A ceasefire hadn't been called, not officially, and peace talks weren't even considered, but both parties seemed to agree:

They didn't want to keep fighting.

The border, then, stayed well manned, and occasional skirmishes would still break out, but that wasn't much of a hardship; even during Peacetime Kumo already had a habit of encroaching into Konoha land, trying to grab whatever and whoever they can.

As it was, then, the only difference was that slightly more shinobi were on the border and on the ships, keeping away any Kiri attacks as the Land of Water struggled to decide whether or not they wanted to keep fighting, keep trying to prove that they were one of the Great Nations.

That didn't mean that Konoha wasn't busy.

Sakura was in meetings with the Ino-Shika-Cho heads regularly, trying to push for better clan relations while Inoichi did everything he could to change the educational system and Shika kept trying for body clones and Choza kept up with his' and Bokuso's crop experiments and—

The point was, everyone was busy.

The monks came two weeks after the summer solstice.

Religion was… weird, in Konoha.

Most believed in kami, of course—it was rather hard not to—but which were worshiped, and how, and what other deities existed, and so on—

Those were more up for debate.

Sakura'd never cared much about religion.

She'd considered, when she was much younger, becoming invested in the problem.

She had Arden, after all, a whole separate world in her head, and she had possible visions of the future.

Turning to religion seemed almost inevitable.

And yet she hadn't.

It just…

Hadn't been that interesting.

One couldn't do much with religion; certainty was considered only possible by faith, and evidence an occasional happy addition but not at all required.

Sakura'd liked the scientific world better.

Juro had too, when they were little; he'd read his anatomy text and she'd sketch out an experiment in her notebook beside him, and the two would talk biology and chemistry and everything. Shin would participate as well, of course, but he'd never been one to dive headfirst into hard facts; he'd always been the one of them that liked the mushy stuff best.

He arrived with the monks.

Monks did come to Konoha regularly, on pilgrimages and research trips and even general tourism, but the ones that actually ran temples rarely left their temples, and it was them who had just shown up, who had just come from even another country—Tea—to meet with the Hokage.

It was all anyone could talk about; why had they arrived? What was going on? Who knew what?

Sakura slouched against a wall beside Aiko, watching as the market bustled around them and snacking on something sweet and spicy—a type of street food apparently very popular in the Land of Wind.

"You've heard nothing? Really?"

"He's your teammate. You are more likely to know anything."

"Well, I don't."

"This sucks," Aiko said. "I hate being out of the loop."

Sakura shrugged. "It seems like just about everyone has no idea what's going on."

"Can't fool me: you care as much as I do."

A hesitation, then Sakura grinned. "Okay, yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong."

Aiko threw back her head and groaned. "Isn't your entire family full of secret finders? How do you know nothing?"

"Don't you work in the same building? How do you know nothing?"

"Shin better explain what's going on later."

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be first on his mind."

Aiko snorted, then balled up the paper wrapper their snack had come in. "Time to get back to work anyway."

"Yeah."

Sakura grinned, but it took all she had from keeping the expression from coming out brittle. She was finally getting chunks, huge swaths, of the future uncovered, and it was becoming increasingly clear that the dangers were only mounting.

And now she was in Human Research again, helping with the current push to get the clone bodies functional.

Which wouldn't be bad—would be good, in fact—except, well, Orochimaru.

He was nice, was the thing. He was honestly, genuinely, a good boss and a good researcher.

But she'd just put together Uzumaki Naruto's entire chuunin exam, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

She'd gotten bits and pieces of him using Living Corpse Reincarnation too, switching from one body to another to preserve his own life.

Between that, and her new memories of the Land of Waves, Uchiha Sasuke, and the various current and future jinchuuriki…

Really, it felt more than a bit overwhelming sometimes.

Doi grinned at her as she entered the room, however, and Taro's head popped up to say hello from where the Nara was inputting the latest data into the newly arrived Computer, so at least she had friends here.

"How'd the latest tests go?"

"See for yourself."

Together they approached a clone of the Hokage, bending together to look at the shallow cut on its arm.

"It's—"

"Healing! Much, much slower than it would on a human, and the clone itself is likely to die in only a few hours given its current chakra levels, but—"

"It's healing."

"It's healing."

"We—this—"

"Still can't follow orders though." Taro piped up.

Sakura shrugged. "We always knew getting it to have a mind would have to be sacrificed. As long as it heals."

"I figure we're only a few months away from the first attempt at diseases."

Sakura grinned, then turned to her desk. "I'll get started updating the notes."

.

By the time she left work it was dusk. Ibiki wasn't a worry—he was staying over at his friend Genma's, apparently because Genma's brother was going to be teaching them how to whittle. Juro was out too, on a date, and Shin was in all likelihood busy with the monks, whatever that was about.

Only Himari was home when she finally made it back, then, and her youngest sister was already fast asleep. Sakura was in and out—washed, changed, the rest—in less than ten.

Five minutes later she was leaning next to a window at the hospital.

Uzumaki Kushina was half out of it before Sakura was noticed.

"Oh—hi. You're—are you waiting for me?"

"Yes."

"Oh, great. Um, Yamanaka Sakura, right?"

"That's right."

"Why are you waiting for me?"

"Do you know what I got last night?"

Kushina pushed off, apparently less than willing to continue the conversation while leaning half-out the window, and the two began making their way across the village, towards the direction of most of the jounin apartments.

"No…"

"I got a letter. From a toad."

"Minato sent you a letter? Or, wait, no, you meant Jiraiya, right?"

"No, I meant Minato."

"Why did my—why did Minato send you a letter?"

They'd arrived at Kushina's apartment. The redhead let the blonde inside, locking the door after her. The apartment itself was quite nice, Sakura noted; very Uzu in design, and surprisingly homey given how rarely Kushina spent time inside the city walls.

"Apparently you had a pregnancy scare—"

"He told you that?!"

"—and you're a jinchuuriki—"

"He told you that?!"

"—and the two of you agreed that you wanted a child—"

"You and Minato aren't close. Why are you and Minato talking about this?"

"—but you didn't want Jiraiya or Orochimaru involved—"

"Are you guys close? Why didn't he tell me that you were close?"

"—so he thought of me."

"Why you?"

"Well, among other things, I already knew about your… furry secret."

"You did?"

"I was part of the team that first chaperoned you from the Capital, you know. Didn't take much addition to figure out why you'd been sent away from your home. A lot of people know, actually, we just… don't talk about it."

"Oh."

"Ye—"

"So that's not the main reason."

"Um, no. The main reason is because he trusts me, and he trusts Juro—you remember him—and, between my Research focus and his medical focus, he figured the two of us could help out."

"Where's Juro then?"

"Didn't want to overwhelm you."

"Are you even good at fuinjutsu?"

"Nope."

Kushina… Kushina looked like she was done. She looked like she'd developed a spontaneous headache, and fought in a major battle (which she had, actually, only a week ago), and been put through the emotional ringer too.

"Do you want me to get you food while you process?"

"Yes, please. Ramen."

Sakura made ramen.

Around when she was finishing the bowls Kushina seemed to come back into herself.

"We'd talked… about needing to tell someone, to make sure I wouldn't be in any danger… but with the war, and his team, and everything, we hadn't really… had time to, um, flesh out the plans together. With the scare and everything I guess he decided to write you anyway."

"He should have told you. Gotten your permission."

"Yeah, he should have," Kushina rubbed her forehead, drawing the bowl closer to her as she reached into a drawer for some utensils. "Too late now, though."

"It was a lot of information. And it was carried in a toad's stomach. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page."

"…the toad's stomach thing is freaking you out, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"It freaks everybody out. I think it's the way they puke it out."

They ate ramen, then drank tea.

The next day they went to Juro.

"So, full disclosure: my specialties are trauma and children. My OB-GYN rotation lasted barely three months, total."

"Well, that fills me with confidence." Kushina said. She looked… deeply uncomfortable, slouching against one of the walls in Juro's office. Sakura and Juro didn't look much better, but Minato could be highly persuasive, and his letter had begged them for help.

"Can I—he didn't really explain—can I ask why you're not comfortable going to the Sannin with this? They're the obvious choice."

"They're also his teacher. And his teacher's best friend. And old. And—I don't know, I've never really liked Orochimaru anyway. Too creepy."

Sakura nodded. "Totally get it."

"He's your boss!"

"Still creepy," Sakura rolled her eyes at Juro's expression. "Jiraiya too, actually."

"Oh, yeah—that goes without saying. When Minato introduced me as his girlfriend Jiraya's first comment was how lucky Minato was that I had nice tits."

"…good at fuinjutsu, though."

"Great, really."

"I'm not letting him see me naked."

"There's a reason we're not doing this in an examination room, Kushina. There's so much research to do before anything to do with your actual body is involved."

"Then why am I here?"

"You know the most about jinchurriki. You want a kid; you know the dangers. We're here to… lessen them. As much as possible."

"I'm supposed to go back to the front in two days."

"Then I'd suggest you start talking."

.

Sakura was still running over the information Kushina had provided—approved by the Hokage, and that conversation had been awkward enough just as an onlooker—the next day when, without any warning, Taro burst through the Human Research labs doors and gasped out something unintelligible.

"What?"

A wheeze, a failed effort to string words together, and a wild gesture towards Doi, then the door.

"Wha—"

And then a sign, a single hand sign but one of the first anyone in the Konohagakure Academy learned; family.

Doi was out the door by the time Sakura had finished putting together the dots herself.

There, walking straight to the Hospital, was Senju Tsunade, and in her arms—

Shizune.

"You're screwing it all up." Tsunade said, letting Shizune stand for herself as she did.

Doi… was a bit distracted.

Sakura picked up the conversation instead, watching as uncle and niece reunited.

"Screwing what up?"

"Your body clones. Don't worry, I've got enough ideas to get them back on track."

"Are you… sane enough, for that?"

Tsunade didn't respond immediately. Both watched, instead, as Doi wept and Shizune tried to dry his tears. The Hokage was next to them, now—who knew when he had arrived—but he was quietly observing, and the general populous was hesitant over whether they should just get on with their lives or continue gaping; the reunion wasn't exactly edge-of-your-seat viewing, but it was gossip-worthy, and the struggle was real.

"No," she said at last. "But I don't think… I don't think being away has helped much either. Hopefully more directly confronting my issues will be more successful. Also, I've racked up a minor nation's worth of debt, so there's that."

"A—"

"Shizune wasn't involved with any of that, don't worry."

"Um, good. How much debt?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Hiruzen's paying it off. I'm not destroying any economies today."

At last, Doi stood and turned, wary-eyed, to face Tsunade.

"She'll live with you," Tsunade said before he could speak. "I'm still going to visit her—a lot—but… I've got to work on myself first, I think."

A glance to the Hokage, then a jolty nod. "Okay. Okay."

A thrown seal. "Her things. I've spoiled her a bit, so there's a lot."

"Okay. Do you want to… inside?"

"Not in there." Tsunade said, turning to look at the Hospital with no small amount of displeasure. "Not yet. Sens—the Hokage's office?"

"I would be more than happy to allow you to have your chat." The Hokage said. "Please, if you would." A gesture, and all four were gone.

Taro, breath finally regained, stood next to Sakura. "She kidnapped her for over three years."

"She's the Sannin. The Hokage's student. And, you know, brilliant."

"Do you ever—do you ever feel like people in power get away with too much?"

Sakura thought of Tsunade. Of Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Of Danzo. Of even her clan head as a child, acting like a little snot without the slightest whisper of punishment. "Yes, all the time. But, you know, there's a reason they get away with it."

Taro frowned, then turned towards the lab. "Do you think she's got any good ideas at least?"

"Oh, probably. She's got a great medical base, and significant fuinjutsu knowledge besides—" Oh. Well, that could be useful. She'd have to talk to Juro, and keep an eye out for Tsunade's mental health. "—and she's apparently decided that her new way of dealing with her demons will be burying herself in work, so… all good news, on that front."

"So should we even keep working on the current prototypes?"

"You can do what you like. I need to talk to a few people."