Satsuki was still somewhat annoyed with me by the time my arranged appearance at the Uzumaki clan compound was due, which meant I hadn't really had the chance to inform her of me running into the blonde kunoichi-in-training.

Oh, sure, she showed up for training and to occasionally bully me into making her a pizza, but she'd been coming around less since she learned that I'd deceived her about my reasons for not choosing the life of a shinobi.

For a member of a clan like hers, where almost every single individual had at least actively served in the shinobi forces for some amount of time, even if the majority of any given age group were no longer 'enlisted' so to speak, she just didn't understand.

Which I'd rather bluntly informed her was why I'd lied to her in the first place.

It probably irritated her that I'd made an oblique reference to how well-kept a secret of mine in her hands would stay secret. The subsequent wince she'd failed to sufficiently hide meant that she'd likely been'answering some innocuous questions' from someone in her clan, which was the easily-deducible real reason for Itachi showing up as he had. Well, either that or Obito had decided to poke Itachi into a more direct interrogation after following me around hadn't yielded anything substantive. I liked tohopethat all of these incredibly powerful ninja had better things to do than stalk me for long periods of time, but...

Anyway, Tenten was far more accepting of the revelation. She didn't really understand, but she could accept it and move on. If, as a result, she happened to get more of her favorites for training snacks and a bit more attention to her form, that was entirely coincidental.

I sighed and pushed away my musings as I approached the Uzumaki compound, one of the larger clan structures within Konoha even if it was substantially newer than most of the others. Naruko had candidly informed me that the clan wasn't actually so much a single clan as it was a collection of surviving groups of refugees from Uzushiogakure, which had been destroyed in the Second Great Ninja War a few decades prior.

"Yo." A redheaded male shinobi jerked his head at me, thrusting his chin up as he saw me approach. Scratching at his three-day fuzz, he yawned before stretching. "You, uh... Kota, think that's what it was..." He trailed off, muttering, as he fixed his chunin vest.

"Yeah, Kota." I nodded. "Naruko just said I should come on in through the gate."

He rolled his blue eyes. "She would, frickin' brat. Just 'cause she's Kushina-sama's daughter..."

"Okay, lemme see your ID card." I waited patiently enough as he dug out a clipboard and scribbled something on it before looking at the time and scribbling something else. He looked me over again, raising an eyebrow at the box by my side. "What's that?"

I shrugged. "Supposed to bring a gift, right?"

He snorted. "Hime-chan made another polite friend, what is with that girl? I swear, maybe it'll rub off on her one day." He scratched his temple with the butt of the pencil. "Eh, still gotta check it. Sorry, them's the rules."

I nodded in understanding, pulling up a removable side of the box as the man stared at the contents inside before looking back to me. "Metal?"

I slipped the side of the box back down and shrugged again. "Blacksmith's apprentice."

He blinked again, giving me an odd look, then shrugged. "Alright, head on in. Big house a few streets down in the center past the pond in the park. Can't miss it."

I nodded. "Thanks, um..."

He rolled his eyes. "Uzumaki Kaimen, now get lost brat."

His piece said, he dropped back into his chair and his head lolled back to what one could easily mistake for sleep. I refrained from muttering something unkind and, instead, simply made my way across the arching bridge onto the long, snake-like island situated in the middle of the large river from which Konoha drew most of its water.

This particular section of the river was so close to the outer wall near the upstream section that I had the suspicion this area of the village had been enlarged to accommodate a sudden influx of refugees.

The houses on the island were mostly raised pier homes, probably to avoid getting caught in flood. I wondered, idly, if they had imported the style from Uzu when it had fallen, especially given how the stone pillars underpinning many of the structures were adorned with the whirlpool-like spiral.

As in any other part of the village, though, much was the same. Children, mostly redheads, ran about and played energetically. A few adults were out and about, all of them wearing a subtly different style of dress than the usual Konoha civilian or ninja.

A few curious glances were sent my way as I walked down the long island and through a small area with thick greenery and a koi pond in the center. Finally, I stopped at the grand residence near the middle of the island, a twisting ramp instead of stairs allowing me to rise the ten feet up to the long outer walkway in front of the structure.

"Oi! Who're you?"

I blinked, looking over to the redheaded boy that was probably two years or so younger than myself, his bright blue eyes narrow and glaring at me.

"I'm Kota." I stated with a shrug, once again questioning exactly why I was here. Even if it was only to not offend Naruko's mother, a powerful clan head, surely there should have been some way to send my polite regrets that I couldn't show? "Naruko said I should come by, so here I am. Whazzup?"

The boy made a twisted, unhappy face. "Nee-chan shouldn't be inviting strangers here!" He crossed his arms over his chest as he planted his feet shoulder-length apart, highlighting his lean swimmer's build. "This is the sacred ground of New Uzushiogakure and-"

Whap!

"Enkai, what have I told you about behaving that way towards visitors?" A voice asked sharply as the wad of papers bounced off the boy's head hard enough to send him stumbling.

Tracking the throw back to its source, I took in the slender form of Uzumaki Kushina, red hair sweeping down in a curtain over one shoulder as her violet eyes looked in a chastising manner at her... son? I pushed aside thoughts of how that didn't make sense with Minato's death and Naruko's birth.

The woman might well have had a one-night stand with someone-and it damn well wasn't my business.Instead I focused more on the wheelchair she was rolling forward.

"Mom! Sis can't just let anyone in our clan compound!" The newly-dubbed Enkai cried irritably, rubbing the point where he'd been struck while simultaneously shooting me glares and picking up the papers scattered on the wooden deck to hand back to his mother.

...even if he's a brat, the fact that he knew to pick things up at that age with a disabled mother meant he'd probably grow out of it.

"I'll remember that the next time you want to have a sleepover with Konohamaru." Kushina stated mock-threateningly, the boy giving a squawk as she turned to me with a smile. "You must be Kotaro."

I nodded, bowing fairly deeply and extending the box. "I'm sorry for the intrusion. Thank you for having me."

"It's no trouble. Any friend of my daughter's is always welcome here." She stated politely while firmly placing her hand on her son's head to force him into a bow as well, albeit a lesser one. Removing her hand, she pushed the side of the box up and smiled. "You didn't have to, though-oh, my."

Enkai blinked, turning to his mother, his eyes widening as she pulled out the vase full of glass beads and thin stalks of metal topped by imitation flowers delicately beaten out of thinly-pressed sheet metal. The stems were thorny bars of thin wrought iron I'd twisted into shape before adding a few steel 'leaves' made of my reproduction Damascus metal.

The flowers atop each one were a few different materials, mostly copper and polished bronze though I'd melted down a few silver ryo pieces to give me a bit of flair here and there as well. For a select few, I'd reversed the pattern and used Damascus steel to create 'petals' which had been a fucking bitch and a half, but by then I'd gone too far to turn back.

"This is amazing." Kushina whispered, running a finger up one of the 'flowers' carefully, as if fearing to dislodge one of the leaves or bulbs. She looked back at me. "Where did you-" She cut herself off, taking in the slightest smirk at the edge of my lips as her eyes widened and she returned to admiring my gift. "You're incredibly talented for one so young."

"My master thought I was crazy for wasting good metal, but he shut up once I got the first flower done. I think he wants me to make a few more to sell on the side now." I grinned slightly.

"Well, they're certainly beautiful." Kushina nodded, handing the vase to her son with a stern look. "Enkai, go put these on the kitchen counter. I'll show our guest in." As the boy nodded and turned to walk away carefully holding the gift, she turned back to me and sighed. "I really am sorry about my son. He's... a handful."

I shrugged. "It's fine. I used to help the caretakers when they were short-staffed or the kids were sick. I know how boys his age can be." Also, I'd had two brothers and a nephew go through that phase, but that was a lifetime ago.

Kushina frowned for a half-second, but it vanished quickly as she rolled herself in a tight turn and beckoned me to follow her. "This way, please. Naruko's told me a bit about you over the past few weeks and I'm glad I finally got to meet you, Kotaro, but she's been a bit fuzzy on how you twomet."

I snorted. "A couple of older kids-" I frowned and paused momentarily, the exact comments they'd made fanning the ember of hate that was still burning. "Well, they...said some things and threatened to beat me up if I didn't comply with what they wanted me to do. After we had that fight, I made sure they wouldn't bother me again. Naruko had evidently been trailing them and planning to cover them in some foul smelling pink substance and saw me humiliate them, so she decided we were friends."

Kushina snickered, her shoulders shaking as she shook her head. "That sounds like my daughter, ya'know."

"Hey, Kushina-baa, who was-ow!" The familiar voice cut off as Kushina snatched a paperweight off a nearby table and chucked it at his head just as he stepped into view.

"Cut that baa-chan shit right out, brat!" The redhead spat with a growl as she rolled forward faster. "Kota, this is Uchiha Obito, a friend of the family. He's here for the party too."

I suppressed the irritated twitch that threatened to break out as the grinning fool of an Uchiha massaged his head as he popped back up. "Oh, hey, it's little Kota! What are the odds?"

Narrowing my gaze at the man, I realized that I'd thoroughly been out played somehow. Kushina's brows likewise furrowed as she caught the look of suspicion and irritation on my face as I stared at the older man. Putting a hand on my shoulder, she gave me a gentle push towards the doorway at the end of the hall, through which I could see sunlight streaming. "Kota, why don't you head on out to the rest of the guests. I need to have a word with Obito, here."

The Uchiha winced as I walked by and I suppressed a bit of a smirk, catching at least a bit of the byplay as Kushina hissed in an undertone."Obito, I seem to recall you were the one who pushed Naruko to invite Kota, would you care to explain-"

Sadly, I stepped out of hearing range at that point and into the range of a perky blonde.

"Kota! You came! 'Course, I knew ya' would, believe it!" Naruko grinned at me bashfully, wearing something a bit nicer than her everyday orange and blue jumpsuit with a white undershirt. Instead, she was clad in a stylish yukata, orange of course, with a wide blue belt adorned with ornaments bearing Uzu spirals. Her hair done up in a slightly more elaborate set of pigtails, she looked every inch the birthday girl, right down to her more elaborate sandals.

"Hngh!?" The un-noise had me blinking as I instinctively sought-out its owner, finding Satsuki in one of her'I'm irritated, leave me alone' stances as she clung to a wall furthest from the few other guests.

A woman I distantly recognized as Satsuki's mother was interacting with another set of adults in more staid kimono, with a younger girl seated at the central table in front of a plate of food.

I didn't recognizeheroff-hand, but there was something familiar about the sickly-pale skin, worryingly limp brown hair, and off-yellow eyes even as she smiled wanly towards myself and Naruko.

"I said I'd come, so I'm here." I nodded at Naruko, then looked to the other girl. "I didn't know you knew Satsuki."

Naruko's face soured slightly, but after sending a look towards the Uchiha, she nodded. "Ah, our moms are friends."

I felt like I shouldbhave known that, like I'd read it somewhere, but it hadn't been important at the time beyond an idle curiosity. "So... happy birthday." I reached into one of the deep pockets of the semi-nice pants I'd found on sale and pulled out a wooden box a few inches square. Her eyes lit up at the Uzu spiral I'd burned into the lid of the box and she reached out to grab it.

"Oooh, what is it, what is it..." She asked, pulling the box apart eagerly and quizzically squinting at what she found. "Ah... it's a watch?"

I smirked at the disappointed intrigue in her voice as she pulled the device up by the chain. At the other end was a pocket watch about the size of an adult's palm. Both sides of it were absolutely clear, coated in the first functional bits of aluminum-glass I'd managed to make in my off-hours. At least it gave me something to do with my earnings from the swords I was selling, because aluminum powder wasnot cheap.

"Whoa, cool... you can see everything..." Naruko muttered, watching as the tiny gears and hands ticked away diligently. "Neat."

"The hands on the watch glow in the dark." I informed her, having flaked off a bit of some interesting local rocks to use to heat the ink I'd purchased. I'd been worried about making the stuff, but it'd turned out that ninja apparently loved using heat-reactive inks. Finding orange ink was a bit of a challenge, though. "So you can take it on missions if you need to."

Naruko pouted slightly. "Yeah, but it's made of glass."

I shook my head. "Not regular glass. Special glass I made. I'd trust it to take a kunai."

"Hmm." Satsuki stated from where she'd approached, looking over the trinket with both interest and a touch of jealousy. Her gaze flicked towards me with a suggestive movement back at the watch.

I rolled my eyes as Kushina and a visibly-chastised Obito exited the hallway and moved onto the large balcony space where the party was set up. Naruko instantly perked up, dodging off to show her mother her gift, no doubt. Meanwhile, I sighed and nodded. "Your birthday?"

She looked off to the right, not willing to meet my gaze as her cheeks colored slightly, but she replied with a quiet grunt and tiny nod. "Please."

Just like that, it seemed we weren't fighting anymore.

…

"So you're Kotaro, the boy who's been teaching my daughter swordsmanship." The dark-eyed Uchiha Mikoto stated as she looked me over with a small smile while her daughter squirmed off to our side.

"Yes ma'am." I nodded, turning the motion into a slight bow.

After a moment of observation, Mikoto nodded. "You're quiet, just like Satsuki. I can see why you two might get along better than some of the children in her class." She cocked her head. "And given that you've earned my son's seal of approval, you must be quite skilled for a civilian swordsman."

"I'll say. To get Itachi to okay him hanging around Satsuki-chan, the kid must be something special." Obito chimed in, even as a warning look from Kushina shot across the table where we were all eating.

"You're a civilian?" The girl next to me asked, frowning slightly.

I nodded, using the excuse of a bite of food to avoid a verbal reply.

Kurama Yakumo's eyebrows rose at my confirmation, the sickly girl looking taken aback by the revelation. "Oh, my apologies, it's just that I hadn't thought a civilian would be willing to be friends with Naruko, given..."

As it turned out? With Kushina alive, surviving Uzumaki remnants in Konoha, and whateverotherchanges going around? Sarutobi had never had to resort to the futilely naive attempt to conceal Kushina and Minato's child's identity as the jinchuriki. Or maybe he wouldn't have triedanywayin this world, had things gone differently. It was still a bit of an awkward topic to bring up, though.

"That doesn't matter to me." I stated bluntly.

Yakumo stared for a second more, then smiled and nodded. "I'm glad. It's hard for her to make friends, even though she won't admit it."

...which probably explained why she was still a prankster, even with a moderately-happy home life, and also why she never tried to show up at the store. Come to think of it, Naruko's only showed up when I've been in relatively isolated parts of town.

Part of me didn't like that, but another part of me was grateful. I really didn't need the aggravation of being stigmatized and having it follow me back to Sagara's shop.

I nodded at the girl. "I'll keep that in mind."

She smiled again. "Good, you seem nice, even if Satsuki likes you." I raised an eyebrow at that, and she flushed lightly before shaking her head. "Ah... sorry, just... clan politics." Yakumo cleared her throat. "So! Um... you teach Satsuki how to use a sword?"

"More or less, although I'm really just showing them a few tricks." I paused. "Ah, Satsuki and a girl named Tenten."

Her eyebrows rose. "I know Tenten-chan, kind of." Her face lost some of its cheer. "She's... in my class, at the academy. I'm training to become a ninja, but..." She paused, shaking her head.

Something tickled at the back of my mind, a warning that this was something important...

"You should ask Kota-kun for some advice, Yakumo-chan." Obito chimed in from down the table, drawing attention to our small conversation as the Uchiha grinned at me. A moment of clarity gave me a strong idea of where he was going with this entire scheme of his and I reluctantly admitted it was a nice little trap. All I had to do was refuse to help the girl or simply say it was impossible and I'd get out of it. On the other hand...

"I hardly think a civilian blacksmith's apprentice, even if he does know his way around a sword, would be able to help our daughter, Uchiha-san." The Kurama clan head stated with a frown before turning to me. "No offense, of course, young man. It's simply that we've already consulted the Hokage for a jounin to aid her and even Yuuhi-san has been unable to do much."

Yakumo's eyes tilted downwards and her fist clenched.

On the other hand, all I'd have to do is willingly and knowingly ignore someone's pain.

"You'd think that!" Obito nodded, gesturing with his chopsticks. "But I took a peek or two in on what he's showing Satsuki here and it's some impressive stuff!" He folded the sticks in a deft movement and snapped his fingers, as if just coming up with an idea. "Hey, why don't we have the two of them show off a bit? Just a little exhibition match and you'll see what I mean."

I joined Kushina in glaring at the orange-speckled Uchiha even as Naruko looked over with jittery excitement. "Oh, that sounds cool! Kick her ass Kota!"

Enkai, seated next to his sister, rolled his eyes. "Like a civilian could beat a clan ninja."

Naruko whirled on her brother with a smirk. "Wanna' bet?! Kota's got some sweet moves! He's like woosh-ka pow! Hehehe!"

The siblings dissolved into good-natured rivalry as I opened my mouth to-

"You know, it might be interesting to see one of your spars in action, Satsuki." Uchiha Mikoto remarked, seemingly uncaring of the byplay between the various people at the table. The more concerning thing, though, was the glint in Satsuki's eye as she nodded.