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

Thinking (+ flashbacks, speaking to the fox, etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Mito twitched and twitched as she read the letter a toad had just delivered from her godfather, holding it with one hand as she held Mikoto-oba's baby, Sasuke, with the other. Sasuke's big brother, Itachi, had reacted with interest to the toad appearing in the middle of the Namikaze living room but was scowling at her now that she was holding his beloved little brother with only one arm.

Mito could understand a little: she was sure that she'd be overprotective with Naruto. "Don't worry, Itachi-chan," she said, fake-smiling at the boy who had only seen her without her mask for the first time today. She was too pissed off at the 'Super Pervert' as well as her father and wanted to kick both their asses to smile genuinely. "I won't drop Sasuke-chan. He's on my lap for goodness' sake."

"Hn."

"'Hn?' Damn Uchihas," Mito remarked instantly, not thinking of how that might sound to a child, particularly the spoiled, mostly sheltered Uchiha heir. Everyone she knew said "damn Uchihas" when they Hn-ed. Even Uchihas said that! She smiled up reassuringly at the cutie patootie Uchiha who was now pouting at her. "What? You've never heard the phrase 'Damn Uchiha's?' It doesn't mean anything bad, I promise," she said calming down a bit as she patted Sasuke's little tummy. "It's a common response used when a member of your clan says, 'Hn.'" Mito hummed and scrutinized the little heir. "I probably shouldn't have told you that, although feel free to use your hn to aggravate people - not like you won't do it anyway. Oh, and people also say 'Damn Uchihas' because everyone in your clan is so damn attractive. You'll find that people can be quite jealous."

Itachi seemed delighted at that. Mito didn't know why, but she wasn't worried about it. Itachi was a very quiet, thoughtful child. She went back to her letter from Jiraiya, scowling more and more as she read it.

"...I knew Gai's father, Dai, and can confirm that both of them were born green from the necks down. They have no genitalia, Mito; it's a Kekkei Genkai: not that you should be interested in genitalia. Now, in case Tsunade-hime hasn't informed you of what genitalia are used for, sexually..."

Her father had obviously told Jiraiya that she had a crush on Maito Gai or something similar. Mito closed her eyes tightly, unintentionally burning the letter in her grasp, and held it farther away from Sasuke.

The baby's eyes focused on the little red flame as he began sucking his pacifier faster.

"Another pyromaniac. Great," Mito snarked. She reluctantly returned the baby to his older brother.

He had been great practice for when Naruto-chan was born!

"You shouldn't use flames or ninjutsu when holding a baby," Itachi said, glaring at her from the chair he moved into adjacent to the couch. He held his brother, who was moving his head around, obviously trying to find the flame he'd seen.

"Sorry, Itachi-chan. I'd never hurt you or Sasuke-chan!" She patted the boy's head, smiled down at Sasuke, and skipped off to the kitchen. "You want something to drink?" she hollered, but not loud enough to upset baby Sasuke. Their mothers were out on the back porch, laughing much too maniacally for it to be healthy, but Mito enjoyed the sound of it. She just hoped that she wouldn't be on the end of one of their pranks/"grand ideas" as Mikoto-oba instead termed their nonsense.

"Tea please," Itachi answered as he moved to make sure that his back was covered. One couldn't be too careful while holding Sasuke, after all. He also wondered why the Namikazes didn't always offer tea immediately after greeting visitors as was polite and customary. Although Minato-sama was Hokage, his small family was quite untraditional.

Mito rolled her eyes at the boy's response. She was having chocolate milk and that was that. She'd offer some to Itachi despite his adult tastes and see what he thought. Getting out a small glass, she poured some for him alongside her larger one.

Mito had no idea that she'd one day be blamed for Itachi's sugar addiction.

Both sitting quietly while Sasuke napped, Itachi's chocolate milk and two other, larger glasses of it long gone, he finally asked her about summoning. His mother summoned cats, but he had not seen the toad summons before. He also hadn't seen a summoning animal appear on its own, other than the ninnenko that roamed his clan's compound and seemed to suddenly appear here and there. "Where do summoning animals go once they retreat?"

"Well, they all have their own realms, as far as I know. I've always wondered the same about the ninnenko. Perhaps the Uchiha compound is their home?" Itachi just stared at her, blinking slowly with his big black eyes - he really was an adorable little boy, Mito thought - so he apparently did not have the answer to the ninnenko question either. Maybe. "My slugs come from a certain forest that remains mostly hidden. Summoning snakes come from a really horrible cave, from what I understand." A little part of her shivered at what Orochimaru-oji had told her about his first experience there. "Jiraiya and Dad's toads are from a mountain that can not only move but is said to be covered by seals and a genjutsu."

She'd been there and to Shikkotsu Forest a few times with Shizune when her life had been in imminent danger during the war. Being suddenly hauled into a toad or slug's mouth was no fun, she could easily confirm.

"How can a mountain move?" the boy asked, his expression serious despite the childish wonderment in his voice.

"I don't know, Itachi-chan," Mito said, holding back a grin. "Ninjas can do all kinds of amazing things that civilians can't, ne?" Itachi bobbed his head, so she began to spin a silly story. "Maybe there's some kind of giant frog - or no! A giant turtle that the toads and frogs reside on?" she teased. "Perhaps the island is so large that even the inhabitants don't realize it's an animal they are living upon!"

An obscenely giant turtle close to Kumo sneezed, sending its inhabitants flying. That included the Raikage's brother, who was there for a visit.

"That's silly," Itachi said as he sipped some of his cooling tea. He decided it needed more sugar and didn't hold back. Mito grimaced, and hoped that the boy wouldn't someday contract Type 2 diabetes.

Itachi jumped, accidentally waking little Sasuke who had just fallen asleep when yet another summoning animal appeared. He noticed that Mito seemed nervous about this one. "Doesn't that monkey belong to Lord Third?"

Mito took a message from the little monkey and whispered to it before it dispelled. "It does, Itachi, but I need you to keep his appearance a secret."

Itachi nodded his head slowly as he patted Sasuke's back. His brother could be really loud, but he was good at calming him down quickly. It was also interesting how the pretty Namikaze girl didn't use an honorific this time, not even an annoying one. "It is widely known that Lord Third holds their summoning contract." It really could've been left unsaid, but he wanted to know what was going on. Whether or not his mother cursed his curious nature, he and his father thought it served him well.

"Yes," Mito replied, knowing that his statement was more than it seemed. As well as being cute, Itachi was an astute child. "I'm planning a surprise with Lord Third for my parents and baby brother following Naruto's birth," she said, giving him her best cute (fake) grin. She prayed every day and night that the "surprise" Mito had been discussing (and training with her father for, although her father didn't know that) with Sandaime-ojii-san wouldn't be necessary, but it was top secret. "Please keep this between only the two of us, Itachi-chan?" Mito asked quietly. "When Mom has Naruto-chan, it'll be his first birthday. Lord Third thinks it's silly, but he's agreed to go along with my plans." That part was true: Sandaime Ojii-san did help her choose a stroller for her mother and baby brother, which she looked forward to giving them after Naruto was born. She was also having a cake delivered. Both it and the stroller were orange, and the stroller had long ears on the canopy!

Mito thought it was perfect. Considering her parents' hair and monikers, orange was the perfect blend for little Naruto.

Itachi nodded his head in agreement with her request. At first, he thought Mito might be lying to him, but it was her business, and her smile had begun to light up the room by the time she finished speaking. It was silly to consider Naruto's birth his "first birthday," but it should be celebrated. Perhaps as Year Zero, he thought. Was it too late to hold a Birth Day party for Sasuke? He certainly deserved one.

"Say it out loud: promise me," Mito said, looking very serious, and if Itachi had to admit it, a little scary. She was holding out her hand, wanting to shake on it, he understood.

"I promise, Mito-hime," he said, wondering if he had been wrong about her and the summons again. He forgot that when Mito leaned back and spit into her palm.

"Let's shake on it!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Stop holding your baby brother as a shield!"

"I would never," Itachi exclaimed, grimacing when he realized that's exactly what he'd done once Mito had spit into her hand. And to think I supposedly had a crush on this barbarian! That's what his mother said, anyway. He returned Sasuke to his lap. His baby brother looked interested in this strange turn of events, too. "I will only shake your filthy hand if you allow me to use hand sanitizer immediately afterward."

"Filth- Why you!" Mito said, beginning to lose her temper. She clenched the fist she'd made; she'd never hit a child, let alone a child holding a baby. "Fine," she pouted, storming off to the kitchen to get the hand sanitizer.

/

"What have you found?" Mito asked her grandfather figure nervously after finding him in his study.

"Hime-chan," Hiruzen exclaimed in a scolding tone. "This is the way you greet your beloved grandfather?"

"Sorry, Ojii-san," Mito replied sheepishly. She walked up to him and gave him a hug. Asuma waved lazily from the hallway he'd noticed her from, then scowled at his father. "What's that about?" she asked. Lord Third had obviously seen his son's reaction to him by the way he sighed as his shoulders slumped.

Hiruzen groaned as he sat back down in the chair he'd risen from to greet his successor's daughter. "Asuma's trying to grow a beard," he sighed. "I told him that it would not help him with the girl he's interested in."

Mito couldn't help but laugh. "Again?! I think he should wait. Otherwise, I may be forced to formally diagnose alopecia areata, too," she joked.

Hiruzen snorted, then did it again, only louder when his son came back and slammed the door closed. He had planned to ask Mito to shut the door, but her comment caused Asuma to take care of the issue before he could speak. "Cheeky brat. It will just take some time for his beard to come in properly," he said cheerily, taking a few puffs from his pipe. "There has yet to be a Sarutobi man who has not been unfairly hairy." He didn't notice the way Mito looked appalled and/or horrified at his words. "His beard will come in one day... soon and fast, unlike Minato-sama's."

Mito wanted to laugh but knew she should defend her father. "He's just too blonde, that's all!" She didn't know whether her father had enough hair or not for a beard; she only knew that his head seemed to glow like a fat lightbulb when she had seen him that one time with a lot of hair on his chin... Stubble. She thought Tsunade and Shizune would never stop laughing at him!

"Sure. Whatever you say, Mito-chan," Hiruzen joked. He took a deep breath and gestured for the child to sit down. "Mito-chan, I've come up with something that, in the event the worst happens, will save your father, but there is much we need to discuss." He tapped his pipe before repacking it. "Tomorrow is the last day to consider this, my dear. Your mother will be induced the day after: my beloved Biwako will be attending her."

Mito sucked in a deep breath but nodded her head, already knowing that her mind was made up about this.

"I want you to carefully consider this once more, sweet girl." His plan was as suicidal as Minato's had been, but Mito had been right when she said that the village needed her father. They'd need a young man in the Hokage's seat even more if the Nine-Tails escaped: a powerful one. "Will you drop by the morning of the tenth? That's the day your baby brother will be born, I'm sure."

Mito once again felt excited about her brother's birth, but also terribly apprehensive over what could potentially happen. Was she really ready to do this? Ready to possibly become a jinchuuriki? Yes. Yes, she was. If her mother could do it, so could she! Plus, if Naruto was made into a jinchuuriki by her father, he would never know his parents and would only have her to rely on. Mito knew that she was strong, but she was still just a 10-year-old girl. "I won't change my mind, Ojii-san. Just let me know whatever you plan to do and I'll be there for you!"

Hiruzen sighed, knowing that he still had much to prepare. He prayed that Naruto's birth would go as well as Mito's had, but Kushina's seal had slightly loosened with the birth of her first child. Minato and Jiraiya had attempted to at least tighten it, but he feared the worst. And it was always best to be prepared for the worst, yet hope for the best - so that's exactly what he would do. "The morning of the tenth, Mito-chan: come see me. My plan won't save little Naruto from what could be his fate, but he won't be alone if that comes to pass."

"Oh," Mito said lamely. She had hoped that she alone could take on the burden if she had to, but apparently, her grandfather had other plans. "Can you explain more?" She had spent a lot of time looking at seals with her grandfather since confiding in him what her father's plans were, but even with her mother's mounting lessons in fuuinjutsu, sealing a bijuu was still beyond her.

"I could, but I won't," he said audaciously. Seeing Mito's face scrunch up in annoyance, he chuckled. "Now, what do you say to a game of shogi with this old man? I'd like to see how much you've improved since our last match."

It might be the last time he'd be able to do it, after all.

"Sure."