamaru's direction, who straightened and cleared his curiosity from his face, replacing it with lethargy. "Head that way. We're going to start with some basic nature exercises and then review tree walking. Maru?"

He nodded to me and then to Sai before sitting down in a circle with the others in his group. "C'mon. Don't hold us up."

I watched them for a moment before forcing myself to turn away and join my own group. Naruto was already talking Tenten through figuring out how to spin her leaf above her palm. I knelt down and leaned forward. "Starting without me?"

"I'm the one that needs the help here, not you," Tenten said, frowning at her hand. "So yes."

"You don't need too much help." I poked at the leaf. It was shaky and low, but it was floating. "You're doing really well."

She scoffed. "Not compared to you two."

Naruto visibly flinched. Surprise and concern boiled up inside me in equal measure. "Nato?" I asked carefully.

"Don't compare yourself to us," he mumbled to Tenten.

I frowned at him, raking my gaze across him just to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious. He'd been quiet this morning too, but I'd attributed to that to the all-nighter he and Sasuke had attempted to pull against my warnings, leading to me finding them both slumped across the table when I got up. But before I could say anything, he was speaking again.

"Keep it soft. Or it'll hurt."

Tenten's gaze flicked up to him. "Hurt?"

He just nodded and reached out, pulling on her hand to flatten it out. "And keep it like this."

I watched as Naruto instructed Tenten, leading her through various pieces of advice to help her control her tenketsu better. I stood up carefully, making sure I didn't bother them, and turned away.

"Ow!"

"How's it going over here?" I asked, interrupting Kiba's cry of pain.

Ino snickered. "Kiba burned his hand trying to set a stick on fire, so I think we're doing good."

I glanced over at where Kiba was pouting and clutching his hand to his chest. "Impressive. Tobio? Are you feeling caught up on where the group is at?" As I spoke, I unrolled a scroll and unsealed a water bottle and an icepack. After cracking the icepack, I handed both to Kiba.

"I think so," Tobio said, staring at the dry leaf in his hands. "Uh. Maybe?"

"We're doing our best," Neji said. "His nature is a little weak."

Tobio wrinkled his nose. "It's not weak! Just, uh, uh, uh . . . little?"

Neji watched him for a moment before switching his gaze to me as if to say see?

I grinned. "Glad it's going well. Lemme know if you need help. I don't really know how to do any katon jutsu, but I might be able to snag a chunin or jonin to help you guys like Izumo is helping Sakura."

"I, I think I'd like that," Hinata murmured.

"I'll see what I can do, then." With that, I turned away from them to the chunin himself only to find that Sakura and Izumo had abandoned their leaf pile to watch Lee show off his newest moves. "Getting a lot done?" I asked.

"Consider it got and done," Izumo said, not pulling his gaze away from Gai's student. "She's pretty good. After she drowned ten leaves in one go when we sat down, I kinda figured she's got it down. Did you know this kid was getting lessons from Gai?"

I smiled faintly. "I'd heard something about it. Your form looks good, Lee." I dropped a hand down and tugged on Sakura's ribbon. "I'm glad Izumo was at least a little useful."

This time, Izumo did look at me. He was frowning. "Hey! Hurtful."

"You'll survive," I said, already wandering away. I hesitated in front of the next group. Could it be called a group?

Sasuke didn't look up from where he sat, hunched over Kakashi's book and his notes. At first, I didn't think he'd noticed me. But finally he murmured, "What?"

Now that I thought about it, Sasuke had been awfully quiet all day too. I crouched down. "How's studying?" I asked cautiously, approaching the conversation with care. He was still sensitive about not being katon natured.

His grip on his pen tightened. "Don't."

I paused. "Oh. Okay."

His head snapped up and he glared at me. "Don't do that. It's annoying."

"I'm sorry."

"Stop that!"

I bit back another apology, frowning at him. Aware that his shout had drawn the attention of some of the others, I dropped my voice and asked, "Do you want me to leave or . . . do you want to leave? You can go back to the apartment, if you want."

I'd barely said the words before he was gathering up his things. "See you later," he mumbled, leaving quickly enough that it looked like he was running away. I go to my feet and stared after him.

"Uzumaki-san? Is everything alright?"

I glanced over at the last group. Sai. I offered him a plastic smile that rivaled his own. "Sasuke didn't get much sleep last night." Not a lie. But something seemed off with both him and Naruto that seemed to be more than just lack of sleep. A few steps brought me to where I could stand behind Shikamaru. "How's it going?"

"Sai is good," Shikamaru said. It was all he said, but I heard the meaning behind his words there.

My gaze flicked to Sai. "That's nice to hear. I say we give everyone just a bit longer before we move on. And then you can show us your tree-walking, Sai-kun."

We walked home in silence. If I hadn't already been suspicious that something was wrong, the quiet was more than enough to put me ill-at-ease. I resisted the urge the breach the topic as we walked, well aware of the paranoia that pricked at my skin whenever I wasn't somewhere at least vaguely secure. And the streets of Konoha's housing district late at night for its resident jinchuuriki? Definitely not secure. With that in mind, I resolved to speak up as soon as we were home and started workshopping different ways to start the conversation as we walked.

As it turned out, I didn't need to worry about that.

"Did I get in trouble with our clan?"

The words were out of Naruto's mouth almost before I'd even finished locking the door. I jerked around to stare at him. "Did— What?"

"Did I do something bad? And so they don't like me?"

"Naruto," I said carefully, glancing from him to where Sasuke was sitting at the table, looking like he'd been waiting for us. "I don't understand what you're asking. We haven't ever gotten to meet people from our clan. Not yet."

"But—" He hesitated, looking at Sasuke in confusion. "Teme said clans put seals on bad people in their family. That, that his clan did that a couple times. And that Hinata-chan's clan does that too."

I buried a flinch at the reminder of Neji's seal. To distract myself, I busied myself with taking off my shoes. "Why would you think our clan did that to you?" I ventured cautiously.

Naruto hesitated. "Am, am I a bad person?"

I stiffened. "No. You're not. What are you talking about?"

He glanced aside and then peeled off his shirt. His chakra burned against my skin and his seal swirled into existence across his stomach. I wanted to look away, wanted to face anything but this conversation, but I couldn't.

"Rai. Please."

I sighed. "I . . . I don't know what you want me to say."

"I thought you said I'm not a bad person."

I snapped my gaze up from the seal to him. "You're not."

"Then why won't you tell me?"

I tugged out my braids and ran my fingers through my hair. "I will," I whispered. "If you really want me to. If you really need me to. I'm just not sure . . . how."

"Try. Please."

I turned towards the kitchen, desperate to start making tea or something that would distract me. But that wouldn't be fair. So I changed directions and instead went to the couch. I sat down and gripped my hands together tightly. I cleared my throat. "Eight years ago, something happened. Or, uh, two things happened. On the same day. One, we were born." I finally looked back up at Naruto and he was still standing in place, shirt gripped tightly in one hand. "Two, the Kyuubi attacked."

"So?" Sasuke interrupted. "The Yondaime killed it. Why's that important?"

I glanced at him. "Because he didn't. Bijuu aren't— They can't just be killed like that, Sasuke. It's almost impossible to kill a bijuu unless they're— He didn't, okay? Nato, do you know what our— The Hokage. The Yondaime. Do you know what he was known for? What he was really good at?"

Naruto finally sank to the ground, folding his legs beneath himself. "Seals. Like you."

"Right. So he didn't kill the Kyuubi. Instead, he used seals. That's— Lots of people have done that. There are other bijuu and seals have been used on them too. To put them away in a person."

"In a person? How? Aren't they, they big?" He twisted his shirt tightly in his hands. "They're too big, Rai."

"No, that's not— Um." I dragged a hand down my face and could hear Kurama rumbling with vague amusement in the back of my head. "Like a storage scroll. Except it's a person instead of the scroll and, and a bijuu is basically just a lot of chakra, and so it stores that in you— the body." I rushed to fix my mistake, but the way his eyes crinkled sadly told me it was too late.

"So . . . the Kyuubi is inside me?" he whispered, reached down and pressing his hand where the seal had been.

It was hard to breathe. I whispered, "In us. We were babies. And a baby isn't, isn't strong enough to store the entire Kyuubi like that. So the Yondaime tore him in half and put half in you and half in me."

Naruto didn't say anything. He kept his stare firmly on the floor, eyes unfocused. When I looked at him, Sasuke was staring at me, brow furrowed but face otherwise blank. So I folded my hands in my lap and waited.

He's not taking it well. You should have just lied to him.

I've lied to him enough.

Kurama made a dismissive sound. Before I could address that, Naruto spoke up again, voice shaky.

"So we are monsters. Just like people say?"

"No. We aren't."

Naruto leaned back a bit. "But . . . there's monsters inside us."

I caught myself. "No. There aren't."

"But . . . but you just said . . . ."

"Nato, they're not . . . . He's not a monster. Monster is just, is just a word that people use." My hand moved to grip my necklace through my shirt. "Monster is just a word that people use for things they're scared of."

"They're—" Naruto swallowed. Then he whispered, "Do you think they're scared of us? The, the people that say that? Are they scared of us?"

"Yeah. I think they are."

"But I don't get it," Sasuke cut in. "Why—" He huffed and got to his feet, pointing at me. "The Yondaime was Kakashi-sensei's teacher right? Why'd he give the Kyuubi to you instead of him? He's super strong, right? That, that, that woulda made sense!"

"That would have, right?" I mumbled. "But . . . he wasn't there with the Yondaime when the Kyuubi attacked."

"We . . . were?" Naruto asked, leaning forward again.

"I— Yes."

"Why?"

I bit my lip. I didn't want to broach this topic. I didn't want to talk about this. I didn't want— "Because he's our dad," I rasped out hoarsely.

"We . . . don't know Touchan," Naruto mumbled, eyes wide and, oh, kami, his eyes were getting glassy. I had to force myself to look away as he kept talking. "We don't know, Rai."

"I do," I whispered. "I have. I'm sorry."

"But . . . we don't know him."

"Nato—"

He jerked to his feet, already frantically pulling his shirt on as he stumbled for the door. I shot up. "Wait, Nato!"

"No!" he yelled. "Leave me alone!"

"But—"

"No!" And then he slammed the door behind him.

You could have handled that better.

"Shut up," I growled, pulling my shoes on.

"What?" Sasuke asked in surprise.

"I—" I looked up at him. "Sorry. I was— I didn't mean— I'm sorry."

He shifted. "Did you . . . did you lie to Naruto? Before? And, and that's why he didn't know about your—" He snapped his mouth shut. "Never mind."

I glanced towards the door and hesitated. "Sasuke, I . . . . I didn't— I just . . . didn't tell him."

"Why?"

Because it was a hard subject to navigate without revealing something I had no real way of knowing. Because I was afraid of how Naruto would take it. Because calling Minato my dad still felt wrong. Because— "I don't know."

"Oh."

"I . . . I'm going to go find him."

"Okay."

I watched him worriedly for a moment but Sasuke didn't do anything but just . . . sit there, still looking confused. I didn't want to leave him, but— "Okay." I stepped out of the apartment and locked the door behind me. I jumped over the railing to the ground below and spread out my senses for Naruto's chakra. Off to my left. I turned and shunshined. Again. Again. I stumbled as I went too far and turned back towards where I could feel his heat. After a few more minutes, I found myself in front of a familiar door.

I knocked softly.

It took a little bit for the door to open. When it did, Kakashi immediately bent to be able to be on my level and his hand came up to cup my chin. "Pup, what happened? Naruto showed up crying. What—"

"He's crying?" I asked, voice breaking. "I— I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make him cry. I really didn't."

"Shh. I know." His confused frown was visible past his mask. "What's going on?"

I glanced over my shoulder and then back at him. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah. 'Course." His hand dropped away and he stepped back. As I moved past him, he closed and locked the door.

"Naruto," I mumbled, watching where my brother was sitting on the bed and clutching something, and stepped forward.

He froze. "Go away."

I flinched. Kakashi put a hand on my shoulder for just a second before moving forward. "What do you have?" he asked softly, crouching down in front of Naruto. He carefully took it and turned it.

I flinched again and looked away. It was Kakashi's genin team picture.

"Did you know?"

Kakashi set the picture down and reached out, running his fingers through Naruto's hair. "Did I know what?"

"That he's my dad?"

Kakashi stilled. "I—"

"Did you know about the Kyuubi?"

His shoulders set in a harsh line. "Naruto, I—"

"Did you?" Naruto asked, looking up for the first time.

Kakashi sighed. "I did," he mumbled.

Naruto shoved himself to his feet and shot for the door. As he fumbled with the handle, I turned to follow. "Nato—"

"Leave me alone!" he screamed. And then the door was closed. And he was gone.

"Naruto!" I choked out, lurching forward to go after him as tears built up in my eyes.

"Wait, wait." Kakashi caught me. "Hold on, Pup."

"No, no, no! Let me—"

"I'll go after him, okay. Just . . . just tell me what happened."

I rubbed at my eyes and turned to meet his concerned gaze. "He and Sasuke saw his seal for the first time last night," I whispered. "They thought it was like a clan seal. Like how they, they might punish a bad member or something. Naruto thought— So I told him and, and—"

"Shh, okay. I get it." He brushed my tears away with a shaky hand. "You stay here. I'll go talk to him." He rose to his feet. "Pakkun?"

I watched as the ninken sighed and pulled himself to his feet, following after Kakashi as he left. When the door shut behind him, I slowly slumped down to the floor and my hand went to my necklace.

Are you okay?

Three heartbeats and then the coin burned. I'm okay. Are you okay?

I closed my eyes and felt the tears burning down my face. No, no I wasn't. I couldn't answer that. I just couldn't—

The coin burned again, this time with a steady flow of his chakra. I choked on another sob and hunched over, folding both hands around my necklace. Bull pushed his way over to nuzzle up against my side. Urushi settled at my feet while Akino pressed up against the side that Bull wasn't occupying. And slowly, steadily, it became easier to breathe. Eventually, I was able to uncurl without feeling like I was dying.

Just in time for the knock on the door.

"Mirai-chan?" a familiar voice called. "Kakashi sent me to get you."

I rubbed at my eyes and straightened. "Yosu?" I called out.

"That's me. You okay in there?"

I cleared my throat. The entire world tilted and then spun when I stood and the ninken scrambled out of my way. A few deep breaths helped me steady and I moved to the door. When I opened it, Yosu looked clearly relieved but he didn't smile. Instead, he looked me over with a practiced eye.

I shifted. "What are you doing here?" I murmured.

"Kakashi said he's staying with the boys tonight, so he asked me to keep you at my place since Genma's out of town." He shrugged. "He said something about me owing him for watching Kono, but you're always welcome." He frowned. "Well, technically Pakkun said all that, since he was the one delivering the message."

"Oh."

His frown deepened. Yosu crouched down so that I was forced to look him in the eye. "What happened?"

I could explain it all. Naruto's discovery, his assumptions, my lies, my explanation, his reaction. But I didn't want to. "I . . . guess Naruto and I are having a fight." I rubbed my stinging eyes.

"Alright." He sat down with a groan. "We'll go whenever you're ready."

"Oh. Okay." Relief uncurled in my gut. I sat down as well, on the opposite side of Kakashi's doorframe. "Thank you." I dragged my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. "Did you and Asuma fight a lot?"

"Asuma?" he asked, sounding shocked. It occurred to make that . . . I'd never heard anyone actually mention him. Yosu looked away and scratched his head. "We were pretty different from you and Naruto, you know. It was . . . more surprising if we weren't fighting. Asuma is hot-headed, impulsive, only sees things in absolutes— Well, I was too. Still am, in some ways. It was never a good mix."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Don't apologize for our shortcomings. We both need to make ourselves better, but those are our concerns. I just— Well, if there was one thing I could make better, I would be for us to be better with words."

"Why?"

"Well . . . it'd be nice to make sure he knows I love him."

"Of course he knows that. Right?"

Yosu finally smiled, but it was tired. "Not everyone admits their affection as freely as you do, Mirai-chan. That level of honesty is hard."

Honesty. Suddenly, I didn't want to be in this conversation anymore. I stood, feeling sick to my stomach. "I'm ready."

"Alright." He hauled himself to his feet with another groan. "Let's walk." When I stepped out, he reached past me and shut Kakashi's door. "Konohamaru will be excited. Besides, I think he's tired of having me around constantly now and he'll appreciate a new face at home."

That reminder made me look up at him. "How are you feeling? How long is your medical leave?"

He brought a hand up to his chest with a slight wince. "Uh, two more months at the least. Probably longer." Then he dropped that hand to my head. "Don't worry. I won't be heading out to do anything dangerous anytime soon. I know how concerned you are about that, now." He shoved me gently, playfully.

I offered him an exaggerated pout. "I'm not concerned."

"Uh-huh. Don't worry. It's very sweet that you're worried about me."

Hiruzen set up a shogi board at the breakfast table. I watched him, halfway through my food, and then flicked my gaze towards Yosu to see the way he was purposely trying to avoid acknowledging what his father was doing. The Hokage finished setting up the pieces and cleared his throat. "I thought you'd prefer a quick game here over you coming to the Tower today."

I stared at the board, tightening my grip on my chopsticks. "I don't want to play with you."

"Oh?"

"Naruto deserved to know."

"You didn't tell him," Hiruzen pointed out, folding his hands on the table.

"And you didn't tell either of us." I glanced up at him. "Both of us deserved to know. You shouldn't have hidden who our parents were from us. Just like how I should have told Naruto."

He studied me for a long moment. Then he sighed and withdrew his pipe and his small box, packing the end of his pipe. There was silence as he worked, then he lit it with the tip of his finger and brought it to his mouth. Once he'd puffed out some smoke, he mused, "Well, it's always helpful to acknowledge our shortcomings."

"You aren't acknowledging anything," I forced out between gritted teeth. "You're agreeing that I was wrong and that's it."

"Very well."

He said nothing further.

I shoved myself up. "Fine," I snapped out. I turned on my heel and stormed from the room. Just as the door slammed behind me, I heard Yosu sigh heavily.

"Tousan. Why do you do that?"

The door clicked and I barely took a moment to think before I made my way out of the room. Once outside the manor, I stopped and took a deep breath of fresh air to reorient. Then I turned in the direction of the Hyuuga Compound. The guards nodded to me as I arrived and opened the gate. I bowed to them. "Arigato. Could you tell me where I could find Neji-san?"

One of the guards nodded. "I believe today he's working on the back garden."

"Thank you." I headed that way, hands shaking badly enough that I had to shove them in my pockets to pretend they weren't. I followed the winding stone path farther into the compound until I found myself at a sea of flowers. There were several Hyuuga there and it took me a moment to find the one I was looking for. "Gargoyle," I said, bouncing on the balls of my feet. "Are you still up for tea?"

Neji looked up from the flower he was tending to. He stared at me for a moment. Then he straightened. "You're . . . early."

"I don't have anything this morning, so I'm free until noon."

"Oh." He stared down at the flower and the nodded, rising to his feet. "Walk with me." He turned and started for the station to clean up. As he began washing the dirt off his hands, he said, "Do you now anything about clan structure?"

"I—" The question surprised me. It wasn't what I'd thought he wanted to talk about. "Mildly. I'm more familiar with the— with what was the structure of the Uchiha Clan. Beyond that, I'm most familiar with the Nara structure."

He huffed. "I'm not sure theirs qualifies as a structure."

The got a shrug out of me. "Maybe, maybe not. Why?" I hooked my arm through his and began leading him out of the compound.

"I'm curious."

I nodded to the guards we passed and then squinted at Neji. "No. Tell me why you're asking."

"Because . . . there are people I know, now, through the Study Group that don't have . . . clans. But they say they have family, even if they're like you."

"Like . . . me?"

"Orphans," he said simply, waving his other hand. "My point is that they talk about it and it sounds . . . different. Like maybe a clan and a family aren't the same thing." He swallowed loudly, gaze fixed on the road up ahead. "And I thought they were."

Yosu found me long after the sun had set, leaned up against the back of Shisui's headstone with my fuuinjutsu notes long forgotten on the ground next to me as I stared out at nothing, rabbit foot clutched in hand. When his chakra arrived on the edge of my senses, I stilled and then shoved the charm into my pocket. I didn't look back at him, choosing to continue to stare out across the graves. He came to a stop beside me and sat down. For a while, he didn't say anything. And when he did break the silence, his voice was soft.

"I only met him a few times. But from what I've heard, if the two of us had been friends then I would have met you a lot sooner."

I tightened my grip on the rabbit foot in my pocket. "Yeah," I rasped. "Probably."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him nod. He was silent again for another stretch of time. Then, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

I finally glanced at him. Briefly, barely.

"For my father," he clarified. "Asuma and I have always had our differences, but I understand why our father drove him to leave."

"I can't—" My voice broke and I shook my head. I cleared my throat. "I can't leave."

"Yeah, I know." Yosu sighed and leaned back a bit so he could stare up at the dark sky. "That's the part I understand better."

"He's right, though. I could have told Naruto."

"You could have," he admitted. "But I'm going to give you a piece of advice. When it comes to dealing with the Hokage—this Hokage—never let him know that he's right. Even when he is. It's been long enough now that people've forgotten that he's a man named and made by war. There are aspects of that that don't . . . translate well to leading." He glanced at me. "Don't tell anyone I said that, of course."

I managed a faint smile. "Right. Of course."

"And he's not even right this time. I don't think that should have been your responsibility at all. No matter when you figured it out. You're his sister. Not his parents, not his guardian, not some kind of authority figure. His sister."

I caught my breath. "But—"

"No. His sister."

I finally managed to released the rabbit foot in my pocket and I hid my face in my hands. "Okay," I whispered. "Okay."

"Are you going to head back to the house or are you going to your apartment? It's late."

"I don't know. I don't want to go back, but I don't think Naruto wants to see me yet."

"You need to stay somewhere."

"Yeah, I know. I will." When he didn't respond, I glanced up at him. "Promise."

Yosu sighed. "Alright." He shoved himself to his feet with a groan. "Come back to the house if you don't find somewhere else." And then he vanished.

It took me a while to finally move, and I only did because Kurama pushed me into action. I gathered up my things and sealed them away. After taking a moment to consider my options, I started off.

Yoshino was the one that saw me. She smiled brightly and waved to me from where they all were in the shogi house. "Mirai-chan! Come join us!"

I did my best to manage a smile in return and started forward. I hesitated at the threshold.

Shikamaru glanced up from where he was sitting across the shogi board from his father. He snickered. "Hey, Soph. You look like shit."

"Shikamaru!" Yoshino said, sending him a sharp look. But when she looked back at me, she did look concerned now and I knew that Shikamaru's statement was at least somewhat accurate. She got to her feet. "Here, let's go inside and get you some tea, sweetheart." She put a hand on my shoulder and steered me away from the shogi house and to the porch. I stopped at their front door and she stopped immediately as well. Yoshino turned so she could frown down at me. "What's wrong?" she murmured.

"I, uh." I shifted. "Sorry. I don't mean to impose. I was, um."

Something in her gaze hardened. "You could never impose." She framed my face with her hands, as if she was searching for something in my expression. "What do you need?"

"Could I stay here? Just, just for tonight?"

Yoshino didn't say anything for a long moment, still studying me. And then she nodded. "Of course. Come inside." She pulled away from me and disappeared into the house.

It took me a moment force myself to step over the threshold. I toed off my shoes, listening to the sounds coming from the kitchen. When I made it there, Yoshino already had a kettle warming on the stove as she readied a cup for each of us. After a moment of hesitation, I sat down at the table.

Yoshino said nothing as she prepared our tea. When it was ready, she set a cup down in front of me and then sat down next to me with her own. "Talk," she ordered simply before sipping at her drink, clearly not expecting an argument.

I stared down at my tea for a long moment. My eyes burned. "Naruto and I are fighting. Because I didn't tell him about Minato."

Yoshino set down her tea. I couldn't see her face and I couldn't force myself to look at her. She said nothing.

"I, um." I cleared my throat. "I just didn't know how to tell him about our father without— Without telling him about . . . everything else, I guess. I tried and I still don't think I— No, I know I didn't explain things right. How am I supposed to? I didn't know how to tell Naruto without him getting upset about it. I know I'm fucking angry about it."

My words hit me like ice water. I had never really thought about that before. Was I really angry with Minato? Was I really angry about what had happened? Judging by the boiling in my chest, I was.

"Oh, sweetheart. You have every right to be. Here, take this."

I stared down at the tissue she was holding out to me. Why? I sniffled. Oh. I was crying. When had that happened? I took the tissue with shaking hands. "Sorry," I choked out.

"You don't need to apologize. Shh, you're allowed to cry." Her arms came around me and she pulled me fully into her hold.

"I made him cry. Kami, the whole point was— I just didn't want to make him cry!"

"I know." She loosened my braids and began running her fingers through my hair as she hummed comfortingly. There was something warm, something familiar about it all. Something that just made me want to cry even more. "I know you didn't," she whispered. "But it's okay for you to cry too, dear. I'm here, so just go ahead."

Oh.

That's why it was familiar.

I twisted my hands in her shirt and tried—and failed—to keep back more tears. She didn't say anything else as I cried. When I finally managed to breathe properly again, I pulled back and rubbed at my eyes. It took all of my concentration not to apologize again.

"You can stay as long as you need to," Yoshino assured me, brushing my hair out of my face. "C'mon. Let's get you settled in."

"So. You gonna tell me what's up?"

I flinched. Shikamaru had been avoiding touching the subject due to Yoshino's supervision, but now . . . .

"Soph. C'mon."

"No."

"You can't just show up and act like," —he waved at me wildly as if that was supposed to get his point across— "and then not tell me what's going on. Should I be concerned?"

I grit my teeth. "No."

"Are you sure? Because I think I'm concerned."

"Naruto and I just, just got in a fight, okay?" I bit out. I sped up so I was walking ahead of him, so I wouldn't have to look at him. "Happy now?"

He huffed. "Not really. If you're gonna walk with me, you could at least not be rude about it."

I chanced a quick glance back so I could toss him a scowl. "No. Not in the mood."

"Figures," he muttered.

Kakashi was waiting by the front gate when we got there. He visibly relaxed when he saw me and he leaned down so he could support my chin and look me over. "Wasn't sure where you'd ended up last night after Yosu said you bailed."

"I couldn't deal with Hiruzen any longer," I mumbled. I looked past him. "Is Naruto here? Sasuke?"

"They're inside. Could I talk to you?"

"I—" I hesitated.

"Your sensei knows already."

I nodded. "Right. Okay, then."

Shikamaru yawned. "I'll see ya later, then, Soph." He strolled inside.

"Let's go back to your apartment."

I frowned, taking his hand. "Wait, I thought you just wanted to talk to me."

"I do. It's, uh, gonna be a bit of a talk."

"Oh." I swallowed. "Okay."

Kakashi shunshined us away. When we stopped in front of the apartment building, I asked, "Am I in trouble?"

"What? No, no, no. You're not—" He groaned and dragged a hand through his hair. "Shit, I— You're not in trouble. That's not— This isn't—"

"Okay," I interrupted before he could spiral.

Kakashi took a deep breath. "Okay." He guided me up the stairs ahead of him to the apartment.

Once we were inside, my absence was obvious. The living room was full of the collapsed materials for a pillow fort, the sink was more full than I usually left it, and there were definitely textbooks left behind that the boys were supposed to have for class. I picked my way across the room and settled down on the couch. Kakashi shifted on his feet in front of me.

He finally chose to start with, "I already went over all of this with Naruto. Well, and Sasuke, since he was— Anyway. The rule was that I couldn't tell you who your parents were, but now that you already know, there's, there's nothing saying I can't tell you about them. And I should have done that sooner."

I frowned. "It's okay. You don't—"

"Please, just—" He winced and was looking everywhere but at me. "Just let me do this. Please?"

"Right. Okay." I reached out and tugged on his sleeve. "Are you going to sit down?"

He complied easily, sitting down on the couch across from me. He didn't protest as I sat up and tugged his hitai-ate off or as I tugged his mask down. I nodded, satisfied. "There."

He gave me a tired smile and I had to wonder just how much he'd managed to sleep the last couple days. "Right, so, um. Who do you want to know about first?"

I focused in on the anger still simmering in my chest. "Minato," I murmured. "Please."

"I missed the Academy."

"That's alright. You hardly need it." He set the last takeout box in front of me. "Eat up."

"Right." I picked up my chopsticks. "Thank you, by the way."

He glanced curiously at me.

"For today. For answering my questions. And for the last couple days, with Naruto."

"Course."

I sucked in a breath as I felt a familiar hot chakra closing in. "Speaking of." I straightened.

The door clicked and opened and Naruto and Sasuke's voices came tumbling through, the boys themselves close behind. They immediately fell quiet when they saw me. Naruto dropped his hand from the door and nervously looked away. Sasuke, however, looked about ready to cry.

"Neechan!" The Uchiha dropped his bag and rushed forward. He stumbled over one of the chairs before making it to me and he threw his arms around me, fumbling and falling awkwardly to where he managed to trap one of my arms against my side. "You're back!"

"Hey, Ke-kun," I twisted until I had both arms free so I could hug him back.

"Hi."

The small voice made me jerk my gaze up to stare at my brother. He, in turn, was staring at his feet. I took a shaky breath. "Hi, Nato," I rasped.

He seemed to be debating something. Then he looked up at me. "I'm angry."

It took everything I had to suppress a flinch. "Okay." He deserved to be angry. I deserved to have him angry with me.

Naruto glanced briefly away again and his eyes were glassy when he looked back. "But I missed you."

"I, I missed you too."

"I don't want you to leave again."

"I won't. I promise."

"So . . . could I talk to him?"

I winced. "Well . . . kinda. But I wouldn't suggest it. He's dangerous. Maybe later?"

Naruto twisted against my side so that he could squint at me. "Do you talk to him?"

I could lie, I could lie, I could lie, I could— "Yes."

"Then why can't I!"

"I mean it, Naruto. He's dangerous. I've ended up in the hospital a lot because of him. I don't want that to happen to you."

He pouted. "But how do I talk to him?"

"I'm not going to tell you that, Nato. Not now."

"But Rai—"

"No."

"But we could be friends."

I stared at him. And then I laughed. "You think so?"

He nodded, completely serious. "Yes."

"Well, if anyone could . . . ." I tapped his nose. "But not yet."

"This is nice."

"It is," I agreed. "It's very nice."

"I appreciate the lack of utter delusion this time. You're awfully lucid."

I nodded and moved a piece. "Hisshi."

Sophie sighed heavily, staring at the board. "I spoke too soon, didn't I?" She leaned forward and picked up my king. She waved it in my face. "This is chess, not shogi. Shogi is your game. This? Chess? This is mine."

"Oh." I took the king back and set it down on the board. "I've been playing wrong."

"Nothing new there, then." She turned a rook upside down and slid it forward to confront my bishop. "He's way better at this than you."

"I'm sorry." I made my bishop retreat and watched as it shifted from white to red and back until it crumbled to ash. "Who?"

Her upside-down rook landed in front of my queen. "Check."

I hesitantly captured her piece. It felt wrong. "I don't remember how to win."

Sophie huffed and turned another rook upside down and moved it off the edge of the board. "Checkmate. You lose."

I flinched. "Oh."

"Unfamiliar for you, isn't it? Losing?" She picked up my king and clenched her fist tightly around it. "Between the two of us, I'm usually the one doing the losing, aren't I?"

"Are you?"

She sighed. "Oh, what's the point?" She slammed the king down onto the board and it all burst into smoke. She waved her hand to clear it. "Listen." Sophie leaned close, voice burning in a way that demanded my attention. It was hard to give it to her. "You're doing everything wrong."

"Doing what wrong?"

"The game."

"But I already lost."

"That's not the one I'm talking about." The sky creaked and Sophie looked up at the red clouds. "I think it's time for you to go. You have things to do."

"I don't want to."

One of the red clouds groaned as it ached against its spot in the sky, trying to come loose.

"Tough luck. What was it you said that one time? Oh, that's right. 'We hardly get to do things that we truly want to do.' That's a decent line. Should get that embroidered on a pillow."

"I, I don't think I would want a pillow that says that."

Sophie groaned and rolled her eyes. "That's not— Christ, you idiot, it's not about what you want. I don't care what you want. Do you think I wanted to die? No! But here I am! And now it's your turn to do stuff you don't wanna do."

The clouds were falling now. Sophie crossed her arms. "It's time for you to go," she said again. "I'd wish you good luck, but that doesn't seem to be a real thing for either of us."