"Was feelin' kind of blue,

Anxiety too,

I'd almost given up,

But you pick me back up,"

-Once Upon a Me, splendiferachie

The deeper we went into Fire country, the more the heat lessened. It was never cold, but it wasn't the scorching heat I felt the first time we traveled through here either.

Maybe it was because back then we came earlier in the year.

Naga used the civilian roads to tell where we were. Signs that pointed east to Konohagakure or west to Takigakure.

He stopped abruptly, surprise flashing in his eyes as he looked up, and I followed his eyes to the blonde suddenly standing on a branch above us. Someone else from back then, before Shido Valley and before Konan—

"Minato," Naga said, and I watched him smile.

Minato wore a white coat over his regular uniform, and a red hat was tied to his back. He smiled back at my brother, small and cautious like back then.

But when his eyes shifted to me his look was suddenly serious, calculating.

Naga abruptly stiffened, turning fast to look behind me, and I heard a leaf crunch slightly, barely audible. I yanked a kunai up out of my pouch and had it raised in the next second, wedged between another kunai and my neck.

I noted the shinobi's shock in the way their gloved hand squeezed the handle, metal scraping as they pushed harder, but I didn't budge. Our hands shook.

Surprise flashed in Minato's eyes, and then he frowned. It was the only reason I didn't attack.

I felt their Killing Intent, but it slid off me like water against glass. I felt worse on the battlefields in Amegakure, back before it was ever aimed my way.

"Stand down, Kakashi," Minato immediately ordered.

"But sensei, they don't have headbands—"

"They're allies from Amegakure," Minato spoke over him.

After a pause, the pressure let up and the kunai was pulled away.

Were we allies?

"I've never heard of any allies from Rain Country," Kakashi said skeptically, but stepped back.

I half-turned to look back at him. Gray hair. A mask covering the bottom half of his face, a headband that covered his left eye. A gray and black uniform.

He'd attacked me the same way Minato had when we first met and didn't even know it.

I hummed. "Want to feel real Killing Intent?"

Kakashi stiffened, questioning eyes flicking up to Minato.

Naga snagged my arm before I could decide whether I wanted to make good on the threat, shaking his head at me.

"I'm sorry about him," Minato said, breezing past my question. "Kakashi is one of my former students. He's been... jumpy, since we left the village."

Naga didn't smile.

Kakashi eyed us with distrust. "Who are they, sensei?"

Naga forced his fingers to uncurl, to let go. I was the only one who saw his fingers tremble before he shoved them in his pockets.

Was it anger, or fear?

"That's Nagato," Minato answered. "And Oka." He nodded at me.

Kakashi looked up at Minato. "Do you trust them?"

"I do," Minato admitted. "The last time I saw Jiraya-sensei he told me to have faith in them. I didn't know why at the time, but I knew he had his reasons," he glanced at me. "And now I think I'm starting to understand why."

I thought about the Rinnegan and remembered Jiraya, faintly, telling me I was special. I wondered if he'd said it because of my spiritual chakra, or if he knew about my dojutsu even back then.

"You know about Oka's eyes?" Naga asked carefully.

Minato gave him a considering look in answer. He pulled out four three-pronged kunai.

He threw them, lightning fast. Naga started to take a step back, but they only lodged in the dirt around us. Identical seals circled the handle of each, different to the ones he used for space-time ninjutsu.

I watched the seals come alive, unraveling as they stretched down the metal, curled around the point, and slid across the ground.

I looked up at Minato as the seals connected in a square around us and glowed dull blue and thought, If you wanted to kill us, you already would've.

He was still fast enough to surprise Naga.

The seals sunk underground. The dirt and leaf piles never moved.

I glanced at Kakashi, but his expression was unreadable behind his mostly-covered face.

Naga reached out, his fingers passing through the space above where the seals were. He froze, surprised, when he didn't hit a barrier. "What did you do, Minato?"

"It's a silencing seal," Kakashi answered, crossing his arms.

"What does it do?" I asked him.

Kakashi eyed me. "Call me Hound, not Kakashi."

Minato hopped down in front of us, inside the square. "What do you sense?" he asked.

Naga dropped his hand. "I felt your chakra in each seal," he answered. "But only for a second when they connected, and then it turned into natural energy."

Minato paused. "You can sense natural energy?"

"I sensed the chakra disappearing," Naga said, and didn't elaborate. "When the three signatures coming this way get here, will they attack us?"

"Why Hound?" I asked, fully facing Kakashi.

"Sensei shouldn't have told you my name," Kakashi said. "The only reason I'm talking to you is because he trusts you, but that doesn't mean I do."

"Good," I said and smiled. "Because I don't trust you either."

Kakashi's eye narrowed.

"They won't," Minato answered Naga. "As long as they can see me, they won't interrupt us. The technique I used prevents anyone outside of the perimeter of the square from being able to listen in on what we talk about or read our lips. It's a barrier, like you suspected, but an invisible one."

Naga tensed. "So you are Hokage, Minato."

I stared at Minato. He was...?

"You've become an impressive sensor-nin," Minato said instead of acknowledging what my brother said. "In many ways, you've already surpassed me."

"How long have you been Hokage?" I asked. I thought of Root, of the deal between Hanzo and Danzo, of Kanae and Shinnai and broken wagon wheels.

How much did you know, Minato?

Minato looked at me but didn't answer. He tapped a finger against his side, thinking. "What do you two say to an exchange of information?" he asked back. "I answer a question, and, in turn, you answer one I ask. Truthfully, but within reason. I think you know what questions I can't answer."

Kakashi's eye widened and he stepped forward. "Sensei, even if you think of them as allies, Amegakure never agreed to the ceasefire. They're still the enemy."

"I know, Kakashi," Minato said. "But I want to believe they wouldn't lie to me."

Kakashi looked like he wanted to protest more, but didn't. He only slouched, fake causal, and dropped a hand to his pouch.

"We accept," Naga said.

Minato glanced at me. "I was officially appointed Fourth Hokage seven months ago, as the war was winding down," he said.

The answer didn't satisfy me. Mamoru-sensei said the Hokage didn't know about the deal, but that was years ago. It didn't mean Minato didn't know.

Even if the last Hokage found out, would he or she have stopped Root?

The shinobi who killed our parents were from Konohagakure. The sanin fought Hanzo and made a mess out of Amegakure. And it happened before Danzo, before Shuji.

It wasn't Danzo who used our village like a battlefield and left us to pick up the pieces.

No, they wouldn't have stopped Root.

"Did you know about all the Root spies in Amegakure?" I asked instantly.

Naga made a choked noise.

Kakashi rounded on me. "You're lying," he hissed.

I didn't look at him. I wondered what I'd do if Minato said yes.

Minato's expression shuttered like a door slamming shut. "What caused the Rinnegan to activate?" he asked instead.

"But sensei, what she said—It can't be true—"

Minato held up a hand, stopping him. "I'll get to that," he said. "But what I agreed to was an answer for an answer."

Naga stepped in front of me. "Don't want them to see," he signed with a hand behind his back, the movement so quick I almost didn't see it.

A second later, three shinobi dressed like Kakashi appeared behind Minato and knelt. They wore animal-like, painted masks.

Kakashi moved out of the barrier and signed at them, his fingers flashing in an odd, unfamiliar way.

The leftmost shinobi dipped his or her head, but the other two didn't move.

Minato didn't turn around. He waited, staring at Naga.

"Konan died," I answered with a shrug. The hurt was brief, like pricking my finger on a shuriken point.

But that wasn't the truth, was it?

It was Yahiko. It was because I thought I—I watched him die.

But he didn't die. He was still alive. I watched him cry and grieve and rage.

And yet, and yet—

"She was a talented sensor-nin," Minato said mildly.

What else was there to say?

"Okay?" Naga signed behind his back. He kept his eyes on Minato.

Had that been because of the Rinnegan? Because of my spiritual chakra? Because of that 'other me' I used to think about?

I stared at my brother's hand and I thought about what not-Madara said about me being a reincarnation of someone else. Maybe, maybe, more of what he said was the truth than I thought.

How else did I know about him? If Jiraya meant to show me not-Madara, why had he never talked about him after?

The noise around me faded and I saw the bottomless blue of the ocean, felt the weight of water in my lungs, saw how clear the water looked as I sank—

A cold hand touched my forehead, and I blinked once, twice.

"Calm down," Naga said softly.

I focused on his face. He was squeezing my arm. I was aware of Kakashi, back in the barrier, staring at me oddly. Minato, assessing, watching our every move.

"Is Yahiko dead?" I signed at him, and Naga's eyes widened.

He pressed his hand more firmly against my forehead but let go of my arm. "He waved at us when we left, remember?" he signed back.

I stared at him. Yahiko was alive. Yahiko was dead.

"What happened?" Naga signed.

"Drowning," I signed in answer.

He paused. "Someone was drowning you?"

I dropped my hand and stared at him again. Was the 'other me' still me?

"You're Oka," he signed, and I looked at my hands, wondering if I signed the unspoken question.

I lowered my hand, raised it, then dropped it again. My head was filled with stale water. "She knew how to swim," I signed, and didn't know why.

Naga shook his head. "Forget about her," he signed. "She doesn't matter. You're here, with me."

I was alive. I was...

"Why does the masked man want to kill you?" I signed.

Naga frowned. He looked down, thinking. "Will you let him?" he eventually signed.

I took a step back. "What?" I asked, accidentally out loud.

Kakashi and Minato exchanged a glance, communicating without words.

Naga never looked away from me. "Remember what you said when I asked you about him?" he signed.

I stopped. I won't let him kill you, Naga.

The memory broke through the surface of the water in my head, splashing, flailing.

"I won't," I signed at him, unsure.

"Then it doesn't matter why," Naga signed. "All that matters is that I protect you and you protect me. Like it's always been. Even if we complain at each other about it."

Like it's always been.

My very first memory was of wanting to protect my brother in a trash-filled alleyway. He pulled me away from a dying man on a battlefield, thinking I was in danger. I would've died to save him from Usagi.

The sounds around me slowly filtered back in. Yahiko was alive. I was alive. Kota was dead. The water in my head turned murky and red and I stood on the surface, hands slippery with blood, holding a kunai.

It doesn't matter.

"What happened to her?" Minato finally asked.

Naga went still. He felt my forehead again and frowned but turned around. "You didn't answer her question," he said.

I didn't feel like I had a fever.

Minato looked at him carefully. "If you're asking if I authorized it, I didn't," he said. "In fact, this is the first I've heard of it."

Kakashi was still looking at me. I stared back at him until his eyebrow twitched and he glanced away.

It makes no difference.

"Oka was born with too much spiritual chakra," Naga admitted. "It spills out of her pathways, into places where it isn't supposed to be, and her body treats the excess chakra like an infection."

And I remembered that Minato was a sensor-nin, too.

But that wasn't all of it. That wasn't the whole truth.

"But..." Naga trailed off. "Lady Tsunade should've told you about it."

The anger was instinctive, old and dull like a rusted blade. Even now, even after all this time, I still wanted to kill her. It wasn't just for hurting Naga anymore.

I wondered if she knew how heavy the burden she left my brother with was when she left. She taught him to help everyone, then abandoned him in a village full of the sick and wounded.

She was another adult who left little kids to do the heavy lifting for a dream of peace, regardless of why. Katsuyu must've told her about us, but she never sent a message back.

At least Jiraya had the excuse of orders, at least he told Minato about us instead of pretending we never existed. At least he didn't want to leave us for dead.

Minato shook his head. "Lady Tsunade left the village four years ago, after she witnessed someone very close to her die on the battlefield. I did want to, but I never had the chance to talk to her about her experience in Amegakure before it happened."

Naga looked surprised, but I didn't feel anything at all. "She's a missing-nin?" he asked.

"What's Root doing in Amegakure?" Minato asked back.

Naga hesitated, then sighed. "It goes deeper than them being spies," he answered. "Hanzo and one of your higher-ups, Danzo, made a deal. It might not have looked like it from the outside, but enough of our ninja were dying during the second war that the only way to keep fighting was for my generation to grow up. But the war wouldn't wait for that."

Kakashi's eye widened.

"Root was used to bolster your ranks," Minato concluded.

"During the war," Naga agreed. "We don't need them anymore, but we can't force them out. They've been in the village for so long that they know how to blend in. They probably report everything we do to Danzo."

Minato wasn't looking at us. His eyes were narrowed, a hand covering his mouth.

"But why would he do that?" Kakashi asked, eyebrows furrowed. "Making a spy network isn't worth helping the enemy fight harder against us."

"You didn't answer him," I pointed out.

Minato's eyes flicked down. "It's more complicated than that," he said to my brother. "She's on a leave of sorts, because of what happened."

I looked at the Anbu behind him, as still as statues.

"What did Hanzo receive in return?" Minato asked.

"I don't know," Naga answered.

"Do you think the last Hokage knew?" I asked Minato.

Minato had a distant look in his eyes. "If Lord Third knew about this, it would've been among the first things he told me when I became Hokage."

"Or he didn't want you to know," I countered.

Minato slowly shook his head. "It's more likely that neither I nor Lord Third know the full extent of what's going on in that program of his," he said absently. "I have a theory about what Danzo wanted in exchange for Root. It's the only service someone like Hanzo the Salamander can provide. But if this is as serious as I'm starting to think it is, I'll have to be extremely careful about my next move."

"An accusation like this can't be believed on just their word alone," Kakashi protested.

"A proper investigation will happen," Minato assured him. "But, right now, the only evidence I have is what they told me, and I'm inclined to believe them."

Kakashi only crossed his arms again and shut his eye.

Minato looked deep in thought. "Kakashi, I'll need you to travel ahead and tell the patrol from Kumogakure that I'll be a little late, and they should wait where they are until—"

"I'm not leaving," Kakashi harshly interrupted him, suddenly tense.

Minato glanced at him but didn't speak.

"You're going to Kumogakure?" Naga asked, surprised.

Minato considered the question. "What happened to Yahiko?"

How would he react, I wondered, if he met Minato again?

"He's back home," Naga answered.

Would he be happy that he could ask Minato more about space-time ninjutsu, or would it hurt too much with the empty space where Konan should've been?

Minato waited another second, but Naga didn't say anything else. "The treaty to publicly end the war will be signed in Kumogakure," he answered. "My presence there is more of a show of a commitment towards long-lasting peace."

He bent down without asking another question and gripped the handle of the three-pronged kunai to his left. "I hope that the next time we meet, I can introduce you to my wife, Kushina. I think she'd like to meet you both."

"You're married?" Naga asked.

Minato only smiled a little and pulled up the kunai. Wordlessly, Kakashi moved to pull up the two behind me.

The shinobi behind Minato stood. Kakashi signed at one with a bird-like mask, and they vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"I don't know if we'll make Yahiko's deadline," Naga signed behind his back.

I smothered a laugh, wiping away a smile with the back of my hand.

Minato put the kunai back in his pouch, gave us a smile and a two-fingered salute, and disappeared. The shinobi vanished a second later.

"You never said why you trust Minato-sensei," Kakashi said languidly, fake relaxed.

I turned around. He held the three-pronged kunai in one hand.

Did I trust Minato?

He listened to us when he didn't have to, believed us without proof.

"He wanted to talk," I said before Naga could respond. "He could've killed us when we first met, but he didn't. He held back, even when he didn't know who we were. I've never met another shinobi who wanted to talk instead of fight."

Kakashi stared at me for another second, then closed his eye again. He disappeared.

A/N: Will upload weekly until the end of the Summer. So, August-ish.

Kakashi - 15