Please leave a comment or PM if you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, or just compliments. For the sake of this work, the elemental balance will go earth}lightning}water}fire}wind. Thanks to SmallFountainPen for betaing chapters 57-73. Thanks to SoaringJe for betaing chapters 116-158.

Uchiha Hotaru didn't so much step into the office of his fellow co-Head as march in.

This was very odd.

Sakura looked up.

"What is it?"

"We need to replace the Weapons and Materials Deputy Head."

Which…

Was true.

The last man had been an Uchiha, and the first to die on what was technically considered the frontline by the byoki.

He'd managed to raise the alarm, thankfully—that's why byoki-related deaths along the coastline were so low—but.

Well, he'd still died.

And then they'd just…

Not replaced him.

Hotaru had taken over some of the duties, alongside Sakura's nephew, but.

"If we promote my nephew," Sakura said, "then we'll be under even more scrutiny."

And the scrutiny was already bad.

All the stick-in-the-muds, every single one of them convinced that Research was imposing too many changes too quickly.

They'd been willing to ignore it during the war—it was hard to argue with less casualties on their side—but now the war was over, and already the pressure had amped up, already the suggestions that their Department was too large, too costly, should be torn apart, given to various clans—had begun.

It was stupid, and Sakura was sure that Minato would never agree, but it was a time-sink, and (because Hotaru was better at not being there) Sakura was usually the one dealing with it.

"You know he's the best fit."

Well, there wasn't much Sakura could say to that.

"What about the backlash? There are many more veteran researchers—"

"Who have all listened to him since…"

The byoki attack went unsaid.

It usually did.

Sakura pursed her lips. "You're doing the paperwork."

Hotaru smiled. "I expect nothing less."

.

The immigrant problem.

Inoichi heard those words again, and again, and again.

It wasn't so much that Konoha was against more workers—they needed those—but rather a fear that Konoha's culture would be stripped away, replaced by Water's or any of the other main migrant stream sources.

Inoichi…

It wasn't so much that he didn't understand the fear.

It was that he couldn't believe anybody was pretending that it was new.

Konoha, he would interject at meetings, had always had an immigrant problem.

Civilians were not shinobi, did not act like shinobi, had different traditions, worldviews, and manners.

And yet 'the immigrant' problem had only started when new shinobi appeared, when new clans came.

When threats to the current clans' authority came.

And, to be fair, Inoichi got that fear too.

During Konoha's first half-decade, when they seemd to be amassing a new clan every few months, Inoichi's grandfather—the then Clan Head—wrote about his fears of giving up too much Yamanaka autonomy to non-Yamanaka, of losing too much of what made them them.

Inoichi just…

Wasn't concerned about that.

Okay, sure, some Yamanaka didn't live in the compound.

And some followed other funeral traditions.

And some practiced upstart religions.

But they were still family, so what was the problem?

No new clan would change that.

And now, at the fourth meeting which had gotten completely derailed by the 'immigrant problem', Inoichi was repeating his argument once more, and hearing the same arguments in return.

"We don't have space!" The Shimura Clan Head snapped.

Everybody on the table—even those that agreed with him—stared.

Okay, that was a new argument.

There was a reason it hadn't been used before, though.

"We don't?" Minato asked.

Inoichi watched in real time as the Shimura Clan Head tried desperately to figure out how to make his statement true.

He couldn't argue that Uzu couldn't handle them—Clans had full control over there own territory, and while both the Aburame and Inuzuka were selling most of their land to the new clans, the deals were fully consensual.

Arguing that Konoha itself couldn't handle more people was an even harder argument—

Konoha was a ghost town, and many were willing to do literally anything to deal with the sheer number of empty houses, of deserted apartment buildings.

"The Academy—" the Shimura Clan Head tried.

Inoichi applauded him; one of his clan was the Academy Head, so if the Academy Head wasn't actually at the meeting some might default to his knowledge.

As it was, however…

"Academy Head Shimura, I was under the impression that the Academy had mustered a sufficient number of teachers out of the injured?"

The Academy Head looked at his clan head.

Looked at the Hokage.

Nodded. "That is correct, Hokage."

"And do you have enough classrooms? If not, we will of course make it a priority to fix such an oversight."

"No, Hokage," the Academy Head said. "And both the Uchiha and Yamanaka clans have volunteered their halls to host Academy classes in Uzu, which has provided more than enough room."

"We do not have room in the Konoha-owned portion of Kaiso?"

"Um, no Hokage. The—"

"As I said," interjected the Shimura Clan Head, "we do not have space for the number of immigrants."

"Clan Head Shimura. I believe I have warned you before about how much I dislike interrupting. Please, continue Academy Head Shimura."

"Yes, so the Academy extension, as it is currently called, is being built, but with the necessary sealwork to ensure that the children are as safe as can be, it is taking a while, particularly considering how busy the sealers already are. Both the Uchiha and Yamanaka had extensively-sealed halls made some time ago, so they are allowing us to transpose—for free—until the sealwork is complete."

"That sounds like a reasonable solution. Clan Head Yamanaka, my thanks to you. And Research Co-Head Uchiha, please pass along my thanks to your Clan Head."

Hotaru inclined his head, the 'immigration problem' was dismissed for the day, and then it was Research's turn.

Inoichi leaned forward probably a bit too eagerly—he was used to seeing Sakura at these meetings (everyone knew Minato and she had similar ways of thinking, so it was harder to argue with her), but today it had been the Uchiha Head instead, and he wanted to know why.

Hotaru cleared his throat, and then began speaking.

And speaking.

Every time that Research presented an update it was always several minutes too long, but Inoichi suspected that was on purpose—if you give opponents twenty things to be upset about, they usually only choose one or two for the meeting and let the rest pass by with only a comment or two.

Still, new architectural regulations, another type of storage seal, railroad improvements… none of these seemed to explain Hotaru's presence.

"…and finally, we have selected a new Deputy Head of Weapons and Materials."

"I'm glad to hear it," Minato said. "I understand that he has been acting pro tempore until you and your Co-Head were assured he was the correct choice."

"That is correct. Yamanaka Rento will officially begin work as a Deputy Head tomorrow."

Inoichi grinned.

Several others in the room did not.

The Uchiha especially didn't—he supposed they weren't happy about losing ground.

Before anybody could speak up, however—and Inoichi knew that many would like to—the Hokage cleared his throat.

"Now that we've finished with Department updates, I have one of my own. I have been talking with the other Kages, and we have agreed to attempt the international chuunin exams once again. We will be the first hosts this summer."

Okay, that definitely distracted everyone.

International chuunin exams—it had been a while since they'd bothered with that.

A very long time indeed.

Volunteering to host—

Well, that probably achieved the same goals as the weeklong celebration: gave Konohans something to enjoy, gave non-Konohans plenty of evidence that Konoha wasn't worried, wasn't bowed, wasn't broken.

Which was probably why the Hokage had agreed to such a short turnaround.

Still, it was a very short turnaround.

"Is half a year really enough time?" Clean Head Aburame asked.

"Yes," the Hokage said. "Probably."

.

Kakashi frowned as he gazed at the stars.

Rin frowned too.

"We keep going south."

Obito, who could not see or sense the stars in any way, knew well enough what that meant. "Towards Uzu?"

"Yeah," Kakashi said.

Obito cursed quietly. He'd gotten better at cursing—it no longer sounded unnatural, coming out of his mouth—and Kakashi wished he could pull it off too.

Despite his best efforts, though, he still sounded like a petulant child when he tried.

Perhaps he really wouldn't be able to curse until his voice dropped.

That would be a shame.

"Maybe…" Rin trailed off.

There really wasn't any other answer for it—the byoki were headed for Uzu.

Some of the researchers believed that it would drown if underwater long enough, but Kakashi didn't.

Whatever it was wasn't natural, wasn't alive in the traditional sense.

It had probably not gone to the islands because the sea floor was forever below, and a very long way across.

Whoever controlled it—because there definitely was someone doing that—probably just didn't want to bother.

Hadn't seen the point.

Until now.

"What could it possibly get from Uzu that it couldn't get here?" Rin asked.

That was easy enough to answer, and Obito did so in a voice that, though quiet, still managed to silence the closest owl. "Uchiha."

Specifically, Kakashi thought but didn't say aloud, Uchiha infants.

It was an idea—half-formed at best—but Kakashi was becoming more and more convinced that the byoki's sudden abandonment of Uchiha during the byoki attack had a lot more to do with the Uchiha's seals than anything else, with how Uchiha eyes burned to a crisp upon death.

Except those seals could only be put on infants that were at least three months old.

He remembered, vividly, the day of the byoki attack.

Had pored over every step he'd taken, tried to pull every bit of information out of every second he'd lived.

And eventually, his mind began to catch onto where he'd ended up—where the byoki had been the most reluctant to flee from.

The hospital.

The NICU of the hospital.

The babies.

It hadn't managed to get any eyes—Kakashi had checked, and the hospital had had enough acid in cleaning solutions that they'd managed to scare the byoki away from even the bodies they'd managed to kill before they were stopped—but that didn't mean that wasn't what it was trying to do.

He just didn't have any proof.

Kakashi kept quiet, for now.

Perhaps, later… he'd ask his teammates what they thought.