Kamui grunted, the air wooshing out of him as he fell to the floor in a heap.

"It's just painting." Yamanaka Yumi teased. It'd be more rankling, but she was just as sweat soaked as he—they might have just been painting, but they'd been painting for a full day.

Ibiki and Yoriko, whose classes had finished just an hour ago, stared down at them, laughing even more than Yumi.

Well, what did they know.

"We're done, though." Kamui said. He grinned at the ceiling. "Everything's painted."

"Now we just have to move in."

That made his smile drop, images of heavy, difficultly shaped furniture flitting through his head.

He was happy to move in with Yumi—loved her, in fact—but the actual process of moving seemed to be far too much work.

"Well, I've brought dinner if that will make you feel better." Kohana said, slipping through his new front door. "Ibiki, you'll be eating with us—Juro's got to work late today. Yoriko, your mother's expecting you home."

"Okay. Good-bye, everyone! Good luck with school tomorrow, Ibiki." Yoriko was almost done, herself, was in her final year and blitzing through it—she was headed to T&I, was very proud to be on the same career trajectory as her father.

Ibiki…

Well, he was still young. He had plenty of time to decide what to do.

.

Sakura sniffled from her position on the wounded wagon outside Konoha's gates. The Ino-Shika-Cho heirs were up front, verifying the identities of everyone in the cart alongside the medics (Kumo especially was known for trying to attempt to 'replace' Konoha's injured with their own), and Sayuri was asleep.

Sakura, still hopped up on the weeks she'd spent chakra sensing, couldn't.

She really hoped her stint in the hospital was shorter this time.

She'd just shifted—she had an itch on her leg—when she froze.

"Shin?"

"You're sensing this close to Konoha?"

"Shin!" Sakura thrust herself forward, falling on the shadow that had just blocked the wagon's entrance.

"Are you… high?"

"Sleep deprived. Also dealing with the after-effects of hypothermia. Frost isn't fun."

"…no, I suppose not."

"Oh, hi Shin." Nara Shikaku said.

"Hello."

"Back from the Capital?"

"Was given three weeks to update myself on Konoha—have a feeling it had a bit more to do with… this, though."

"Yeah… she's doing much better, actually, then when she and Sayuri first stumbled on our camp. Except for the exhaustion."

"What happened?"

"They outran a Kumo tracking squad."

"I have—" Sakura started, having finally caught up to the conversation. She'd zoned out, but she was getting better at pulling her focus back quickly even when sleep deprived. "—ideas about how they're finding us out so quickly when we send people in."

"Nonetheless, every single infiltrator was sent an alert—do not enter. The traitor hasn't helped."

Shin grit his teeth. "He was in my class, you know."

The wagon finally started moving forward, and the other wounded jolted awake, somehow sensing they were passing into Konoha proper.

"Yeah, Sakura said. Didn't like him, apparently."

"He and I usually ignored each other. He and Sakura outright didn't get along. But then, no one much liked him."

"He sucked." Sakura agreed, then slouched to the floor as her legs finally decided it was foolish to stand.

Shikaku snorted.

Sakura was checked into the hospital quickly, knocked out with something powerfully somnolent, and more or less came back into herself three days later, in time to grunt with pain when Ibiki threw himself at her.

"I missed you!"

"I missed you too, Ibiki." Sakura said, running her fingers through his hair as he clung onto her. With her other hand she signed to Juro asking for info.

He signed back—her health was fine, Ibiki was good, Shin was good, he was good. Rest.

She could've done without the order to rest.

.

Ibiki awoke to shouting.

Juro grunted (he'd let Ibiki sleep in his bed that night, because of Sakura being in the hospital), and forced himself out of bed.

The shouting continued, and Ibiki followed.

"Kamui and Yumi have moved in together! Sakura down the street moved in with her boyfriend! Hana and Hachiro moved in together yesterday, and they've only been dating three months! We've been together almost a year now! I don't want to live together tomorrow, I just want to talk about it!"

"I just got back yesterday, okay?! Is it too much to ask—"

"So… neither of you were aware of the almost five-year-old who had been asleep in the house, then?"

Ibiki dropped to the bottom of the stairs in time to see both Kohana and Inoichi freeze.

"I want pancakes."

"I want sleep." Juro said. He turned to head back upstairs. "I'm sure the two lovebirds are more than willing to cook you breakfast, though."

Ibiki smiled at 'the two lovebirds.' After a second they smiled back.

"Sure, Ibiki." Kohana said. "I'd be happy to make you pancakes."

"I'll help." Inoichi stepped into the house, closing the door behind him.

"I know your dad." Ibiki said.

"I know you do. Do you like him?"

"He's okay. Do you like pancakes?"

Inoichi smiled. "I do."

"Good."

.

A large contingent of shinobi had just been sent to the front. Most of Konoha's heavy-hitters had been pushing non-stop for a while now, and definitely deserved a break, but that also meant that the objective had turned from forward momentum to a holding pattern.

That had… not been taken well, to say the least, by Konoha's residents.

Everybody, after all, remembered just how well that objective had worked in the Second War.

Many were even willing to assert that, had former General Uchiha Hono chosen almost any other strategy, the war would have ended much earlier—former General Danzo's far greater success following his taking over seemed only to confirm that theory.

General Nara was rather well liked, but also plagued with various health issues—which was the main reason he hadn't been considered as a possible general in the Second War. He assured that his health was on the mend, however, but with the new strategy…

Well, murmurs had already begun that perhaps General Nara should be preemptively replaced with General Danzo.

Shin frowned over the reports, taking in the T&I records of internal Konoha politics.

Something about it felt…

Wrong.

It wasn't so much that any one aspect was unbelievable, but the consensus that appeared to exist, the willingness to vocalize discontent over the government, the interest in changing Generals even when, by all accounts, the war was going quite well…

Something felt unnatural.

He made a note saying such, then forwarded it to the Yamanaka heading T&I and, after a second, the Uchiha police division too.

It might be nothing, he might just be too suspicious, but.

Well, no harm in a few extra resources double checking.

.

Sakura frowned over the data she'd been given of the Konoha marketplace.

They weren't letting her work on her theory of chakra recognition yet, wouldn't even let her out of the hospital, but her economics work was mostly just documentation, and there were now three other researchers dedicated to the task—

There was less worry of her overworking, she supposed.

She'd just made a note on the 'bread-basket' concept that one of the Research Nara had taken and run with when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" She shouted and, after a second, her nephew slipped into the room.

Rento, twelve now, looked like a Yamanaka exemplar. He had the hair in the ponytail, the odd eyes, and barely enough muscles to be noticed no matter how many hours were spent dedicated to muscle toning.

He smiled at her. "Hi, Aunt Sakura. Welcome back."

"Hey Rento. How's genin research?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually." He shifted slightly, clearly a little embarrassed to come to her in the hospital with his own issues, but she waved his worry aside—at the very least, the dilemma visible on his face would give her some entertainment.

"I wanted to start my project—you know, to get promoted, but… I don't know what to do. I want to specialize—doing some of everything works for you, but I don't think I could handle it—but I don't know what to focus on."

"Well, what interests you?" It was, perhaps, the most useless question she could ask—he'd undoubtedly heard it dozens of times before—but every conversation needed somewhere to start.

"Um, I like the idea of working on medicines, but I also like the idea of working on weapons—helping my comrades risking their life more directly. I just, well—it's Deputy Head Uchiha, really. He's, you know, he doesn't have the best managerial reputation. Deputy Head Orochimaru's so much better, but I like weapons more than medicine, and maybe Deputy Head Uchiha might retire soon…"

Sakura bit back her immediate reaction.

She might not know all the details yet, but she knew enough.

Remembered enough.

Orochimaru might seem nice, a good leader, a good Researcher, but she knew he was capable of evil.

Deputy Head Uchiha might be a bit of a micro-manager, but she had no memories of him at all—and definitely none of him being a creepy murderer.

"I'd go Weapons, honestly. Orochimaru's great, but in part because of that there's a lot of competition in Human Research and Engineering. There are surprisingly few people working in Weapons & Materials Research, so you can make a name for yourself much easier."

"You think? Uchiha's not too bad?"

"He's not great, but he knows his stuff. And he might be a bit on top of you at first, but you know as well as I that Weapons as a department are all much better on average of keeping their paperwork in order and explaining everything right the first time—that's because of him, and I don't think that's the worst experience to begin a career with."

"Yeah, that's true I guess. I just—I don't really like the feeling of someone looking over my shoulder all the time, you know? Waiting for me to mess up?"

"Oh, trust me, as someone who's worked underneath both, they each will absolutely look over your shoulder. Orochimaru's a bit nicer about it, but he still does it just as much. He's just got more social grace."

"Okay…okay. Then—for my project, I've got a couple ideas. Can you look them over with me?"

"Sure."

.

Over the past year or so the Research Department's advice to the Commerce Department, much of which was after only a short debate taken up, had led to a markedly different trade situation in Konoha.

Some of the changes that resulted were good; the Akimichi and Mitokado relationship had warmed gradually with the clearer guidance and stronger rules against monopoly and corruption.

Other changes…

In concert with the Infrastructure division Konoha, for the very first time, had substantial regulations for new constructions. In the past some had existed, of course: rules to limit the chance of another Great Fire, rules to only build on property the builder owned, that sort of thing.

Now there were rules to improve sewage, rules to limit chance of collapse, rules to help ensure that, if there were a fire, the residents could more easily escape.

These regulations made better buildings.

They also made fewer buildings.

At the moment it was okay, because many of the shinobi at war were leasing their homes to whoever, but at some point the war would end, and then everyone would be in the city again, and almost every month seemed to see an increase in immigrants but most of the land owners only wanted to build commercial buildings, large apartments that they would get more money for—there would be nowhere for the immigrants to go.

The Grand Council—composed of the Hokage, the Village Elders, and the Department Heads—had been convened to deal with just that.

Research Head Aburame would rather be anywhere else, in particular because the Village Elders had firmly placed all the blame on his shoulders—they'd always been of the belief that Research should be about wartime concerns only, and the increasing focus on the village itself was, in their eyes, wholly a negative.

(The exception to this was Elder Mitokado, who was actually quite appreciative of the new economic regulations—his family might have been hurt in some ways, but they greatly benefited in others, and the new laws governing contracts only helped them. He kept his mouth shut.)

Beside him War & Security Head Nara looked just as exhausted—the Elders' current solution was to force far stronger background checks on immigrants, even though they really didn't have the manpower to do more than they already were at peacetime, never mind war.

"We'll charge the immigrants, then!" Elder Utatane snapped. "It's not that difficult!"

"Most of the immigrants cannot afford to pay."

"Problem solved!"

"We clearly have the labor demand—" Aburame, against his best wishes, began.

"'Labor Demand!' 'Labor Demand!' All these fancy words and they mean nothing. I've given you the solution."

"Koharu." The Hokage murmured.

Elder Utatane sat back, huffing as she did.

"I believe," The Hokage said, sitting up to address the table as a whole, "that this is where we should stop for the day." Research Head Aburame almost sagged in relief. "I only have one more statement to make, and we'll table the discussion of such until next week. I am putting forward Namikaze Minato as my candidate for the next Hokage." The room erupted, the Elders especially spilling over themselves to mention that Namikaze wasn't a clan name. "Dismissed."

Research Head Aburame sighed, then moved to the door, his insects opening it before he arrived. If he had to sit through that conversation next week—well, perhaps he could have Human Research put a rush on a new migraine medication. His body seemed to have grown tolerant of those that already existed.

.

The battleline between Konoha and Kumo was now mere kilometers from Lightning's border.

While it might not have been a popular decision, holding position instead of pushing forward likely wouldn't affect the war all that much—Kumo had clearly spent the past months entrenching their own borders from intruders, and the fighting in Frost was only meant to delay the inevitable; a token resistance to give them enough time to prepare for a siege.

Konoha might not have been thrilled about it—their progress, after all, had more or less ground to a halt—but they could manage.

Kumo might not have been thrilled about it—having to act on the defensive rather than the offensive was never pleasant—but they could manage.

Frost…

Well, Frost wasn't thrilled about it.

They'd just spent months having their country ravaged by the war.

They'd allied with Kumo and Lightning to minimize risk of war from their neighbors, to give support by allowing Lightning to use them in intelligence gathering and receive support in return—being allowed to flee into Kumo, for one; receiving rice rations while their fields were inoperable for another.

The wealthy had managed to take advantage of the first, at least, but that was all.

It wasn't uncommon, exactly, for that to be the case: Konoha was certainly more than guilty of neglecting Mushrooms until they were in a better, more stable position.

But it wasn't popular for those experiencing it, always built resentment against their current ally.

And Frost certainly felt that resentment.

Their situation seemed even worse when compared to that of their southern neighbor, the Land of Steam.

Not only had Steam barely been fought in—Konoha had managed to push into Frost almost immediately—but they were receiving aid, had Konoha genin blitzing about their north and cleaning up anything that had been damaged.

That had already happened, actually; had been completed sometime in the weekend.

And now the Land of Steam was, more or less, operating as normal.

And Frost was not.

Both shinobi—the Konoha ones who technically controlled their lands and the Kumo ones who kept on slipping in, promising anything and everything just as soon as they won the war—were constantly looking over Frost's shoulder, double checking everything and anything the minor nation did, each perfectly aware of the possible situational power the land held.

And Frost—mostly its government, but also the farmers that were left behind when the wealthy fled, and the landowners who saw the devastation imposed on their land with no sign of rebuilding for months, if not years—shinobi wars were rarely short.

And so, inexorably, Frost began to shift away from their long-time ally.

Began to consider what it might be like to ally with Fire, even if the two did not directly border.

And both Great Nations noticed.