DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Naruto speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Naruto and her hundreds of clones were running amok when one of them darted by a surprised Kushina and dispelled, urging the original Naruto in that direction. The redhead had grabbed the clone out of nowhere, squeezing her in that nearly painful but wonderfully warm way of hers and the clone had accidentally dispelled. "Oh no!" Naruto was smart enough to take off in that direction. –Even if she wondered whether or not she had overreacted about what her father/"brother" had said.

Hopefully, either way, safety was at hand. "Kushina-sensei!"

"Naru-chan!"

Naruto smiled into another bruising hug.

"What are you and your clones doing, hm?"

"Hiding from Aniki. Minato's being a butt." Panting slightly, Naruto crossed her arms over her chest, looking around and expecting said Butt to show up any second. "I don't want to see him." Her eyes widening, she changed posture dramatically, pressing her hands flat against each other and bowing cutely - or in a way that she'd seen other people pull off in a way that seemed cute. "Help me, pleeeeease?"

"Ohhh. Brother troubles, eh?" Kushina asked knowingly, bending down to smile. Naruto was so short! "I hide Hizashi a lot. Jump on my back and let's go. He'll never find us! Bwahahaha!"

Naruto hopped onto her back, smelling Kushina's hair like a creep and trying to set it to memory, the way she did every time she was lucky enough to get a hug from her mom. Sage, ocean salt, sunshine; a blazing fire over the scent of amber on a hot summer night (that part was Kurama; Naruto knew it was,) ink, and what she now knew was some kind of special sword polish… That was her mother. Kushina sometimes wore a bright, floral, girlish perfume that Naruto almost wanted to try when she was in the village in civilian clothes, but tonight, her mother had just gotten back from a mission.

No perfumes on a mission or outside of the village; always use scentless products unless otherwise specified.

Good grief. Rule Spouting Kakashi was really getting to her.

The rule was super-valid, though. Even Sakura had finally given up wearing perfume after the Wave Mission. Well, she did because of that and because one of Shino's cousin's bugs took a liking to the overpowering (supposed) "Sakura" fragrance the same-named girl wore, swarming their whole team in little critters eager to suck their chakras. Sakura had been so horrified, screaming her head off - and then mortified afterward as she and Sasuke lay on the ground, twitching in the aftermath. "You're fine?" the little blonde asked into Kushina's hair, shaking off memories of her teammates. "After your mission, I mean?"

"I'm awesome," Kushina grinned, darting into the forest and giggling when they both caught a glimpse of bright blonde hair. "That baka," she whispered fondly about Minato.

"You'll really hide me?" Naruto asked in a whisper.

"Oh, yeah. Easy peazy." They wound up inside Kushina's apartment and Naruto quietly giggled as her mother ran around pulling out candles and setting Naruto to ensure that all her blinds and curtains were closed. The two Uzumakis sat together in the candlelight - even when Minato pounded on her door.

"I'm sorry you're hiding me rather than seeing your boyfriend," Naruto whispered sincerely.

Kushina sputtered. "I'd much rather spend time with you than that baka. He's not my boyfriend!" She then growled, pouting, and guessed that was a lie at this point. What a pain!

"Mmmm-hm," Naruto drawled out - no judgment - but not believing her for a second. She looked around the main room more carefully. "I like your place!"

Naruto had never been inside before, although she might have stalked her mother to see where she lived or hung out a couple of times. Tilting her head and smiling as she looked around, the only way Naru could think to describe the flat was "homey." Stylish, maybe? –Not that Naruto would know. There were pillows, a couple of little candles in addition to a tall one, and multiple throws (which Naruto had never understood the need for before this; now they looked kinda nice.) Smiling more at a few pillows that were sitting on the fluffy blue couch, Kushina reached back and tossed one at her.

"I embroidered that! It was my first one," Kushina nodded at it proudly. "What do you think?"

"Ummm. What's… embroidery?" Naruto asked, blinking up at her. The pillow was nice, though. It had a bunch of frothy waves on it.

Kushina slapped herself in the face. "Oh, Naruto. I have SO much to teach you." Her face scrunched up, smiling hard when Naruto sat up on her knees, grinning her head off, eagerly nodding and wanting to learn - and looking like an excited puppy. "Ah, what did Minato do, anyway?" Normally the youngest Uzumaki was quite devoted to her big brother. Or future father.

- Nope! Kushina was not thinking of something so crazy.
- She blanked her expression as her mind began laughing hysterically (in a bad way) again.

Naruto sat back down, her mood blown. Her bottom lip soon began to tremble, her big blue eyes going watery and sad. She didn't feel comfortable telling her mother (who was also holding Kurama) that her father had made her feel like being a jinchuuriki was no big deal when it sure as hell was, so she only shrugged. "You… He," Naruto tried again, huffing when she couldn't find the right words. Kushina got up and moved toward the kitchen, a gentle smile on her face that seemed encouraging. Naruto spread her hand over her abdomen, glad that she must be hiding how upset she was. "I hear that um… that you know about the fox."

"Ah, that," Kushina said uncomfortably as she turned her back to her in the kitchenette. Naruto noticed that her mother's hand also briefly touched her seal - although she let go of it quickly. VERY quickly. "Did Minato say something about it?"

"Sorta?" Naruto lied because yes, Minato had. Or maybe it was my imagination; maybe I'm thinking too much of nothing. Either way, it felt like he didn't understand. Neither of them said anything more while Kushina puttered around and in the end, Naruto couldn't help but roll her eyes as more and more of her clones were dispelled. Her father was trying to chase her down, flashing all over Konoha. He was determined. "I um… don't think it's right to cage someone."

Kushina blinked at her a few times as she made hot cocoa for them. "Well, I can agree with that!"

"I mean the fox."

"Ah," Kushina shrugged - but then tried to explain her reaction when Naruto looked so cute and immediately put out: her little, whiskered cheeks puffing out. If they weren't talking about Big, Bad-Tempered & Furry, she would've pinched those cute little whisker marks good! "Believe me, when I was told I had been sent away from home to become the fox's jinchuuriki, I thought the same thing."

"You did?" From the way Kurama used to bitched about her mother, she was surprised at that answer. Fortunately, the fox was being very quiet right now. He's pretending to sleep.

"Yeah," Kushina sighed, eyes downcast as she put something in a mug. "Mito-oba took me in and… I didn't know that she HAD to. Or that she had ulterior motives, ya know." Naruto's eyes grew wider and more watery so she tried to play off how she felt. "Didn't even realize somethin' was up when I was given my father's swords."

Naruto couldn't believe it. "You were… betrayed?"

"No, no," Kushina exclaimed to assure her but the truth was… "I FELT betrayed. I mean, even back in Uzushio, there were signs I was going to be assigned this 'mission' of sorts, ya know? I didn't know anything about the fox at the time: aside from that it was one of nine of the tailed beasts. –The strongest one, and in Konoha." She scratched her cheek, not wanting to talk about this much right now. She was tired from her mission and the topic of the fox - or of being sent to Konoha the way she had been - always made her sad and angry. "I'd heard that my chains could suppress it…"

"He," Naruto corrected. Kurama didn't growl at her so she assumed it was okay.

"He?" Kushina asked, then sucked in a little breath. "Oh, right," she breathed and then snorted. "HE does have a deep voice."

"You've spoken with him?" Naruto asked, hopeful.

"The fox?! –No way! I mean… I've talked at him, I guess." The fox had threatened her in the beginning - and then he'd gone kinda insane around the time Naruto showed up and one other time years before that. She'd, naturally, told him to shut the hell up (and that REALLY pissed him off.)

"Hmmmm. Well, not talkin' to him isn't very nice," Naruto replied, sticking her nose in the air. "Not very hospitable of you at all."

"I don't want to talk to her!"
Naruto ignored Kurama.

Kushina stared at her for a long time before she began to cackle. "Ohhhh, Naruto. –So you have been hospitable to it?!"

"Him." Naruto ignored Kurama's complete denial that she had been at all hospitable and pouted, tracing her fingers along a particularly interesting swirl in the rug. "I'm trying to protect him," she finally said.

If Naruto didn't know better, she could've sworn that she heard Kurama say "Aw." When she briefly looked at him in her mindscape, however, he looked as irritated as ever. At least he's not pretending to sleep anymore.

"Do you know who you're talking about, Naruto?" Kushina asked incredulously. And also, how much of the fox did Naruto have if the thing was able to talk to her?! "I think we're protecting everyone else from HIM!"

"Well, yeah," Naruto had to agree that was true. Kurama liked to talk about going on massive power displays of destruction or killing sprees even now. Rightly egotistical as he was, the fox often talked about when he used to cause mayhem and chaos, calling separating continents or land masses "good times." But how to explain herself? "The old man told me that once upon a time, the tailed beasts were revered and even worshiped by humanity - and then we started attacking and caging them and stuff: using them for their power. It has to be terrible for them."

Kushina frowned and got more comfortable on the floor, shifting her weight behind her, to her hands. "I guess. –This was the old man who raised you? Weren't you really young when he died?" Naruto nodded, not realizing her doubts. Kushina supposed it didn't matter - plus she was always amazed at the things Smartass Kakashi-kun remembered from when he was a toddler. "That coulda been a story. Like a bedtime story?"

Something like all of that would be a Kurama bedtime story, Naruto had to agree. "One way or another, it was either the old man or someone else who said that someone would be coming back to take him. –The fox, I mean."

Kushina winced. "Let's hope not," she said under her breath, sipping her cocoa.

"Cuz we'll die?" Naruto asked plainly.

After staring at the little blonde, wide-eyed, Kushina blew out her cheeks, looking at Naruto in disbelief. "Your dad tell you that, did he?" Oh, she was going to pound Jiraiya!

Naruto nodded; Jiraiya did tell her sometime before they even set out on their big trip together that if the Akatsuki (or anyone) managed to remove the "demon" from a jinchuuriki, the jinchuuriki would die. "It's important to know!" Kushina's face became more and more grave and as the silence went on, Naruto couldn't stand it. "Anyway, what happened when you first got to Konoha? Like, you didn't know you were going to be the new host or uhh, vessel or something? Or they lied to you about it?"

Kushina pulled a face and wound up half-hiding behind her hair as she shifted on the floor. "I don't want to say they lied to me, and of course by the time I was able to send them a message about it or anything else, home was gone. …I- I guess."

"You GUESS?!" Naruto's heart was beginning to beat faster and harder, just thinking about her poor, foreign-born mother being abandoned here. She knew what abandonment was like, intimately. Profoundly! "I thought Uzumakis were all about family and stuff!"

"We are but YOU know," Kushina winced, figuring that Naruto DIDN'T know. "People are people, Naruto. I mean… individuals differ, ya know? My father was always really busy. He was Uzushiokage at the end, dattebane."

Naruto's eyebrows shot up. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah," Kushina said glumly. "Well, the old man, er- Hokage-sama, said Father got that final promotion during the war or the final attack or whatever. …He was pretty old - much older than Hokage-sama - and believe me, I wasn't exactly expected. My mom was 57 when she had me."

Naruto's eyes bugged out of her head. Uzumaki longevity, I guess. Dumbstruck, all she could imagine was Ero-sennin/-otou knocking up Tsunade Baa-chan back in the day - and that was a HORRIBLE thought. They were the only two old folks she really knew, though. "I'm sorry," Naruto said genuinely. She'd never, ever heard anything about a grandparent - so much so that Naru had figured she didn't have them. As if Mom and Dad just sprang from the earth or sea, she realized she'd thought with an internal snort. "What happened then? And what were your parents like?"

"Oh," Kushina exclaimed with some surprise. "Well, um, like I said, my father was BUSY," she continued, ignoring how much his absence and career-resolve still hurt, "and my mother died when I was born." Naruto's eyes watered up; she was so attentive and sweet, Kushina thought. The little blonde looked so sad, it made her heart melt. "She was a wonderful woman: beautiful and strong! SHE was the one who was supposed to be Uzukage one day; she was in training for it and everything!"

"Is that why you want to be Hokage?" Naruto asked. "Because your parents were kages - or were supposed to be kages?"

Kushina blinked at her a couple of times. "I hadn't really thought about it like that. –Ha! To tell ya the truth, I just kinda spat it out: 'I'm going to be Hokage!' when I had to introduce myself to my first class at the Konoha Academy." Kushina's nose wrinkled and she rubbed her face. "Everybody made fun of me, saying that only men were kages and they pissed me off so much —oh, sorry, I mean they made me so mad - that I'd pound anyone who said it again." She stared over Naruto's shoulder, her lips pursed, considering that as Naruto sipped her cocoa. "I guess that's… kinda dumb, huh?"

Naruto shook her head, her long, partly-braided, half-ass ponytail swatting her in the face. "It's not dumb!" She supposed Kushina wanted to be Hokage for some of the same reasons she initially did: to be acknowledged. "THEY'RE dumb," she added firmly, her lips jutting out. "The whole idea that a woman can't be a kage is idiotic." Kushina snorted. "I mean, Tsunade would be a damn good Hokage."

Kushina fell back, letting out a whoop as she raised her fist - before falling back laughing. "Oh, God, Naruto! She'll pound you if you say that!"

Naruto shivered, remembering being way too brave for her orange britches the first time she and Drunk Tsunade got into that, when they first met. "You're probably right."

"And what about me?!"

"Oh, yeah, 'ttebayo! You can do it, too, sensei - if ya want."

"If I want, huh?" Kushina asked herself. And Naruto, she guessed.

Naruto eventually rubbed her thumbs, reminding herself that it was a self-soothing mechanism that she should knock off. "Yeah, if you want. Um… This guy once said," her mouth went on, mindless of how odd it might sound, "that you don't become Hokage - or a kage - to be acknowledged, though. That a kage is the one who is acknowledged by the people." She nodded at the thought, agreeing with Itachi's sentiments completely whether it was right or wrong to say. "I feel like I keep saying that."

Kushina's red eyebrows climbed behind her flyaways. "Who told you that?"

Naruto balked. "Uh… I said it! Just now!"

"Ha. You're a brat," the redhead decided, getting up to wash out their mugs. Naruto tagged along, not minding that she'd been called out at all. "Try to keep all your little secrets all you want, Naru-chan! I'm a great ninja and I'll unearth them all one day, 'ttebane!"

Please don't. Naruto slowly sucked in a quiet breath. "Yeah, I worry about that," she admitted in just over a whisper.

"Hmmm. O-Kay! Let's worry about your mysteriousness - and the fox and stuff later cuz I'm tired."

"Oh! Of course." Naruto dipped her head, not wanting to leave but unwilling to burden her mother. "I'll see ya lat–"

Kushina grabbed her, spinning Naruto back around. "Don't you want a proper tour of my One-bedroom-plus-study Palace of Awesome?!"

Naruto sucked in a breath. "Yes, please!" The blonde followed Kushina as the tour was apparently going to begin in her mother's soothing, sky-blue bedroom - no, wait; she was being led all the way into a very bright bathroom. She was also unwilling to share that she'd checked out the outside of this unit before. "I thought you lived with Tsunade, ya know."

"Ha! My clone does! –But don't tell her that!"

"Whaaaa?"

Kushina just laughed. "I'm trying to keep my cousin in the village by staying with her and being needy - or making my clone do it - but she drives me crazy! –Too crazy to actually live there!"

Naruto nodded in understanding, THRILLED that Kushina's plan was working. Konoha needed Tsunade badly, and whether Tsunade recognized it or not, Tsunade needed Konoha. "She IS scary."

"Very much so," Kushina agreed. "Now that Shizune-chan is staying there, too, things will ease up. And I like being an aunty." She hoped things would get better. "Tsunade's not happy that Shizune wants to stay in the village and be a kunoichi."

Naruto scratched her cheek, noticing that Kushina had motivational posters up on many walls, and a framed one in the bathroom. "I like your posters." For whatever reason, her mother looked shy about it as she thanked her. "Yeah. Tsunade said something about wanting to take Shizune away and raise and teach her on her own."

Kushina shook her head, her expression showing disapproval. "Dan-sensei would hate that." Especially now that their parents are gone.

"You knew him?"

"Oh yeah. Just a little - but Kato Dan was a great shinobi. and excellent healer Always patient and willing to teach things," the redhead said, looking up and to the side as she remembered him with a pained look on her face. "At first Tsunade didn't want to teach me med techniques because I'm… well, I'm a jinchuuriki so I'm a frontliner - but Dan reminded her that more med nins were needed on the frontlines. Plus, he was hot!"

"Oh! Cool. …I um, like your quilt," Naruto mentioned after a few shocked-silent seconds. She'd never thought of her mother admiring how anyone other than her father looked (and really hadn't even thought about that) but it was only natural, right? Even Naruto, after all, could admit that The Bastard was a good-looking teenager although his personality left literally everything else to be desired. "Is um, this from Uzushio?" Most of the squares in her mother's quilt looked beach-themed. Lots of fish, too. The little blonde began to grin, listening vapidly as her mother immediately took her on an adventurous story through Uzushio by means of a big quilt that was way too big for the double bed.

Their evening together progressed like a dream come true - but also made the younger jinchuuriki sad. Briefly, Naruto wondered if that beautiful quilt had been destroyed when Kurama attacked, or if someone else got it, never thinking to give it to her, the monster that caused the Yondaime and his wife's deaths. Naruto had to shake her head like a dog to rid herself of those awful thoughts.

Kushina wasn't sure what had happened but she could feel Naruto's immense chakra churning miserably. "You okay, kid?"

The blonde nodded, trying to smile. She'd come a long way since those miserable days of her first childhood. "I wish I'd seen Uzushio like you did, before the fall. That's all."

Her mother soon looked like she would cry. Before Kushina turned completely away, Naruto touched her arm and smiled at her, as big as she could; her eyes shutting at the effort. "I owe you, ya know! –From what I hear, it sounds like it used to be real hard to be here as a foreigner when you first came, but for me, it wasn't so bad. Thank you, Kushina-sensei." Naruto gave her a quick bow, averting her eyes as her whiskered cheeks heated up.

She owed her mother a lot more than that. She owed her everything.

Kushina blinked away tears before forcing a grin to grow on her face. "You're welcome, Naru-chan! Hmmm." That grin morphed into a smirk. She wanted to distract Naru, who seemed quite emotional. "Guess that means you owe me!"

"Um…" Naruto - her eyes darting back and forth - wasn't sure what to do about this turn of events. "HAI! What can I do for you then, sensei?" Naruto stood up straighter but bent over again when Kushina, snickering evilly, pushed her back down to bow again.

Kushina had a lot of ideas but one made the most sense. "Ramen! All the ramen I can eat," she grinned. "One dinner's worth." She wasn't a monster after all.

Naruto knew how much she could eat and had heard that her mother was similar. Even Minato ate an astounding amount of ramen for a normal person when he went for it. "Can you um, wait until Ero-otou is back so he can pay?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way!"

Running for his team's lives with an injured man bleeding on his back just inside the Hi no Kuni border, Jiraiya looked around, sensing they weren't being followed, but shivered all over. Something felt… ominous. Using Naruto's technique, he went into Sage Mode with the use of a clone but didn't feel anyone tailing them...

"FOOLS! All of them," Orochimaru cursed. NEVER had he (or that oaf, Jiraiya) failed a mission. But they failed this one: big time.

Technically.

"You should've left us behind," the civilian-born rando shinobi whimpered as Orochimaru healed him. In retaliation, the Snake Sannin poked his index finger into his wound, making him scream. Jiraiya pulled him back harshly, scolding him - but Orochimaru didn't care. "I will gladly feed you to my sssssssummon, you inssiignificant polyp on the disstended ballssack of an elderly, long-impotent FOOL!"

"Wow," Jiriaya deadpanned after a stunned second. That was… some description. For a silent type, Orochimaru had a way with words.

"With his attitude and INEPTITUDE, I say we leave them here, Jiraiya. Or toss them over the border and leave them to the Kumo dogs." He pulled his silky hair out of his ponytail holder, deciding to braid it while they rested. "That way, we'll get back faster."

"No way," Jiraiya countered, glaring at his teammate who was already showing tendencies that he knew, in Naruto's first timeline, developed into something heinous. "Get it through your thick, snake-filled head: we don't leave comrades behind. Ever!"

"You're so naive, Jiraiya!"

One of the other supposed Chunins spoke up, catching his breath. "Hokage-sama said so himself. This mission had to succeed! All missions must succeed. You've doomed the village!"

"To avoid war," the other man panted. "We must go back." He looked pissed to be alive, Jiraiya thought. Vacant and pissed.

Jiraiya wondered if this was the mission Sakumo had originally been sent on: the one that ended in him being ostracized from and shamed by his comrades, eventually leading to his suicide. "It was definitely a setup." Orochimaru was giving him an indecipherable look but slowly nodded as he drank from his canteen. Jiraiya started to feel sick. And even with him taking the heat, there was no telling whether or not this was THE mission that had wound up destroying the Hatakes' lives. "Orochi…"

When Naruto told him about what she knew about Sakumo's suicide, she assumed that the White Fang had either previously been on a mission gone wrong or that Sakumo had been set up by Danzo. Naruto despised Danzo, rightfully, he thought, but wasn't this something: that HE had been sent on this "emergency mission" right after he and Tsunade had in-no-uncertain-terms threatened the Hokage because of what he'd done to Naruto?

With her heritage and status, Tsunade's too important to the village to be taken out.
Me? I'm just an orphan; a bastard…

Jiraiya shivered as he wondered how safe Tsunade really was.

"You're finally seeing it, Jiraiya?" Orochimaru asked with a smirk. He jerked his head away from their minions, leading Jiraiya to where they could speak more privately.

"You think Sensei purposely set us up?"

Orochimaru shrugged. Their sensei had changed recently. Or had he? Hiruzen always had hidden motives. His sensei, (Hokage-sama, his mind hissed,) Danzo, and his teammates had their heads so far up each other's paranoid asses that even Biwako had begun to openly complain about it. "Perhaps it was a good way to take our second, chibi jinchuuriki for himself, hm?" Jiraiya's face contorted with rage and Orochimaru rolled his eyes. "A good way to disparage you and your team? –And don't forget, Jiraiya, I wasn't supposed to be on this little misadventure in warmongering."

Jiraiya grimaced and shifted his weight, finally allowing himself to fully consider that. He had grabbed Orochimaru on his way out of the village, and since his snakey teammate couldn't do anything to Naruto with Sakumo, Kushina, and Minato around wasn't doing anything, said he might as well. "Did Sensei say anything to you?"

"I doubt he's realized I left the village." Orochimaru stayed in his labs 90% of the time and Hiruzen-sensei hadn't visited him in years. Lately, he'd been going out in public more often since Tsunade's return. Jiraiya was around more, too, and his teammates were the only ones he'd socialized with. Just about the only ones who will socialize with me, he thought to himself bitterly. Nonetheless, things had become interesting again. "Seriously, Jiraiya," he sighed. "Carrying those losers back to Konoha where they can open their parasssitic mouths is nothing but trouble." His eyes narrowed as he heard the men they'd SAVED whispering too loudly, lamenting another war, and blaming their team captain, Jiraiya, for it. He stomped over to them, making sure to look as terrifying as possible. His KI (and hair) spilled everywhere. "Ignorant foolsss! Do you really think one failed mission, one clear SSETUP would start another full-ssscale war? In and of itsself?!"

"The supposed peace we're living in is a farce," the heavily injured man spit. "A ceasefire at best!"

"Kuchiyosse no Jutsu!"

"Orochimaru, NO!" Jiraiya shouted and then rubbed his temples, falling to his knees. Orochimaru's damn summon had already eaten the Chunins and disappeared. "Fucking hell, Orochi! It's not bad enough we failed this bullshit mission but I had to lose my team, too?!"

Orochimaru was nonplussed. "Remain naive if you will, Jiraiya, but trust me on one thing: those fools would've been nothing but trouble. Now we don't have to worry about them."

Jiraiya wiped his hand down his face. Once those fucking snakes got a hold of someone, they were goners. How was he supposed to live with what his teammate had done? "We need to message Sensei," he said gravely, keeping his eye on his murdering teammate. He bit his thumb and Orochimaru grabbed his hand.

"Don't." Orochimaru breathed in deeply, straightening out his back and staring into the distance. "We'll report directly, in person." Narrowing his eyes as he imagined the whole thing playing out - Jiraiya's, no, THEIR punishment and the short battle they'd mostly avoided the worst of - he looked directly into Jiraiya's dark eyes. "I DARE Sensei to deny the report of two Sannins. His own students."

Jiraiya stood up and got in his teammate's face. Orochimaru looked pale and almost frightened rather than frightening. "Don't think I'm not pissed and disgusted at what you've done here but… It means something to me: you trying to protect me. –You fucking prick."

"Don't be absurd." Orochimaru took off into the trees again.

Jiraiya gaped. Had his teammate just been blushing?! Quickly following him, Jiraiya could only whisper to himself, "What the actual fuck?!"

"Jiraiya," Orochimaru hissed when his teammate caught up. "Those men belonged to Danzo."

Jiraiya frowned. "And Sensei assigned them? How do you know?" Orochimaru wouldn't answer and Jiraiya could only hope it wasn't too late. "Tell me you're not taking orders from that bandaged asshat, Orochi." Briefly, Jiraiya closed his eyes as his teammate only sped up, unwilling to answer him. "Just because they reported to Danzo didn't mean they weren't our comrades!"

Orochimaru ignored him. "Quiet! -We need to get our story straight." Glancing at Jiraiya, he feared that could be a problem. Jiraiya was always so idealistic! "I'll watch your back and you'll watch mine."

"Watch or wash?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.

Orochimaru shrugged. "Both." The closer they got to Konoha the more anxious he felt. "I need to show you something once we're back, Jiraiya, but you can't tell Tsuna."

Jiraiya sighed as they flew through the trees, at a loss for what to do. He had not thought that Orochimaru would act so rashly. Or was dealing in God-only-knew-what so soon. "What mess have you gotten yourself into now?"

Orochimaru shook his head. "I followed orders," he sighed. "But Tsunade's going to kill me."