An Invincible Summer by ShanaStoryteller

by CopyOthers

When Naruto was 5 he creates a ninjutsu, which he labels Oiroke no Jutsu. 3 days later, a civilian attacks and mortally wounds the boy after hearing that he was to begin his education as a ninja. When the ANBU arrive, there's so much blood that the status of the young boy is undeniable. 3 days later the body disappears. 6 months later Natsu Nami applies to enter the Academy.

3. Chapter 3

"Wait," Hanabi frowns and holds out a hand. Neji stills immediately. She pushes more chakra to her byakugun, and maybe she's just tired, that happens when you train at the crack of dawn and all throughout the day and then have to sneak off to the forests to train at night too. "Try that again."

Her cousin perfectly executes the stance, and he has the best chakra control she's ever seen outside of a medic-nin, so the way the chakra almost flows correctly but then spatters and rushes against his palms, like a wave breaking against a dam doesn't make any sense. Neji sighs and glances up at the moon, glowing high enough in the sky that they should both be heading back. "Don't worry about it, Hanabi-hime."

She glares and crosses her arms, "What do you mean don't worry about it! If I can perform the Dancing Dragon katas, then you should be able to! You're better than me!" The more she reminds him the less it makes her chest ache, and the more his eyes soften. Like punching a training board, so that the bones break just a little and grow back stronger.

"Some things take time." She just keeps glaring, because they've trained enough together that she knows he can read her impatience. He smiles, "Hime, you've only just started teaching me the main branch styles. Perfection does not happen without practice."

"It does for you!" she snarls, and at the way his face stiffens she forces herself to take a deep breath. "That wasn't an – accusation, or jealousy, or whatever. You are doing it perfectly, Neji. It just doesn't work at the last second for some reason." She stomps her foot and commands, "Do it again."

Still frowning, he does. Hanabi tries to watch it all at once, not just concentrating on the flow of chakra but on all his movements, on all the chakra, and maybe he is messing up and she's just not noticing, but Dancing Dragon shouldn't be this hard, even her sister can do it. This time as the chakra shatters against his palms she notices the flair around his forehead, and she can't see for a moment, can't breathe, because there's no way – her father would never, not to his nephew, his brother's son, not to a whole half of their family, their blood and their kin –

"HANABI-HIME!" Neji is crouched in front of her, hands tight on her shoulders, and at some point she must have fallen to her knees but she can't remember when. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

She shakes her head, and Neji's face is tight with worry he's trying not to show. Strong, loyal Neji, her cousin who is her brother in blood and who trains with her in the middle of the night and who is teaching her to cool the heat of her anger, to temper it into something even more dangerous. Neji whom she loves with all the fierceness she does her sister. She reaches up and presses hesitant fingers against his forehead, to where she knows the Curse Mark is. He flinches but doesn't move away or yell at her, and she can feel her eyes stinging. She hasn't cried since she entered the Academy, but if anything deserves her tears, this does. "Oh, Neji," she rubs her thumb over the bandages, "it's – it's worse than we thought. I'm so sorry."

"Hanabi?" he blinks, "What are you talking about?"

She swallows, and this is going to be another conversation she doesn't want to have, but the needs of her family will always outweigh her desires, so she just says, "I need to talk to Natsu Nami."

---

Kakashi is with Iruka for a lot of reasons. He's cute; some might even say unbearably handsome, if they could see him laid out on dark sheets and illuminated by moonlight, his hair spread out like a halo around him and the delicate planes of his face highlighted by the thin scar across his nose. Not that anyone else will ever see him like that, if Kakashi has anything to say about it, but the teacher's appearance is of course a factor in his interest. Then there's his intelligence – the man is smart, not just textbook intelligence, but a cunning and acumen that would have made Iruka very at home in the Nara clan. He's strong too, not anything close to Kakashi but that's not fair because very few people are, but if he ever applied for a promotion to jounin it would be granted (Iruka seemingly hasn't noticed how the Sandaime is grooming him to be the next assistant to the hokage, what with always working in the mission assignment office, and Kakashi isn't going to be the one to tell him, because then that will devolve into a conversation about Kakashi being the next hokage, and just no).

There's the little things too. Iruka doesn't get on his case about the porn, and he doesn't push about the times Kakashi wakes up in a cold sweat from a nightmare, not even the handful of times Kakashi has reached for a kunai still half asleep. He doesn't know exactly why Kakashi wakes up crying sometimes, his mouth tangled around Obito-Rin-Minato-Naruto but he lets Kakashi cling to him anyway. They make each other laugh about dumb things that other people probably don't find funny, and they both like their food just this side of too spicy. Iruka likes Natsu, the little sister that he never asked for; Kakashi knows for a fact that when Natsu started tutoring Sakura she went and pestered Iruka for tips.

Besides all that, there's that Iruka is at his core a very calm and levelheaded person. He may be prone to yelling at students and slipping into dramatics in the classroom for a laugh or to put his kids at ease, but he's one of the most even keeled people Kakashi has ever met. He, on the other hand, is only calm and levelheaded out of necessity and practice – he wouldn't say he has an inclination to panic, but Gai has accused him more than once of making mountains out of molehills.

So his first action when he hears the news (and of course he hears, he may have been out of Anbu for years and he never touched Root but he's still Kakashi Hatake) isn't to track down that blonde brat, but is to run over to the Academy and snag Iruka into a convenient broom closet on his way to class.

"This really isn't the time," Iruka scolds, glaring at the coffee that's now more on the ground than in his mug, "We're having our first shuriken throwing lesson today, and the girls had to learn about honeypot missions yesterday, which always makes them extra violent-"

"Someone broke into Danzo's underground office," Kakashi interrupts, "They shorted out the seals, and then were gone by the time operatives got there."

Iruka's face pales and the mug drops from loose fingers, shattering on the floor.

"Ah," Kakashi says, and this time his voice is just an octave higher, "I was afraid you'd react like that. I mean, the seals weren't deactivated, so theoretically – maybe it was – someone else?"

"Go find her right now," Iruka says seriously, "before someone else does."

"Right," he tugs down his mask and presses Iruka against the wall, kissing him firmly and thoroughly, because he might be going off to die defending Natsu against a dozen Root agents. "Okay," he gives the dazed Academy one more peck before body flickering away.

---

Natsu wakes slowly. Her eyelids feel so heavy that she considers just going back to sleep, but there's a sense of urgency at the back of her mind telling her that's a bad idea, so she forces her eyes open. The first thing she sees is spiky black hair, and she reaches out a clumsy hand to the boy's forehead, "Sasuke?"

The boy turns to face her, and she becomes aware enough of her surroundings that she figures out she's laid out on her couch, it's morning, and Sasuke is sitting with his back against the couch. "Hey," he says softly, and it looks like he hasn't slept at all, "How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted," she says honestly, and it's a struggle to pull herself upright. Her chakra is so low, and she's almost tempted to drop the Oiroke just to make this feeling go away. Her eyes catch on the folder in Sasuke's lap, and she goes still, "Oh."

His thumb has nearly rubbed the words away on the word 'Extermination', and he swallows, "I didn't read it, I waited."

Natsu tugs on the end of his hair, "Come here." Sasuke pushes himself up to sit beside her on the couch, and Natsu leans against him, partially out of comfort and partially because if this was any less important she would fall back asleep. The folder is thick, and she sets it on Sasuke's thigh before flipping it open to the first page so they can both see it. "Together?"

He looks up from the file. He manages to quirk his mouth into an almost smile for her, and Natsu beams. "Together," he confirms, and they dive into the secrets of the Uchiha Massacre.

---

Kakashi is only a little bit surprised when he's tackled to the ground mid-jump by Inoichi.

"You could have just asked me to stop," he says plaintively from underneath the clan head.

Inoichi scoffs as he rolls off of Kakashi, "Like that would have worked. I assume you've heard?"

"Heard what?" he dusts off his flak jacket. The older man glares. Kakashi sighs, "Maybe it wasn't her."

Inoichi raises both his eyebrows.

"We have other suicidally stupid, reckless, chakra powerhouse ninjas in the village, you know," he argues, "Like – me! Or Gai. I bet it was Gai."

The Yamanaka rubs a hand over his face, "Danzo isn't going to have her killed."

"Oh," Kakashi blinks. "That's – not good, honestly. What's he going to do to her instead?"

"Danzo is going to recruit her," he says.

"That's worse," Kakashi says faintly, frowning. He coughs, looks to the side, then back at Inoichi. "Has he lost his mind?" he settles on finally, because the recruitment process could break Natsu, but if it breaks her too far they'd have an insane, bloodthirsty seal master with a near endless chakra supply. Natsu may not be anything close to as strong as Itachi, but she's clever and talented enough that she could make the Uchiha Massacre look like child's play.

Inoichi shrugs, "Probably. Now obviously we can't let him get his hands on her, for a multitude of reasons, so we need a plan."

"I have a plan," a deep voice says from behind them. Kakashi twitches.

Inoichi turns on his heel and stabs his finger at his former teammate, "STOP DOING THAT!"

Shikaku rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, "I'm assuming you're discussing the Natsu and Danzo situation? I have a plan."

"Is there anyone who doesn't know about this?" Inoichi demands.

"Uh," Shikaku scratches his head, "Literally everyone else?" He points to himself, "Jounin Commander," then to Inoichi, "Head of Torture and Interrogation," then Kakashi, "Overly invested, incredibly nosy ex-Anbu elite jounin."

"Hey," the younger man pouts, but Shikaku isn't wrong.

Inoichi pinches the bridge of his nose, "What's the plan?"

---

Sai wakes up all at once, and he's reaching for a kunai before he's even fully opened his eyes. A small, strong hand grabs his wrist. He looks up, and a boy who looks oddly like him is gently pushing him back onto the bed. "Easy," he presses the back of his hand against Sai's forehead, and frowns, "You're okay, I don't think you have a temperature. But that was some pretty intense healing your body went through, and it'll take a few days for you to recover fully. NATSU!"

He blinks as the blond girl from before walks in, twisting her hair into a ponytail, "Oh, good, you're awake! You were out a lot longer than I thought you would be, but I guess your body needed it after all."

Sai is about to ask what the fuck is going on when the other boy grabs his chin and tilts Sai's head towards him. "You were right," he says to Natsu, "He's definitely an Uchiha."

"I'm not Uchiha!" he says, glaring.

Natsu snorts. The boy runs a gentle finger under Sai's eye, and he almost flinches away from the feather light touch, "I'm Sasuke Uchiha. And you are definitely part of my clan. I wonder who your parents were."

Sai pushes himself up and away from them both, standing on swaying legs, "What are you talking about? Is this is a test?"

Natsu shakes her head, "Does Danzo put you through a lot of tests?" Sasuke's face darkens, and she places a hand on his shoulder.

Sai crosses his arms, "So you do know Danzo!"

"We've met," she agrees, "but we don't get along, on account of him being an insane, manipulative dick."

The older boy's eyes nearly pop out of his head, and Sasuke's face softens again. He moves forward so he's standing right in front of Sai and he reaches up to grab his shoulders and push him back down on the bed, "We want to help you, okay? Don't undo all of Natsu's hard work by hurting yourself again."

"I didn't do much, honestly," she walks forward to stand next to Sasuke, "It was mostly Kabuto and Hana."

Sai looks in between them both, "What do you want from me?"

"Wrong question," Natsu sits next to him on the bed, "I know about the seal, Sai. I know what happens if you try to leave Danzo, or betray him."

"I'm a loyal ninja of Konohagakure!" he glares, "I would never betray Danzo!"

"Danzo is not Konoha," she says.

Sasuke reaches out and tilts Sai's face up to his. "The right question is what do you want? If you want to go back to working for Danzo, to doing his dirty work – all right. If all you want to be is a tool then that's all you'll be."

"But if you want something more, we're willing to give it to you," Natsu places a hand on Sai's knee. "We could use your help, and we think you could use ours. We would never ask you to betray the people of Konoha, Sai. You're a loyal shinobi, and we don't want you to be anything else."

"What are you saying?" he feels caught, trapped between Natsu's hands and Sasuke's intent eyes.

"We're saying maybe Danzo doesn't know what's best for this village," she reaches out on the bedside table and hands him a stack of files, "These are the full, undoctored files on just a couple of the missions Root has run in the past few years. Sometimes they were for the greater good – but sometimes they really, really weren't."

The younger boy runs his hand along Sai's jawline before folding his hands behind his back, "And regardless of what you decide, I want you to know – I consider you an Uchiha. I may be the only currently recognized Uchiha, but there is a place for you in the clan if you want it."

"I think Sai Uchiha has a nice ring to it, personally," Natsu adds.

Sai looks at the files clenched in his hands, and he's never had any other option than Root and Danzo and a short life of painful service before a likely painful death. He's never had a choice before.

---

Kiba squints up at the sun, then at the shadows the trees are casting. He nudges Sakura in the knee with his foot.

"Hmm?" she looks up from her book on medical anatomy. Once she had the basics down, Kiba promised he'd get his sister to show her a few jutsus.

"Kakashi is late." Sakura keeps staring. "Really late. So is Sasuke."

The girl frowns and holds out her hand. Kiba pulls her to her feet, and hides a grin at the pounds of muscle the girl has put on since she's graduated. "That's weird," she admits. "Sasuke's usually pretty neurotic about being on time."

"What do Sasuke and Kakashi have in common?" he asks, already heading the direction of where he's sure he'll find his missing teammates.

Sakura stuffs her book in her backpack and runs to catch up with him, "Uh, they're both the last of really powerful clans?"

"No," he frowns, "Well, I mean yes. But I was thinking about Natsu."

"Why do you always think Natsu is at the center of everything? Every time something goes wrong or weird you think it's her fault."

Kiba pauses, "Sakura, Natsu could find trouble anywhere. It's a gift. They hadn't even been in Suna for a day when she'd made friends with a jinchuuriki."

Sakura blinks, "What?"

"I'll tell you the story later," he tugs on her elbow, "Come on, the roofs are faster."

She rolls her eyes, but directs chakra to her legs and follows her teammate without further complaint.

---

Gai watches his students spar one another, but his mind isn't on them. It's on Baki, and Suna, and Natsu. The sand jounin had been the instructor for the one tails for about two years, and been around the kid for his entire life. There were few people as qualified as Baki to recognize a jinnchurikki. Yet – there was no way Natsu could be one. The only tailed beast within Konoha's walls had been the fox, but it had died along with its container eight years ago.

Hadn't it?

---

"Shit, shit, shit," Natsu chants while looking around her small apartment wildly.

Both Sai and Sasuke look up from where they're pouring over Root files. They each raise an eyebrow, and fuck but that polite look of 'literally what the fuck' must be genetic, Itachi did it too. "Natsu?" Sasuke asks.

She looks under her bed, shoves aside a bunch of scrolls, and says, "Sai, get under here right now."

"Excuse me?"

"Just trust me! Under here, now!" Sai throws down the scrolls and smoothly rolls under the bed. Natsu tugs the blanket down to completely hide him from view. "Make sure to mask your chakra."

Sasuke puts aside the scrolls and walks over, "Natsu, what are you doing-"

"Sshh!" She turns around and smacks her hand over Sasuke's mouth with more force than strictly necessary. Sasuke staggers and falls back, taking Natsu with him. She barely catches herself, and nearly cracks their foreheads together.

When Kakashi, Inoichi, and Shikaku all pile into her bedroom through the window it's to see Natsu straddling Sasuke on her bed with their faces pressed close together.

Inoichi turns deep shade of red. Kakashi scratches the back of his head, "Mah, Natsu, isn't Sasuke a little young for that?"

"IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" Natsu howls, scrambling off of Sasuke. She points a finger at the three jounin. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE?"

Sasuke coughs and pushes himself up so he's sitting cross-legged on the bed. If someone were to look closely, they would see a faint blush on his pale face. "Hello."

Shikaku sighs, pushing in front of his still blushing teammate, "I'm sure it wasn't. Sasuke, please leave. We have to discuss something with Natsu that's above your clearance level."

He glances between the three jounin, then to the mission scrolls still thrown all over Natsu's apartment, and comes to the only logical conclusion. "You're talking about the Danzo thing right? How did you hear about that?"

All the jounin blink. "How did you?" Kakashi demands.

"I was there," he rolls his eyes, "Did you think I would let Natsu do something that stupid alone?"

"Hey!" She glares at Sasuke, who shrugs apologetically but doesn't take it back, which she guesses is kind of fair.

Kakashi groans and Inoichi hangs his head. Shikaku taps his chin, "No, this might be better. We know Danzo has it out for Natsu, but he values the last Uchiha. If he can't take down one without the other, he might not go public with this."

"Of he will go public with it, and just twist it to how Natsu definitely was involved with the Massacre, and now she's corrupting Sasuke too, and then the whole town will want her head on a stick," Inoichi says flatly.

"There are worse things," Natsu says, and everyone turns to glare at her. She crosses her arms, "Seriously, is there a reason you're here? Sasuke and I were kind of in the middle of something."

"Ah, making Sasuke a man so young. People will talk, maybe you should wait until he's a little older?" Kakashi suggests.

Sasuke is definitely blushing now. Natsu growls and body flickers to right behind Kakashi. The jounin tries to run away, but ends up tripping over what feels like a leg and falling on the bed. Natsu slams an explosive tag on him, and Kakashi closes his eyes against the blast of sticky purple glitter. "Was that really necessary?" he asks morosely. He pats his head and his hair is already forming into weird clumps. It's going to take forever to wash it all out.

Natsu tosses her head so her ponytail goes swinging over her shoulder. "If you didn't want to deal with the consequences, you shouldn't have been an asshole."

"Can we focus, please?" Shikaku rubs his forehead, "Natsu, we need to get you out of Konoha."

She blinks. "Why?"

"Because you are not subtle, and Danzo knows it was you that went through his files!" Inoichi says.

"I mean, I assumed," she continues, "but when a team of assassins didn't come knocking on my door I figured he didn't want to bother. Or that he's going to try to recruit me."

Sasuke frowns, "That'd be convenient. Can we trick him into that?"

"He is trying to recruit you," Kakashi says, "but that's not a good thing."

"That's great!" Sasuke says enthusiastically. Natsu nods, looking extremely pleased with herself.

The three jounin blink. Shikaku scratches the top of his head, "Uh, why is that great? In what way would you consider this a good thing?"

"Well, we only got the first report out of his office," Natsu explains, "if he's stupid enough to let me into his base so I can get to the rest I'm not going to stop him."

"First report of what?" Inoichi demands, "What were you looking for in there anyway?"

Natsu glances towards the bed, but grabs a thick file off of her nightstand. She looks to Sasuke, who shrugs then nods, and she hands it to Kakashi. The older man frowns before flipping it open, and he pales instantly. "No fucking way."

Inoichi and Shikaku crowd closer to read over his shoulder, and as soon as they realize what they're reading Inoichi breathes, "Holy shit," and Shikaku slaps his forehead.

"Who called it?" Natsu grins, "Was it me? I think it was me." Sasuke beams and she throws an arm over his shoulder, "We were totally right, and I'm never letting any of you forget it."

Shikaku pushes back and snorts. He claps his hand over his mouth in an attempt to muffle it, but soon he's almost hysterically laughing. Now everyone is looking at him as if he's lost his mind, so he manages to swallow his amusement just enough to explain, "Danzo want her on his side so she doesn't blab. He's not interested in getting rid of her, who knows who else she's told, oh no. He wants her for his own so he can control who she tells and how she tells it."

"Ah," she looks between him and Inoichi and Kakashi, both of whom look incredibly relieved, "What?"

"We thought he wanted you as a weapon of mass destruction," Shikaku explains, and it takes everything inside of her to not grab at the seal on her stomach, "to be used or to be killed. But he wants you as an ally. He's not going to kill you now that you have the Uchiha file, the window has passed, so he's just going to use you."

"That seems," she struggles for a moment, "unbelievably stupid."

Sasuke nods in agreement.

Shikaku sobers, "He has ways of getting people to co-operate with him. We still need to get you away from him, but this – makes it a lot less dire, honestly."

"Ah, right," she rubs the back of her neck, "ways." This time it's Sasuke raising his eyebrows at her and quickly flickering his eyes to the bed and back. She sighs, "Yeah, we should probably tell them. Sai, you can come out now."

Sai rolls out from under the bed and pops upright. He's wearing a pair of her leggings and a slightly too large sweatshirt, so he looks less ridiculous than in the crop top get up, but he's not exactly the poster child for intimidating right now. Except that three of the smartest ninja in the village are standing in her apartment, so they all slide into defensive stances on sight. Sai raises an eyebrow and tucks his hands behind his back, "Hello."

"Natsu, who is this?" Kakashi demands.

"This is Sai," she says, "he's a member of Danzo's illegal Anbu team, Root. He's also an Uchiha. I found him bleeding to death outside of the village gates."

There's a dull thunk, and everyone turns. The remaining members of Team Seven are crouched on the window sill. Sakura is rhythmically banging her head against window frame while Kiba looks a cross between smug and exasperated, "I told you."

---

It's about a week after Naruto leaves that Baki actually manages to get his team on a mission far enough outside of Suna's gates that he feels safe enough bringing this up. They must know it's coming, because when exactly one hundred miles from Suna he alters their course to the closest cave and drops his pack, none of them looks surprised.

"All right," he says sternly, "Explanations. Quickly. Now."

"As soon as we can guarantee enough support, I'm going to overthrow our father and take his place as kazekage," Temari says promptly.

Baki's eyes bug out, and Kankuro coughs to hide a laugh. "Are you insane?" he asks, "Your father will allow you to replace him over his dead body."

All the humor drains from the kids. "Yeah," Kankuro says, "we'd figured that out."

The jounin looks between the sand siblings, "You three are serious about this. You're honestly planning to kill the kazekage. Assuming I don't turn you in for treason, what even makes you think you can?"

Sand whips around them, so fast that he can hear it whistling by. In under five seconds they're all in the eye of a sandstorm strong enough that Baki doesn't doubt it could rip someone's limbs from their body. Just as quickly it disappears. Baki steps forward and bends down so he can look Gaara in the eyes. "You're okay with this? Murdering your father?" The boy nods, face blank. Baki glares, "You hate killing. You always have."

Something in Gaara's face softens, because even when he hadn't liked him Baki had always understood him on a level unmatched by anyone but Naruto. He has to swallow before he can speak, but his voice comes out smooth when he says, "I am a loyal shinobi of Sunagakure. I will do whatever my duty requires."

"You all really think this is the right thing," Baki says, the realization a sinking weight in his stomach, "You believe killing the kazekage is the best thing for Suna."

"It is," Temari says. She's only fifteen and it was him that first showed her how to grasp a kunai in her shaking hand, but looking at her steady gaze now it's not terribly difficult to think of her in those ridiculous robes and hat, "and I think you know it too."

Baki huffs and looks away. Damn it all, but she's right. They all are. Fuck.

---

Natsu wastes no time in kicking them all out of her apartment, and Kakashi drags Sasuke out by his collar even though Natsu wasn't trying to make him leave. "You can drop that scowl," Kakashi tells him while Sakura and Kiba flank them back to the training ground, "You don't get to be on standby while she pokes about at the seal and potentially blows up her building."

"She likes that building," Kiba points out, "She won't blow it up."

Kakashi ignores him. "I should make you all train with Gai, it's what you deserve."

Sakura makes an offended noise at the back of the throat, "We're not the ones who broke into a councilman's secret office and kidnapped an illegal Anbu! Why do we have to get punished too?"

"In all fairness, I had nothing to do with the illegal Anbu part," Sasuke says, still being carried around by Kakashi. Civilians have started giving them weird looks. "That's all on Natsu."

"Well, you clearly didn't try to stop her," their sensei grumbles.

Sasuke scoffs. "Stop her? You don't stop Natsu from doing something stupid and insane, you just keep up."

Kakashi has to admit, to himself if not out loud, that the Uchiha may have a point. "Whatever. I'm still going to make you run laps with Gai."

When they show up to Team Nine's training, it's to Lee and Tenten sparring against each other while Gai cheers them on. He tells his own kids to join in, and then heads straight for the other jounin, "What's wrong?"

"What makes you think anything is amiss, my hip and cool rival?" Gai's smile sparkles in the sunlight. Kakashi crosses his arms. The other man glances towards the group of fighting genin before he sighs and admits, "Neji didn't show up for training today."

"That's not like him," Kakashi looks in the direction of the Hyuuga compound, "Did you see if he was at home?"

"He's been training with Hanabi at night. It's a secret," he elaborates at Kakashi's raised eyebrow. "He's helping her get better, and he's been training with Hinata too. I'm worried something went – wrong."

He taps his fingers against his forearm, "The young Hyuuga girl is a little bloodthirsty."

"I had thought they were getting along better," Gai admits, "but if she – she's not the heir, but she's still Hiashi's daughter, she could activate the seal-"

"You don't really think she would hurt Neji, do you?" Kakashi raises an eyebrow. "Natsu likes her."

"No," Gai admits, "Not on purpose." At that ominous statement Kakashi has to resist the urge to go out and find them all himself, because Hanabi is a dangerously powerful nine year old, and he's got Rin's name heavy in the back of his throat. Gai steps just close enough to knock their shoulders together, "Speaking of, how is Natsu?"

Kakashi waits a beat, then asks, "How do you know?"

"Know what?" Gai bats his eyelashes, but that innocent routine may have hoodwinked the entirety of Konoha, but it's worked on him approximately never. The other man shrugs, "Iruka told me. I was all ready to go die nobly by your side, but then I sensed Inoichi and Shikaku's chakra. You've figured it out then?"

"More or less," he sighs, because he's not going to go blabbing the truth of the Uchiha Massacre, but he also really wants to complain about his kids to someone. He supposes he can wait until Iruka gets home. "Are you sure you don't want me to go looking for Neji?"

Gai shakes his head, "I'm probably overreacting. I'm sure he's fine."

---

Shino isn't going to say anything, but he's pretty sure his sensei is overreacting.

"You're sure you don't know where they are?" Kurenai asks him for the third time.

"I am certain," he says, also for the third time. "I can go to the Hyuuga compound and look for them if you like." His mom is about a thousand times scarier than Hiashi, and at this point he's willing to do anything that's not standing around waiting for his teammates to show up. They're the Hyuuga heirs, and even Hinata is pretty fucking terrifying when she forgets to be nervous. He's not exactly concerned.

"No," Kurenai says, and he's glad his glasses hide that he's rolling his eyes. "Come with me."

She body flickers away, and Shino pinches the bridge of his nose before following her.

---

Sai squints his eyes at the glowing matrix shimmering in between him and Natsu. "It looks complicated."

Natsu taps her brush against her chin, leaving dabs of ink. She shifts the matrix and draws another series of lines on the paper in front of her. "It is. There are so many levels. How long did this take to apply?"

"Uh," Sai tries to think back. He couldn't have been more than five when he got the seal, but it hurt, and he remembers that. "A while."

"Of course it did," she sighs, "Well the good news is it's a five point seal, which I've had some experience deconstructing. The bad news is replacing it with one that Danzo won't notice is going to be hell."

He nods, "I understand. I can only delay returning to Danzo for two more days, maximum, before he becomes suspicious."

"Two days," Natsu sighs, "Okay, that's fine. I can make a brand new seal from scratch that superficially matches an already stupidly in depth seal in two days. Totally."

Sai considers her pinched face while she manipulates the matrix once more. "I could go back with my original seal."

The chakra matrix flickers and disappears. Natsu has to reach up to pull Sai down so they're eye to eye, but he doesn't resist her. "Absolutely not," she says fiercely. "We'll send you in able to defend yourself, or not at all. You and Sasuke are the only Uchihas left in Konoha – we're not risking you just to get a little more information."

"I'm not -"

"You are," she interrupts, "Sasuke has claimed you as his blood kin, and officially recognized or not that's what you are." There's that vulnerable look in his eyes again, and he's one of the most deadly shinobi in the village, but like this he just looks like a lost kid. She forces a smile, "I can do this Sai. Believe in me, okay?"

He nods sharply, and Natsu's smile becomes a little bit more natural.

---

Hinata feels as if she's been fairly accommodating of her sister dragging her from the breakfast table and into the opposite direction of their training grounds, but they've been walking in the Forest of Death for twenty minutes and she still doesn't know why. "Hanabi," she sighs, "will you please tell me what's going on?"

"We're almost there," her little sister says, Byakugan activated as she scans their surroundings.

"Almost where?" She's trying not to sound petulant, but the cooks had prepared sweet buns this morning, and Hanabi hadn't even given her a chance to grab one. There wouldn't be any left when they got home either – their father can play dumb, but Hinata knows for a fact that he's the one that ends up eating them all. "Also, aren't only chunin allowed in here?"

"Only chunin and above are recommended to come in here. It's not illegal."

"Just dangerous," she rubs at her temples, and she almost misses the days when the younger girl didn't talk to her. At least then she didn't end up getting dragged into all of Hanabi's ideas. "Also I'd like to remind you that we're late for team training."

She blinks as they finally come into a clearing, and a familiar boy is sitting cross legged in the middle of the clearing. "Hinata-hime," he says. He's pale and dark bruises are under his eyes – he looks like he hasn't slept at all.

"Neji," she greets happily, but if anything she's even more confused. "Don't you meet with your team at dawn?"

"This was more important," Hanabi stands so she's between her and Neji, "We need to talk."

Hinata blinks, "I'm always happy to talk to you both, but couldn't we have done this-"

"Can you activate the Curse Mark?" Hanabi demands.

She pales and Neji flinches, "W-what?"

"Answer the question," Hanabi crosses her arms, "We're not old enough, but you're the heir. You've been the focus point for the Curse Mark for ten years – there's no way Father didn't tell you how to use it."

Hinata pushes her fingers together and looks at the ground, "A-ah, well. He – F-father, he doesn't want me d-doing that."

"But you can," she confirms.

"I," the older girl swallows and forces her head up so she can look past her sister to her cousin, "I won't." Neji doesn't look away, and she straightens and flings her head back just like Hanabi had taught her, "I know how to activate the Curse Mark. But I will not."

"How much do you know?" Neji asks quietly, "About the Mark."

Hinata shakes her head, "Not much. How it's applied, how to use it. Why?"

There's something somber in her sister's face when she says, "Hinata, activate your Byakugan, and look at the Curse Mark. Neji, perform the Dancing Dragon sequence."

She does as her sister says, and something between jealousy and admiration surges in her chest as she watches Neji gracefully perform the move she struggled with for years. But as soon as she sees it, what Hanabi must have discovered, everything inside of her goes cold. "No."

"So you didn't know?" she asks.

Hinata takes a half step toward her stone-faced cousin before stopping, "No! Of course not! I would never – who would – oh my god." This time she can't help herself, and she runs to Neji and clutches his shoulders, "Your chakra coils – your nervous system – this has to be destroying them!"

"It's no wonder my father was willing to die for yours," Neji says tonelessly, "He probably would have died within the year anyway."

She looks towards her sister, "We have to do something!"

Hanabi nods, "Yeah, we – yeah. Nami's in-village, right?"

"Yes! She just got back, I heard it from Ino who heard it from her Dad." The relief is almost enough to make her weak, because if anyone can fix this it's Natsu Nami.

---

When Hana tugs him into a supply closet on his way to the labs, Kabuto has to use a chakra net to catch the fifteen vials of blood he'd been carrying. "Was that really necessary? If those had fallen I would have made you go redraw them."

"Natsu," she begins.

"Wait," he gently puts the vials down on a box of spare scrubs, then reaches into the bottom pocket of his pants. He uncaps a test tube and downs the entire contents, which Hana's nose identifies as vodka. He recaps it and tosses it on top of the tubes of blood, "Okay, I'm ready. What has she done now? It's been less than twenty four hours since we saw her last, how much damage could she really have caused?"

Hana groans, "Please don't tempt the universe like that. She hasn't done anything, but the last time we saw her she had a random, near dead nameless Uchiha in her bed."

He shrugs, "To be honest, I kind of always expected an Uchiha to end up in her bed. You know, with Itachi and Sasuke sparring to the death for her hand or something."

She stares, "Sasuke is thirteen."

"Natsu's pretty cute," he points out, and she's finally gotten to the age where he can say that without sounding like a giant pervert, "and Sasuke thinks she hung the stars."

"That's not," Hana shakes her head, "Never mind. Aren't you worried? Natsu is always sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, and I don't know what the fuck is going on, but Itachi tried to kill her, and now she has a random Uchiha, and the last time something this fucked up happened she ended up sealing away a tailed demon during our chunin exam and an entire clan got wiped out!"

He scratches the back of his head, "I mean, realistically Natsu didn't have anything to do with the Massacre, that's just bad timing. And I hate to admit it, but she's probably right about Itachi. If he wanted her dead, she would be, so he might even be as innocent as she's always thought."

"How are you not worried?" she demands, "I'm worried!"

Kabuto half smiles and tucks a loose strand of hair behind Hana's ear, "Because she needs us." She keeps staring at him, so he continues, "She absolutely gets into every kind of trouble imaginable. But she has always, always come to us to help her. We're her friends, her team. Once she's sufficiently dug herself into a hole, she drags us down with her."

Hana sighs and crosses her arms, "You know, most people wouldn't consider that a positive."

He shrugs, "It's either get dragged down, or be left behind. Which would you rather?"

He has a point. "How long before you think she comes calling?"

"We'll give it a couple of days," Kabuto picks up the blood samples, "She was pretty eager to have us out of her apartment last night, so I'm sure she'll be neck deep in trouble in no time."

"That's not comforting," Hana moans as they leave the closet, but she's smiling.

---

On one hand, playing dumb is getting really, really boring. She and Chouji aren't content to cloud watch like Shikamaru is. On the other hand, they have their principles, and she's enjoying being able to catch up on all her reading.

Asuma is trying to get them to play ninja hide and seek, but since they're not five they're hiding up in a tree with their chakra masked playing cards. They're playing Go Fish because Shikamaru counts cards even when he doesn't mean to, which means their card games have gotten increasingly boring over the years. Their sensei is yelling at them to come out and train down below, but they've been ignoring him for about twenty minutes.

"Do you think he'd notice if we left genjutsu in our place?" Ino asks.

"Probably," Chouji lays down a pair of fives, "he is still a jounin."

"He's not very observant though," there's a thread of contempt in Shikamaru's voice, and they are really going to have to resolve this before the situation becomes untenable. She'd known that Hatake was going to end up with Sasuke's team, but having him as a sensei would have made everything so much easier. If the council wasn't a bunch of assholes then Natsu would be a jounin by now, or at least a special jounin, and she could have been their sensei. That would have been awesome.

"Hey, guys," Chouji tugs at Ino's sleeve, "Shino's here."

They all look down, and their former classmate is here with his sensei, but there are no Hyuugas in sight. "Huh," she leaps from the tree and lands near silently next to him, Chouji and Shikamaru a second behind her. "What's going on?"

"Where have you three been?" Asuma spits.

Ino raises an eyebrow, "You should work on your chakra sensitivity. Natsu could probably help you with that." She's not being very nice, but it looks like it's time for push to shove, so. "Where's Hinata and Hanabi?"

Shino shrugs. Kurenai scowls, "I don't know."

"Have you tried chakra tracking them?" Shikamaru asks.

The jounin crosses her arms, "There's not point. It's pretty impossible to track a Hyuuga, they always see you coming and go the other direction."

Chouji frowns, "What makes you think they're hiding from you? Maybe they're just busy."

From the perfectly blank look on the older woman's face, she hadn't considered that. Ino rolls her eyes and says imperiously, "We'll go get them, just wait here."

"Don't you dare," Asuma growls.

Kurenai steps toward them, "I would really prefer if you didn't."

Ino shunshins away, confident her teammates are right behind her. When they both appear next her in her kitchen, she beams. "Do you have any idea what's going on or what we're getting ourselves into?" Shikamaru asks. Ino and Chouji catch each other's eyes and sigh. Shikamaru's always so suspicious – maybe the sisters are just playing hooky. Not everything has some sort of terrible explanation.

"Not a clue," she says, "but it's either this or play another round of Go Fish."

Chouji pulls at the end of Shikamaru's ponytail, "Absolutely not, I'll go mad. Let's go."

Shikamaru harrumps, but waves his hand for them to get on with it. None of them are great at sensing chakra, so this is probably going to take a while. She turns to their youngest teammate, because Chouji has the best sensitivity of them all. "Well, we might as well try to find their trail first. To the Hyuuga Compound it is," he body flickers away.

"Hiashi is going to kill us," Shikamaru sighs.

"Only if we get caught," Ino points out cheerfully before following Chouji.

---

"Fuck!" Sai blinks when Natsu starts herding him into her closet, but he must picks up the three chakra signatures that are definitely headed their way quickly enough, because he throws himself inside and slams the door behind him. There are two loud knocks on her door, and Natsu doesn't have a fucking clue about what those three Hyuugas could need from her, but whatever it is she hopes that it's quick.

When she opens the door and gets a good look at their faces, that hope fades. When her favorite bitch brat Hanabi bends at the waist and says clearly, "Nami-san, I am in great need of your help," whatever remaining hope she had flings itself out the window.

"Well," she steps aside, "you all better come in then."

Twenty minutes later she has to resist the urge to find Hiashi and beat his face in. "You don't think it could be an accident, do you?" Hinata asks, clearly desperate for that to be the case.

"I'll have to examine the seal," she says, but there's no way in hell this is on accident. "Neji, come here." He stands in front of her, and he hasn't said a word a yet. He's a pretty quiet kid, but it's starting to make her nervous. She skims her fingers over the bandages covering his forehead and says, "I'm going to take these off, okay?" He nods, and she quickly unwinds them from his head. There's a slightly comical tan line where they'd covered his skin, but she ignores that in favor of the seal. It's simple, and that worries her. Simple can mean sloppy, and that means very bad things for the person who the seal is on.

Natsu presses her hand against his forehead, and when she pulls back the chakra strings have sprung to life, glowing in the space between them. It's another five point seal, and she's so thrown by it that for a moment all she can do is stare. Five point seals are actually not the greatest, they have a very specific set of modifications that can be made, and they're only truly useful for things like containment and chakra redistribution, which has made them popular for controlling the tailed beasts and literally nothing else. Yet this is the second five point seal she's encountered in as many days, and it's fucking odd.

She ignores that for now and stretches the lines out so she can look at them in full. The seal is fucking ugly, and makes no attempt to mask itself like Sai's had. It's a crude design, linking Neji's chakra to Hinata's by a thread, and holy shit but does that explain so much about the girl. It also links his chakra to his nerves in a way not unlike superglue. They've been chaffing and snapping against them since it's applied, and ten years of advanced chakra manipulation that the Byakugan requires has left the whole thing kind of a mess. It acts as a barrier to stop his chakra from being manipulated in a certain way, if Hanabi's account is accurate, then likely in the final chakra release required by the main branch styles. A slow killer and a handicap all in one – if it didn't make her stomach turn she would almost be impressed.

"That's fucked up," she settles on finally, letting the chakra seal flicker and resettle into Neji. "It's pretty tangled, it'll be really hard to alter it."

"I know," Hanabi says evenly, "That's why I want you to remove it entirely."

Hinata's mouth drops open. Neji's eyes have gone so wide it looks painful, "Hanabi-hime?"

Hanabi doesn't look at either of them, instead continuing to address Natsu. "This is a disgrace to the Hyuuga Clan, and I won't allow it any longer. It's stupid to have main and branch clans; we are all Hyuuga and its time we started acting like it."

Natsu taps her fingers against her arm, "He'll need some intense healing to repair the nerve damage, and to re-regulate his chakra system. But once that happens, you'll never be able to beat him." The girl flinches, so Natsu continues, "Neji's an incredible ninja now. Without the handicap, and disability he's unknowingly had to compensate for, he'll be unstoppable. You'll never be able to catch up."

Hanabi's hands clench into fists and she has to swallow twice before she can speak. "I don't care. It is the right thing to do, and I expect it to be done."

"You're certain?" she asks one more time, and Hinata is the heir, she should really be asking her, but it's Hanabi who figured it out and Hanabi who's asking and Hanabi who's still just a kid but is willing to put the cousin who used to hate her before her own ambition. "Your father's going to be pissed."

"Don't make me beg," the girl says quietly.

Natsu breaks out in a wide smile, and turns to Neji. He's still starring at Hanabi with a fragile awe, and she claps her hands to jerk his attention back to her. "All right," she said, grinning, "This is going to be way easier than destroying Shukaku's seal. Are you ready?"

He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms to hide the fact that his hands are shaking. When he juts his chin up in a challenge, she figures that's the only affirmation she's going to get.

Natsu gathers the thread of Kurama's chakra that she'll need for this, and when she slams her hand against Neji's forehead the blast of chakra is almost entirely blue, so there's no way any of the Hyuugas are going to pick up on it. The Curse Mark starts dissolving under the heat and weight of her chakra, and it's not easy work but it's not complicated either. It is taking up a rather large amount of chakra, so she hopes that no one's paying her apartment close attention just then. If she didn't need to get back to working on Sai's seal she would have taken them out to the forest or something, but she's pretty sure most people have more important things to do than track her recent chakra spike to see if she's blown anything up.

---

When Gai feels the lunge in Natsu's chakra, he turns over the genin's drills the supremely unconcerned Kakashi and shunshins away as quickly as he can until he's crouched onto the roof of her apartment building. There's no way that Baki was right, simply no way. But just in case he pays extra close attention to the wave of Natsu's residual chakra he can. It's the same bright, clear chakra she's always had, and he's about to put it out of his mind and forget it for good when he senses it.

He'll never forget that battle, the giant fox they couldn't hope to stop. So when he catches the faintest hint of it wrapped in Natsu's chakra, he knows. Baki was right. Somehow, Natsu is now the jinchuuriki of the nine tailed demon.

Fuck.

---

Kabuto and Hana are just about to get ready to leave for lunch when Natsu shunshins in front of them. "Natsu," Hana blinks, "What are you doing here? What's wrong?"

"Hey," she says, just a little bit too bright and cheerful, "Have you ever wondered if you could regenerate an almost entire nervous system and repair burned out charka coils? Now's a great time to find out."

Hana's mouth drops open, and she laughs to keep from crying, "How? We just saw you last night!"

"I told you," Kabuto knocks his shoulder into Hana's and grins down at Natsu. "Sounds like fun. Let's go."

"We still have a half shift left," Hana points out, but easily falls in step on the other side of Natsu.

He shrugs, "Eh, what are they going to do, fire us? We're too talented for that."

"You're too talented for that," Hana says, "I'm still technically a junior medic. I'm replaceable."

"We're a team," Kabuto says easily, "if they want to fire you they have to fire me too. As you said, I'm too talented for that."

Hana ducks her head down to hide that she's blushing a bright red. Natsu resolves to make fun of her for it at the earliest opportunity.

---

As soon as Natsu's chakra disappears, Gai swings himself down through her window into her apartment. "What's going on?" he says, and he's trying not to panic, but his precious student is passed out and pale on Natsu's couch, and Natsu had just used demon chakra.

Hinata is seated by her cousin, tearfully clutching his hand. Hanabi stands between him and Neji, and he's studied his student's taijutsu enough that the young girl is a hair's breath away from shifting into an opening stance. "Gai-san," she says evenly, "Please leave."

"What happened? What did Natsu do to him?" he tries to move closer, but Hanabi growls. "Tell me!"

"She did nothing that I did not ask of her!" the girl snaps, "I would suggest you leave now."

"Get out of my way," Gai says quietly, because he loves that boy as dearly as his own son, and he won't allow a noble brat or a nine tailed demon or anything or anyone to take Neji from him.

Hanabi slides into an opening kata. He really, really doesn't want to have to fight her, because if he damages either of these girls Hiashi will murder him.

"Sensei?" Neji peels his eyes open and shifts enough to turn his head in their direction. "S'okay, he's okay."

The pain roughed, slurred voice has him abandoning all taijutsu and rushing forward. Hanabi's hand slams against his stomach, just chakra-enforced enough to stop him, "Don't move him, okay? Nami will be back with help soon."

Gai nods once, and Hanabi steps back. He drops to his knees, and Neji actually smiles at him. For a moment he's so thrown by it that he doesn't notice the glaring difference. He raises a hand and gently rubs his thumb over the clear skin where the Curse Mark used to be, "Neji?"

"Natsu did it," he whispers, and has to clear his throat as another spasm of pain shudders through him, "It was – connected to – some stuff. It's okay. I'll heal."

"You better," Hanabi glares down at him, "I still need your help. You're no use to me crippled."

He's about to snap at her, but Neji only smiles wider and says warmly, "Of course, Hanabi-hime." Gai shifts his gaze from his student to Hanabi, then to the tearily smiling Hinata, and he's clearly missed something.

The front door opens, and in tumbles Natsu along with her former teammates, "I'm back!" She sees him and wilts, "Ah, Gai, I can explain."

Kabuto and Hana roll their eyes and easily push him and the Hyuuga sisters aside with the untroubled ease that all medics seem to have around over-powered ninjas. He supposes being on a team with Natsu helped with that. He meets her sheepish gaze, and he doesn't know how this girl ended up with the fox sealed inside her, but he knows that she's a good person, a loyal shinobi, and his best friend's dear sister in everything but blood.

"Natsu," he says, and holds his cold expression only until she anxiously starts winding the ends of her ponytail around her fingers. He's known this girl since she was a too young genin, just this morning he was willing to die for her, and that has to mean more than the instinctual fear he'd had at realizing what she is. He pats her on the head, and when her expression clears and she leans into his hand he feels the last of his reserves leave him. "Maybe you could have planned this a bit better, hmm?"

She pouts, "I feel like people tell me that a lot."

"There's probably a reason for that," they all turn and Ino is standing on Natsu's window sill. "Shino and Kurenai are looking for you, by the way," she directs to the Hyuugas as she slips inside, Shikamaru and Chouji behind her.

"They can wait," Hanabi says coolly.

Hinata sighs and stands up, "I will go and speak to them, Hanabi. If that's all right?"

Everyone freezes and Neji who's currently being poked and prodded by Kabuto and Hana breaks into a coughing fit. Hinata is the heir – she doesn't need to ask Hanabi's permission for anything. She shouldn't ask her permission for anything. "Hinata?" she asks, and this is the first time any of them have seen the girl look uncertain or off balance.

"I know what I'm doing," Hinata says firmly, "So, I'll go see Kurenai and Shino. Okay?"

Hanabi nods, lips pressed tightly together and eyes wide. Hinata walks past Team Ten, head held high, and gracefully jumps down from the window. "Holy shit," Ino says in the ensuing silence, "When did she become a badass?"

Shikamaru sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose, "Perhaps we should follow Hinata and go have a conversation with our sensei."

"A conversation or a conversation?" Chouji asks. Shikamaru shrugs, but the line of his shoulders is too high to be anything but irritated. People think that Chouji's a little slow about people, but between Ino who talks too much and Shikamaru who doesn't talk enough, and neither of them actually saying anything, he's actually really good at it. "Okay, awesome. Let's go."

Ino places one hand on her hip and uses the other to point at Natsu, "You're getting involved in something stupid and dangerous, aren't you?"

The older girl scratches the back of her head, "Probably, yeah."

She sighs and lowers her hand, "Well just be careful, all right?" Natsu nods, and Team Ten piles themselves out of her window.

"Hanabi," Kabuto says, "this will go about a thousand times faster if you can help us map where his chakra lines should be so we know how to direct the healing."

"Of course," the girl says, silently activating her Byakugan and moving to stand beside her cousin.

Hana holds out a wad of bandages for Neji to bite on, "We can either do this slow and pain-free and it'll take a couple weeks, or we can do it fast and painful and you'll be up and around in about two days."

Neji raises an eyebrow and clamps his teeth down on the bandage. Hanabi almost smiles, "Fast."

"You're the boss," Kabuto says before getting down to work.

Natsu is looking at him strangely, and he should probably inform Kakashi of what's going on and that Lee and Tenten are with him for the rest of the day, because he is not leaving Neji's side. Natsu must figure that out, because she sighs and says, "Sai, come on out."

Gai blinks as a boy that looks eerily like a young Fugaku. "You know," the teenager says calmly, "for a supposedly superior ninja, you're pretty horrible at this secret keeping thing."

Natsu rolls her eyes, "Throw on a genjutsu and let's go. My apartment is once again being invaded by medics-"

"Keep it up and we'll start charging you," Hana shoots back.

"-which I'm ever so grateful for, really truly. But we still need to figure out your seal, so let's track down Team Seven. Lee and Tenten are with them, right Gai?"

He nods, still trying to wrap his head around where the random Uchiha had come from and why he was in her closet.

"Great! Okay, we'll be back later!" She jumps out the window, Sai a second behind her, and Gai's positive that she uses that thing as an entrance and exit more than her actual door.

There's not real room for him to hover or Neji, not with Hana and Kabuto at either end with their hands flaring green and Hanabi calmly directing them while Neji sweats and grits his teeth against the pain. From this angle he can see the death grip he has on his cousin's hand. Gai leans against the wall and simply watches. He's Konoha's top taijutsu master, he shouldn't feel this helpless.

With nothing else to think of, his thoughts turn to Natsu. He should tell Kakashi, he should really, really tell Kakashi. But the last container of the nine tail was Minato's son, which actually brings up another point he doesn't want to think about. The last time the villagers knew of a jinchuuriki, they'd sliced up a little boy. Natsu's strong, but that doesn't mean he wants her to have to be. Whoever sealed the fox inside of her clearly did a good job, or else there'd be a lot more to show for it than some tiny wisps of chakra, which means – should he tell anyone? Will it change anything, or just make everyone's lives worse?

He resists the urge to put his head in his hands. First finding out about Orochimaru and then this – there's a reason he'd never worked in intelligence, damnit.

---

Team Ten appears to Hinata saying, "-clan business, and frankly none of your concern regardless," to Kurenai.

"Shit, she's gotten so cool," Ino whispers. Shikamaru just grunts, but she knows that he agrees.

Kurenai snaps, "You're my students, you can't just not show up for training, I have a right to be kept informed-"

"Please stop antagonizing the future Hyuuga clan head!"

Everyone shifts and blinks at Shino. The quiet boy is glaring at Kurenai. Chouji takes a half step towards the Aburame, "Uh, Shino, are you okay?"

He doesn't look at them, but he turns to speak to Asuma as well, "Both of you – you're jounin! Shouldn't you be smarter than this?"

"Now hold on," Asuma glowers, "I don't know what you're talking about-"

"NATSU!" Shino shouts, and holy shit this is amazing, she's never really payed attention to him before but Ino is so going to start. "You two hate Natsu, for whatever stupid reason-"

"They think she was involved in the Uchiha Massacre," Shikamaru interrupts blandly.

Shino stops. Opens his mouth. Closes it again.

"That's moronic," Hinata says crossly.

"You didn't know how close she and Itachi Uchiha used to be," Asuma says, "You weren't there that night."

"True," Ino says brightly, "but do you know who was there? Sasuke. Do you know who Sasuke's favorite person in the world is? Natsu. Somehow I don't think that'd be the case if she'd killed his whole family."

"Sasuke was just child," Kurenai says, enough pity in her tone that if Sasuke was here he'd set her on fire, "He couldn't really know what was going on; there's a reason the Sandaime forbid Natsu seeing him."

"Kurenai!" Asuma snaps.

The older woman pales, but this isn't the conversation Ino is interested in having, so she says, "We all know she stayed away from Sasuke on orders. It's the only reason she would have. We're not idiots."

"Might I add," Shikamaru says, "that if at ten Natsu was old enough to help orchestrate a whole massacre, then at seven Sasuke was likely at least old enough to understand what was going on literally right in front of him."

"It doesn't matter," Shino continues, and this is absolutely the most Ino has ever heard him speak at one time. "The point is that you two aren't being smart about this. I already know that your dislike of Natsu has stalled Team Ten's training."

"I wouldn't say stalled," Chouji protests, "We still train on our own time."

Asuma whirls around to face them, "What is he talking about?"

Ino rolls her eyes, "We're the next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho. Do you really think we don't know how to work together? That we're so undisciplined?"

"Why would you lie about your skill level?' Kurenai asks.

"Because we don't like you," Chouji says, almost apologetically, "and, well, you're strong, but – you're not very smart, are you? We haven't been subtle."

Asuma spreads his hands, "I don't understand."

"My dad was Natsu's sensei," Ino continues, "we all grew up with her around. We don't appreciate the way you think of her – and it's just not smart to make enemies of us."

"We are the future clan heads," Shikamaru agrees smugly. "Hana was Natsu's teammate, and Hinata likes her. Hanabi doesn't like her, but she does respect her, and the little brat doesn't respect anybody."

"That makes," Chouji counts off his fingers as he speaks, "Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka, Inuzuka, and Hyuuga – so five major clan heads you've pissed off."

"Six," Shino adds in, "I like Natsu too."

Kurenai and Asuma have gone pale, and Ino almost wants to feel sorry for them except that she really, really doesn't. "Not your smartest move," she says with false sympathy, "Come on, everyone. I think they have some thinking to do."

She shoves chakra towards her legs and jumps onto the nearest tree branch, skipping off in the direction of home. The other genin follow her, and she really, really hopes that those two make the right decision.

---

Sasuke is the one who senses her coming, even before he does. Kakashi should maybe start paying more attention to the Uchiha, because he'd known the kid's chakra sensitivity was good, but not that good.

"Nice genjutsu," Kakashi tells Sai when the two shinobi stop in front of them.

"Thank you," the generic, brown haired brown eyed ninja tells him.

Tenten and Lee rush over to Natsu, crowding in around her. "You're okay!" Tenten beams, "We were so worried about you!"

"Most concerned!" Lee agrees jubilantly, "It speaks well of your youthful fire that you've returned unharmed!"

Natsu laughs and scratches the back of her head, "Thanks guys, I'm glad you're okay too."

"What are you doing here?" Kakashi asks, "I felt the chakra spike earlier. Gai went to check it out."

"He's at my place now," Natsu says, "there's a thing with Neji. Hana and Kabuto are taking care of it."

Lee grabs at Natsu's arm, "Neji? Where is my eternal rival?"

"He must be hurt pretty badly," Kiba frowns, "if you got both Kabuto and my sister."

"He's hurt?" Tenten asks quietly.

Natsu throws up her arms, "Whoa, whoa, calm down! He's fine! He just needed some work done on his nerves and chakra coils, and that's some delicate stuff, so I just got the two best medic-nins I know to help out. Nothing to worry about!"

Sakura crosses her arms and glares, "You're lying. The nervous system isn't connected to the chakra coils at all, so if they're both being worked on something went really wrong."

Natsu winces, "I'm lying a little bit. But he'll be fine, I promise! Gai is with him now at my place."

"They're at yours?" Tenten asks, "You live in that big apartment building near the butcher's, right?"

She doesn't wait for an answer, already bolting off in that direction. Lee shoots Natsu an apologetic grin before running behind her.

Sasuke jerks a thumb in their direction, "Should we stop them?"

She sighs and shakes her head, "No, they're his team. Gai will be able to sense them and stop them if he feels the need." She pauses and then stares hard at the Uchiha for a long moment. Sasuke raises an eyebrow. "Hey, do you have any buildings in the Uchiha District that you're not all that fond of?"

"Why?" he asks, but by the way he's doing his best not to smile, Kakashi is pretty sure he already knows.

Natsu points to Sai, "I still need to work on his seal, but my apartment is a little crowded. Can I do it at yours?"

Sasuke shrugs, "Why not? Do it in in one of the weird houses on the west side. They were built crooked, and they look haunted. I hate those things." Kiba laughs. When Sasuke turns to glare at him, he ducks and hides behind Sakura. Sasuke's stare turns contemplative, and he says to Kakashi, "Actually there's something I need to teach Sai. Can I go with them?"

Kakashi is sure he's talking about the Grand Fireball Technique. Every Uchiha, ninja or not, learned that jutsu as a coming of age initiation. Obito had always adored it, and as much as Kakashi thinks that sometimes Sasuke overuses it, he has nothing on Obito. "Go ahead," he says, "please try to contain the destruction."

Neither Natsu nor Sasuke acknowledge that before shunshining away, Sai along with them. At least they didn't lie to him.

He turns to his two remaining students and sighs, "So we could continue training, or we can give up and I could let you go for the day."

Sakura scrunches up her face in distaste. Kakashi knows that going home means her mom fussing over her and her training scars, and making pointed comments about how much she's eating and that muscles aren't a very attractive look on a young woman. She may have complained about it to them once or twice.

Kiba nudges her, "Do you want to come over and play with the ninken? You can stay for dinner too, if you want."

She instantly brightens, "That sounds great! Thanks Kiba!" She looks to Kakashi, "Give up, please."

He snorts, ruffles Kiba hair, and pats Sakura on the head, "Off you go then. Meet tomorrow bright and early, all right?"

They don't answer him before leaving either. He gets no respect around here.

---

Inoichi is going over the flower shop's profits for the past quarter when his daughter's team, Hinata Hyuuga, and Shino Aburame spill into his kitchen.

"Hi Dad," Ino says breezily before digging into the pantry, "Do we still have any of the cookies that Chouji's mom made us?"

"Bottom left," he says, blinking at the strange group of children in front of him, "Should I be concerned?"

"Nah," Chouji shrugs, reaching around Ino to grab at the cookies.

Inoichi looks to Shikamaru, who shrugs, "Probably not. Standby."

He rubs his hand over his face and gives in, "Ibiki made scones this morning. I brought some home, they're in the fridge."

Chouji cheers and opens the fridge. He opens the container and offers it to Shino and Hinata, both who smile at him before taking one.

Inoichi rests his chin on his palm. Their families have never gotten along particularly well with the Hyuugas, but if their children can be different, can be better – well, that changes things.

---

Kakashi has just walked in his front door when Iruka slams the door shut and pushes him up against it, hands fisted in his flak jacket, "You asshole!"

"Yes," Kakashi agrees, "Why?"

Iruka growls and pulls down his mask to kiss him instead of answering. He tugs off the other man's flak jacket to get his hands under his shirt and run his hands over his skin. "I was worried! Gai had to tell me that you and Natsu were okay!"

"Ah," he says, helpfully stripping off his shirt so Iruka can continue inspecting and ravaging him both, "Yes, I – that was an oversight on my part."

"An oversight," Iruka hisses, biting at Kakashi's neck, "I was going out of my mind!"

"I'm very sorry," he grabs Iruka's thighs, and hoists the chunin up so he can wrap his legs around Kakashi's waist. He walks toward the bedroom, "Let me make it up to you."

"There's an escort mission to wave, C Rank," he says in between kisses, "I've assigned your team and Natsu to it." They've finally gotten on the bed, and both men start tugging their pants off. "The client is obviously lying about something, it's probably more of B-Rank. But you need to get out of the village."

"How long is the mission?" Kakashi lets Iruka press him into the bed, but tilts his head to catch him in another kiss.

Iruka runs a gentle hand down a particularly long scar on Kakashi's side, "Three weeks. You leave tomorrow."

Kakashi flips them so he's leaning over Iruka and grins, "Better make the most of this then."

Iruka rolls his eyes, but pulls Kakashi down on top of him.

---

Sai has lived his whole life never being given approval, or praise. If he did something correctly it wasn't remarked upon, if he did something incorrectly, it was pointed out and fixed. Usually painfully.

So when he sends the giant fireball more or less the size he intended but in the completely wrong direction, he's not expecting Sasuke to turn to him and say, "That was awesome! You're picking this up really fast, I thought it would take longer. Good job!" Sai stares at him, blinking slowly. Sasuke's smile doesn't waver. Instead he grabs Sai's hand and makes a minor alteration to the placement of his fingers, "This is how you control the size, remember. It's really sensitive, so even the smallest adjustment can change it. I know it comes from your mouth, but the direction really depends on what you do with your tongue, okay?"

Sai nods, and has to swallow twice before he can get out, "Okay."

"Do it again," Sasuke steps so he's at the older boy's back.

Sai takes a deep breath, gathering his chakra to do the jutsu once more, and Sasuke behind him is the most comforting presence he's had in a long time.

---

Hanabi takes one looks at her cousin's teammates and rolls her eyes. "He's not dying," she says caustically. Neji's still gripping her hand, and he's definitely broken a couple bones.

"What happened?" Tenten asks, hushed.

Gai puts a hand each on her and Lee's shoulder, "Do not worry, my precious students, he is in good hands."

"Thanks," Kabuto says, frowning as he repairs minute damage that none of them can see.

Lee squeezes over to sit by Hanabi, and the girl glares at him but doesn't hit him, which as far as he's concerned is an open invitation. He touches the side of his teammate's face, and his skin is cold and clammy. "Neji?"

The other boy opens his eyes, and there's something soft there that Lee has never seen before. He thinks that as long as Neji lives through this, it'll have been worth it. He hesitantly places his hand on top of Hanabi's grip, and Neji tangles their fingers together before another wave of pain hits and he's biting back a scream.

Hanabi leans into his side, just a little, and Lee has a lot of strength inside of him, he's more than willing to share. He shifts them so his hand is taking the brute of Neji's shattering grip, and it also allows Hanabi to rest against him more fully without actually moving at all.

Tenten turns away from the sight so they won't see her crying, because boys are so stupid. Gai pulls her against him in a loose hug, and that's how all of them stay while Hana and Kabuto do their best to put Neji back together.

---

Natsu is a genius. She's amazing, the best seal master since the fourth hokage, people should write odes to her, erect statues in her honor.

It's a blood seal, which is fucking gross, but it works, she would dare any seal master in the history of Konoha to do more with less. Besides, with Kurama inside of her she's got blood to spare.

"I DID IT!" She bursts out onto the streets of Uchiha District's west side, "Guys?"

There's a trail of charred wood and ash where she knows for a fact a row of houses used to be. She follows it for a block until she finds Sai and Sasuke on their backs in the middle of the road, covered in soot. They're looking up at the sky, and as she gets closer she can hear Sai methodically listing off the constellations. She stops in front of them and crosses her arms.

"Hey," Sasuke cricks his neck so he can look her in the eye from the ground, "how's the seal going?"

"I figured it out, because I'm awesome," she gestures to smoking remains of about a dozen houses, "What happened?"

"Target practice," Sai says happily, and she's momentarily thrown by how much lighter the boy seems from when she saw him last.

"Overkill much? And this is me talking here," she holds out her hands and heaves them both to their feet.

Sasuke shrugs, "I'll build more."

Natsu grins and shakes her head before saying to Sai, "Are you ready? It's time to get that seal off of you. I figured out a replacement that he won't notice."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Sasuke asks the older boy, solemn. "It would help us out a lot to have a spy on the inside, but we won't risk you if you don't want to. You can stay here, we'd figure something out."

Sai looks to Natsu, and she nods. He breaks out in a smile, the first real smile he feels he's had in a years, and says, "I want to help. Let's do this."

---

Kakashi had sent Pakkun to get his genin and Natsu for the mission, so he's not surprised when Sakura, Akamaru, and Kiba show up, the latter holding Pakkun content in his arms. He absolutely has to stifle a laugh when Sasuke walks up with Natsu asleep on his back and drooling on his shoulder.

"Is she okay?" Sakura asks, bending down to get a closer look at her.

"The fuck is this?" their client burps, gesturing to them, "I didn't pay to be – be protected by some brats and a passed out bitch."

Kiba looks very much like he'd like to rip the old man's throat out with his teeth. Before he gets the chance, a wide awake Natsu pushes herself onto Sasuke's shoulders, frontflips to just behind the old man, and puts him in a choke hold faster than most people can blink. "I could have killed you just then," she says brightly, "We're way above a C rank, actually. You lucked out."

Tazuna swallows nervously as Natsu lets go of him, then quickly steps away. "Oh."

"Indeed," Kakashi agrees, smiling in the way that always makes his genin back away from him. "Natsu, have a long night?"

"So long," Natsu moans, going from dangerous killer to sluggish teenager as she shuffles over to Kakashi, trying to look as pathetic as possible. "I invented a whole new seal, and I applied it, and it took forever, Niichan. Forever."

The jounin looks amused until Sasuke adds, "It was a blood seal, too."

"That's dangerous!" he glares.

Natsu huddles down and twists the ends of her hair between her fingers. "So tired," she pouts.

Sakura slaps her hand over Kiba's mouth to muffle the sound of his laughter. Kakashi sighs and hands his pack to Sakura, who slings it on top of her own.

"Thank Niichan! You're the best!" Natsu jumps up and wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Kakashi grabs her legs to keep her steady, and she leans her head against his shoulder. She falls asleep almost immediately.

"We're wasting daylight," he says sternly, doing his best to looks intimidating with a sixteen year old chunin softly snoring on his back.

Sakura says to Tazuna, "In the middle please, so we can better protect you."

They leave the village in standard protection patrol, with Kakashi as point and Sasuke in the rear.

"Sasuke," Kiba calls out, "Where's your pack?"

He smirks, "Natsu sealed ours both away."

Sakura tosses him Kakashi's, and he pulls it on without protest. He flicks his eyes to Tazuna, then to Sakura, and raises an eyebrow.

She makes a face and shrugs, then jerks her chin to Kiba. Sasuke looks to his other teammate, and Kiba frowns, points to Akamaru, then nods.

Well, at least they're all aware the drunken old man is up to something. It would be nice to know what though.

---

Haku sits by Zabuza's side, carefully tending to the unconscious man's wounds and doing his best not to let his hands shake. They've faced a lot together, and Zabuza is strong, he's the strongest person Haku knows.

But that girl. He remembers that girl from Kiri, and the extreme destructive power she wielded so casually. Copy Nin Kakashi would be concerning enough, but him and that girl – he's worried. He's very, very worried.

Zabuza groans and pries his eyes open.

"Please don't move," Haku says gently, placing a calming hand on his chest, "I wouldn't want you to reopen your wounds."

"Fuck," he groans, hissing against the pain. "This is bad."

"Yes," he rubs the last of the healing salve they have into the bigger of his cuts.

Zabuza lets out a long breath, "It doesn't change anything. We still need to complete the mission."

"Yes," Haku agrees, even though everything inside of him is saying that this is a terrible idea, that they will regret this. "Please rest, Zabuza. I will care for you."

Zabuza grunts and closes his eyes, and it's probably pathetic, but at such an automatic show of trust Haku has to smile.

---

"Something was off about that right?" Kiba asks once they're all sequestered in the upstairs of Tazuna's home.

Sakura doesn't look up from where she's doing her best to heal the burn out on Kakashi's coils, "Yes. Kiri hunter-nin kill on sight."

Sasuke methodically flips his kunai over and under his hand. "I suppose it could have been not wanting to reveal techniques to enemy ninja."

"What techniques?" Kiba shrugs, "It's not like slicing someone's head off is hard."

Sasuke points his kunai at Natsu, who's leaning against the wall with Kakashi's head in her lap, supervising Sakura's healing. "You've got that look on your face."

"No I don't," she says automatically, "What look?'

Kiba squints at her, "You do kind of have the look."

"What look? I don't have any look!"

"It's your 'I'm thinking probable and dire thoughts' look," Kiba says, "Hana and Kabuto hate that look."

She crosses her arms, "I think – I think I recognized that hunter-nin's chakra, but I don't know from where."

"Well," Sakura wipes her arm across her brow and leans back, "You've been here a few times haven't you? Wasn't your mission before Sand in Kiri specifically?"

"I've been to the Land of Water a lot," she concedes, "The last of Uzushiogakure's sealing scrolls are kept in their libraries, so it was mostly just research missions."

"You'll figure it out," Sakura says confidently, and Natsu smiles at the other girl. "But, we all agree right? Zabuza is still alive, and that hunter-nin, whoever he is, is probably working with him."

"Yeah," Sasuke scowls and tosses the kunai to Kiba, who catches it by the end and tosses it back. "We should have killed him when we had the chance."

"You know what this means right?" Natsu grins, and even Sasuke wilts under her glee.

"Training?" Sakura asks weakly.

Natsu cracks her knuckles, "Training."

---

Asuma knocks before entering his father's office, Kurenai at his side.

The hokage smiles when he sees them, although Asuma can't help but think with some guilt that he also looks weary. "Dad," he says, swallowing. "I want to talk to you about Natsu Nami."

The older man's face drops, "Son, please, not today, I'm well aware of your feelings-"

"We were wrong," Kurenai interrupts, and Sarutobi falls silent. "I think we may have been wrong, and I know we've done this before, but – please, talk to us about Natsu Nami one more time. Just – give us some evidence, try to convince us again. Please."

The Sandaime leans back and gestures to the seats in front of his desk. Asuma and Kurenai silently sit down, and listen as Sarutobi begins to speak.

---

The thing is, being a spy for Orochimaru is pretty boring most of the time. He sends in reports weekly, and it's almost never anything interesting. He's basically a normal Leaf ninja.

This report though. The Hyuuga Curse Mark is huge news, and he has to tell Orochimaru-sama about it. If anything, it probably just means that he won't choose a Hyuuga for his next body. Kabuto is a little bit worried about listing Natsu's involvement, but he's actually spoken about Natsu before at length. Orochimaru knows how talented she is, and he doesn't have any interest in her. Granted, the things she's been pulling off lately kind of put her on a whole new level of seal master, so that may change.

He's confident Orochimaru-sama won't try to hurt her though. If he needs her to do something, that won't be so bad – Kabuto is sure he can figure out a way to make it work where he doesn't betray either of them.

---

Sakura had been the only one of them who hadn't known how to use her chakra to tree climb, and she'd picked it up with alarming quickness, so now all three of them are focusing on water walking. Kiba's task is extra difficult, because once he figures this out for himself he's going to need to figure out how to manipulate Akamaru's chakra so that his nin-dog can follow him if need be.

Natsu and Kakashi are sitting on the ground and watching them.

"I'm impressed with what you've done with Sakura," Kakashi says, watching the pink haired girl wobble precariously on the water before falling in.

Natsu shrugs, "I didn't do much. She's really smart, smarter than I was as a genin. She's going to be an amazing medic-nin. Once she's up to snuff I'll throw her at Kabuto."

"He'll be thrilled," the jounin says dryly. He scans the perimeter around them before asking, "Sai?"

Her lips twists like she's eating something sour, "Back with Danzo. The fake seal that I replaced his with is actually connected to his heart like the other one was, but it's actually just a tracker. So I know he's alive and hasn't been under any extreme stress since he returned, but that's it."

"Natsu, lots of people have tried to take down Danzo, but that man is a cockroach. He knows who you are and he's interested in you. You need to careful." She turns to him and raises an eyebrow. Kakashi sighs and flicks her forehead, "I'm serious. We left the village so Inoichi and Shikaku could attempt to do damage control, and I don't want you to get hurt."

She shifts so she can lean her head against Kakashi's arm, "Don't worry so much, Niichan. I'll be fine."

Kakashi huffs and settles back to watch Sasuke take a careful two steps on the water's surface before his control breaks and he falls under. Sakura manages a full ten seconds upright, but slips under when she grabs at Kiba to try to keep him from falling.

---

Hanabi throws up her hands in frustration, "Stop!" Hinata halts her kata. Hanabi turns to Neji, "Did you see what Nami was talking about? I didn't."

Neji shakes his head, "I mean – I see where the knot of connecting chakras for all the Curse Marks are, but that's not really helpful."

"It's obviously disrupting her chakra flow," Hanabi says critically, "but I can't figure out how, so I have no idea how to stop it."

Hinata flexes her hands, "Do you think Father knows about this side effect? It seems – unwise, to put such a strain on my chakra system this way."

"We should have known you couldn't be the anchor for so many seals without some sort of repercussions," Neji sighs, "I can't believe Natsu had to point it out to us."

"Because any of us have any real skill with complex sealing maps," Hinata scolds, "Don't be ridiculous."

Hanabi smiles at her sister, but it's fleeting. "I wish we could just get Nami to remove the rest of the Curse Marks on the Branch family! Then we wouldn't need to figure out a way to work around the chakra threads."

"Hiashi would never notice," Neji rolls his eyes, "We'll just remove the seals off a couple hundred people and expect them to keep quiet about it."

Hanabi blinks, "Would they?"

Hinata stares at her sister before switching that gaze to Neji. The older boy takes a step back from them, "What?"

"Would they keep quiet about it?" Hanabi questions, "There's no love lost between the Main and Branch families, I know that. So if we were to remove their seals, would they say anything?"

"I," Neji looks between them, "You can't be serious! If Hiashi finds out-"

"If my father finds out what I've done already, I will be banished, at best. There's nothing stopping me from taking it further," Hanabi says intently, "Then – we could train them all! Neji, what you've accomplished in just this past week without the Curse Mark is insane, it's amazing how quickly you've picked up on everything. If the rest of the Branch house can become even a tenth as proficient, and supposedly Hinata will become even stronger when she's not being held back by all the seals connected to her chakra – then the strength of the Hyuuga Clan will double!"

Hinata and Neji share a glance, and this time it's Hinata who says, "Hanabi, I'm with you, I stand with you. But are you sure? We can't take it back."

"I don't want to take it back!" she says viciously. "We are Hyuuga! We are called the strongest of Konoha, and that is what we shall be! We are crippling ourselves with these Curse Marks, holding back the potential of this family out of a sense of – of pride, or power. I won't stand for it! We will become more, become better, and we can't do that if we're holding ourselves back. Fuck it – there's no reason for a Branch and a Main family! It's stupid, and I will abolish all of these ridiculous, pathetic rules separating us the moment I am clan head! Hyuugas should fight and live as one!"

She's panting at the end of her speech, fists clenched at her sides. As one, Hinata and Neji bow to her at the waist. "Your will be done, Hanabi-hime," Neji says, "My knowledge is yours, my skills are yours, and my loyalty is yours."

Hanabi swallows, and Hinata tilts her head up just enough to wink at her, and Hanabi has to bite her lip just to keep from crying. Hinata breaks from her bow to pull Hanabi into a hug, and Neji only hesitates a second before joining her, and this is so much better than when they all hated and were terrified of each other.

"Just one problem," she sniffs when they detangle themselves, "Nami's going to be gone from the village for at least three weeks, probably more. I don't want to wait that long."

"Well," Neji hesitates, "she's not a master, but I do know someone who's good with seals."

Having just woken up to start her day, Tenten is surprised when she rapidly sneezes three times in a row. She has a sneaking suspicion that someone is talking about her.

---

So Natsu, personally, would rather find Gato and slit his throat for being giant dick than fighting his lackeys, but beggars can't be choosers. Kiba and Sakura are protecting Tazuna and Kakashi is fighting Zabuza again, which leaves her with Sasuke against Haku, and she should have paid more attention, because she knew she'd recognized him from somewhere. "I really hoped we wouldn't meet this way," she calls out, back to back with Sasuke.

"I agree," Haku says, somehow in every mirror at once and his voice surrounding them. "You are a clever and destructive opponent."

"Thanks," she mutters, flipping out of the way of a barrage of senbon. "Sasuke, cover me." She has a suspicion, but she can't tell for sure unless she concentrates, and she can't concentrate while dodging attacks from every direction.

She stills, and she can feel the shifts of air as Sasuke whirls around her to deflect all of Haku's attacks, which is perfect, because she locks her senses onto the older boy's signature, and – almost – she follows the flow of his chakra as the attacks dip around them, and –

She opens her eyes and uses a chakra strike to deflect a dozen senbon. "That better have been worth it," Sasuke pants, a couple senbon imbedded halfway into his shoulder blade.

"He's fast, not – everywhere," she tugs Sasuke in front of her to pull him away from more senbon, but also so she can whisper in his ear, "We need to switch places with Kakashi, but Haku's got a chakra barrier up."

Sasuke back flips out of the way of an attack in a way that he definitely learned from her and says, "How?"

"Remember what we've been working on?" she asks, and hey, it's not perfect, but it should probably work.

Sasuke pales, "We can't use that, it's not finished! We almost blew up a training ground last time!"

"Are you ready?" she asks, slipping out a shuriken, and thank fuck for nin-polish, because it only takes her about fifteen seconds to use her nails to carve the ignition seal into it.

Sasuke catches the shuriken when she tosses it at him, "This is such a bad idea," but she can feel him shifting his elemental chakra into it already, so she switches her attention to making sure Haku doesn't get in the way. Now that she has a lock on his chakra she has a half second's notice from where the next attack is coming, which isn't nearly enough to launch an attack of her own, but does give her enough time to block it.

Sasuke flings the shuriken into an ice mirror, and the seal and elemental chakra combine and react fucking perfectly. Just like she'd accidentally done in Kiri, the hydrogen and oxygen in the water separate, and react, so the ice mirror becomes an explosion of fire which has the added bonus of being fueled by chakra, so it eats through the barrier Haku had set up. She should tell the Sandaime about it – apparently there is a chakra barrier that can hold her.

She grabs Sasuke and body flickers out, landing next to Kakashi. She ducks under Zabuza's sword, then balances on one foot and twists her lower body up to kick him in the face. The missing-nin staggers back, and she yells, "Kakashi, take care of Haku! Use the Sharingan!"

He does as she says, thank god, and now Kakashi is the one trapped by the ice mirrors, but with his eye he'll actually manage to land a hit on the boy. Of course, this leaves her and Sasuke facing the Demon of the Mist, which she isn't exactly thrilled about. "I can't believe that worked," Sasuke says, slipping into a defensive stance as Zabuza gets to his feet and comes charging at them.

"Please don't die," Natsu says before ducking under the sword once again and flipping on top of Zabuza's shoulders. The other man is clearly used to training with the super-fast Haku however, because she'd barely landed when Zabuza swings his sword above his head. She jumps off of him, landing in a crouch behind him. Sasuke charges forward and manages to get a kick the man in the stomach. He stumbles and trips over Natsu behind him, but before they can gain any sort of advantage because of that he spins out of the way and swings his sword so he would have cut Natsu in half if she'd rolled out of the way a second slower.

"You brats aren't bad," he rumbles.

"Thanks," Natsu pants, "You're pretty good yourself."

Zabuza smirks, "Yeah, I know."

He moves faster than he's moved the entire battle, and he swings his sword to stab Sasuke in the chest. The Uchiha starts to dodge, but Zabuza's already accounted for that, and Natsu can see that he's not going to make it.

"SASUKE!" she screams, and not him, not Itachi's little brother, not her friend, not Sasuke. She body flickers in front of him and knocks him to the side.

This means, of course, that Zabuza ends up running his massive sword through her stomach instead.

It hurts until it doesn't. She looks down, and the giant blade has run her through from navel to just under her sternum. She's survived a lot, but she's not going to survive this.

"NATSU!" Sasuke scrambles to his feet, pale and reaching for her.

Zabuza wrenches his sword out of her. A rush of blood leaves her body. By the time she falls to the ground, she sees nothing at all.

---

Kakashi can see Natsu's crumpled body between the mirrors. He wants to scream, but there's no air in his lungs, no blood in his veins. He freezes for only a second, but it's enough for Haku to gain the upper hand.

He's such an idiot. Danzo was preferable to this, anything would be better than this – god, why does he end up losing everyone, what has he done to deserve this, to have the girl who's as close as family die in front of him.

A senbon jams itself into the back of his neck. Natsu's so far away that it's pointless, but before he gives into the blackness swimming in his vision he reaches for her anyway.

---

Sasuke collapses next to Natsu, and she's changed in death, somehow. Her hair is a deep blond and her sightless eyes have become bright blue. There are slash marks across her cheeks, and Sasuke doesn't understand why, but this is Natsu. It was her chakra, her movements, and no one else would be so stupid as to die for him.

He cups her cheek, and it's warm, her skin still soft. He rubs his thumb against her bottom lip, and it's still moist from her tongue. A splatter of water lands on his hand, and he thinks it's rain before he realizes he's crying.

"So sad," Zabuza says mockingly, "young love can be such a drag. But hey, at least you'll be together soon, eh?" He heaves up his sword.

Natsu died for him, and he won't allow her death to be in vain. Sasuke howls as he surges to his feet, and somehow dodging Zabuza is easier than it was before. It looks like the missing-nin is moving through honey, almost, and he's just delivered an extremely satisfying slash to the man's face when that other shinobi's ice mirrors appear around them. He doesn't have Natsu to make the fire seal this time, but he finds he doesn't need it. He can see Haku moving from mirror to mirror, and it's almost pathetically easy to dodge the ninja's attacks.

"Sharingan," Zabuza breathes softly.

Well, that would explain it. Sasuke doesn't take the time to dwell on it, instead putting all his energy into punching Zabuza so hard he breaks his jaw and he staggers back. Sasuke doesn't even have to turn around to step away from Haku's attack.

They killed Natsu. He's going to kill them.

---

Kiba grabs Sakura around the waist as she bolts towards Sasuke and Natsu, "Don't! We need to protect the client!" God, he hates this, he doesn't want to protect this alcoholic asshole of a bridge builder. But Natsu and their sensei are dead, Sasuke has lost his fucking mind, and someone has to think of the mission. Frankly, he's pissed that it has to be him.

"I can help her, let me go!" Sakura packs a mean punch these days, and he staggers back under the force of it but still doesn't let go. "I need to get to her and Kakashi-sensei!"

"Sakura, you can't," he's going to have to be the one to tell Hana, he's going to have to tell her and Kabuto both, oh god. "Natsu and Kakashi are dead. You can't help them, okay? We need to protect the client!"

Sakura sags into his arms and now he's holding her up instead holding her back. "She can't be dead," she whispers, "she's so strong. And Kakashi-sensei's the best shinobi in the village! What about – we need to help Sasuke!"

Kiba glances over to his teammate, "Uh, actually, he's doing okay. Fuck. Remind me never to piss him off."

Sakura wrenches away from him. She grabs the terrified Tazuna by the front of his shirt and pulls him down so their faces are inches apart. "Kakashi Hatake was an S class jounin," she hisses in his face, "Natsu Nami was an expert seal master, the only one Konoha had. Your bridge better be fucking worth it, do you hear me?" She pushes him, and he staggers and falls on his ass, and he looks more scared of Sakura than of the missing-nin. Kiba can relate. "If not, mission be damned, I'll kill you myself."

Fuck, but Sakura is some serious shit. He looks over to Sasuke. His teammate is wearing down Zabuza and Haku with a level of single minded fury that he's definitely going to have nightmares about.

Sakura comes back over to him to cover Tazuna, her eyes red. He wants to hug her and tell her everything is going to be okay, but this is so not the time, and honestly maybe it won't be.

Akamaru starts whining at his side, and he looks down at his ninken in surprise. "What's wrong buddy?" Akamaru sniffs loudly and jerks his head in the direction of Natsu's body. Kiba frowns, but closes his eyes and extends his senses, trying to smell whatever it is that's freaking out his battle trained ninken so much. He smells Natsu, and blood, but – under that, there's a faint … earthy scent? It's growing stronger, and if he didn't know better Kiba would almost think her body smells like –

"A fox?" he says, and what the fuck is going on.

---

Naruto hasn't been here since he was five years old, but he's still surprised when the place that used to manifest as a sewer is a dense forest instead.

"Kurama!" he calls out, swinging around. "Where are you? I need your help! Please!"

The forest has already gone blurry at the corners. They don't have enough time.

"I'm right here, kit," a deep voice rumbles from suddenly right behind him, and Naruto whirls around to face the fox.

"I'm dying," he says desperately, "Can you help me? Please, like you did before." He has seconds at most, and Kurama is just staring at him with those intelligent, bright eyes. "Please," he repeats, and he has nothing to offer, nothing to bargain with, and he knows his seal. If he dies, maybe Kurama will die, but maybe the demon will be let free. If Kurama is willing to take that chance, then Naruto has no way to stop him.

The fox bends his massive head to look Naruto in the eyes, "Eight years ago you were dying, bleeding out with glass shoved inside you and tearing you apart, and I healed you. That day, you begged me not to, begged me to let you die. What changed?"

What changed? Last time he'd had no one, been no one. He was alone and hated and didn't have single person who really cared about him, except maybe the Sandaime. Now he has friends close enough to be family, he's a respected ninja, a renowned seal master. He has teammates, Kakashi-niichan, a whole bunch of genin friends, and he has Itachi-senpai even if the older boy can't be with him now. "Everything changed," he says blankly, because it's true.

Kurama grins and jerks his head to the forest, which is dissolving more and more. "I noticed. I must say, I much prefer this to the sewer."

"Please," he says throat tight, "my friends are in trouble. They need help, and I have this idea, and it might work, and then no one needs to die. But I need to go back to do it. Please don't let me die."

"Relax, kit," Kurama gives off massive waves of orange chakra, and Naruto nearly collapses in relief. The forest has started rebuilding itself around him, and soon things start to go black as he's pulled back to consciousness, "I've got you."

---

Zabuza has seriously underestimated this genin, and if he'd known this was going to be the reaction from killing blond bitch he would have just killed the genin first.

Gato is gathering at the edge with a crowd, and this is just great. He's going to have to finish off the genin and kill the stupid bridge builder, or else Gato is going to get ideas about killing him. He won't succeed, but if Gato gets ideas then he doesn't get paid, which is the point of all this to begin with.

The Sharingan the kid is packing is also freaking him out – it's not the tomoe'd one like Hatake had, instead it's all weird connecting triangles. So far it hasn't acted any differently than a normal Sharingan, but it's making him nervous. Haku can't get a solid hit in, which isn't helping his nerves any. His boy is the fastest shinobi he knows, and this fight has the potential to turn against them if they can't finish it quickly.

He finally finds an opening, and swings to cut off this damn Uchiha's head.

Of course, the last thing he's expecting is for the girl he'd already killed to gasp to life, and then jump up in between them and knock his sword out his hand. That's never happened to him before, but he's never had an opponent pop back to life on him before, so he's willing to give himself a pass on that one. Also, now that he's looking closer, the girl isn't even a girl anymore. He's so confused. Even Haku doesn't have tits that spontaneously appear and disappear.

"Natsu?" the genin demands, Sharingan still spinning.

The blond ignores him, instead focusing on Zabuza. "I don't want to fight you."

"Tough shit," he snarks. Haku throws more senbon at them, but the blonde uses a wave of orange chakra to knock it aside.

He jerks his head to Gato and the crowd, "You're doing this for money, right? You can't seriously enjoy doing that asshole's dirty work. I know Haku doesn't."

Zabuza hesitates. The boy isn't making any move to attack them, and now the Uchiha isn't either. "What are you getting at?"

"I met Haku before. He said that he was a loyal shinobi of Kirigakure, and I think that means you are too. Gato is suffocating Kiri too, the daimyo could remove Gato and he hasn't," he says intently. "He's right over there. Kill Gato, and take his money, and we can all leave here alive and the better for it."

"I don't know if you've noticed," he drawls, "but he has an army with him."

Something like humor glints in the boy's eyes, "I'll take care of that. Trust me. Stand with me, and I won't let you fall. I promise."

It's fucking stupid, he doesn't know this strange, weird boy. He has no reason to trust him or believe in him, and he can't be that great otherwise Zabuza wouldn't have been able to kill him in the first place. Fuck, but he's such an idiot. He's absolutely going to regret this. "Haku," he sighs.

That's all he needs to say. The mirrors come down, and he doesn't see Haku move, but the next thing he knows Haku is by his side and Gato's got three senbon shoved in his neck.

The boy nods sharply, his front still soaked with blood when he turns to crowd and calls out, "Gato is dead. There is nothing here for you now. Leave."

"We're going to kill you!" one of them roars. Zabuza tenses, and neither he nor Haku are in great shape. He's not exactly in the mood to fight a couple hundred thugs.

The blonde snorts. His hands form the Ram, and he says calmly, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

There's suddenly at least a thousand shadow clones covering the bridge, and fuck but Haku was right, this brat is some terrifying shit. Even the Uchiha is surprised. The amount of chakra that kid just wasted – that's nuts. Nobody uses shadow clones, and there's a goddamn reason for that.

The mass of clones move as one, forming a defensive stance with kunai extended. "Who wants to die first?" they ask in unison. Zabuza has to admit he's a little bit impressed when the entire mob turns tail and runs away.

"Shit," he says, offhand, and Haku nods in agreement.

The blonde dispels the clones, then turns once more to Zabuza. "I'll help you with Kiri, I promise. But you have to promise to work with me too. I have friends, I'll help you. I want to help you. Do you swear to work with me?"

He looks to Haku, and he knows his boy will follow him anywhere, but Haku's been right about this kid every step of the way, and he wants to know what he thinks. Haku nods, just once, but without any hesitance or doubt.

Zabuza swings his sword up to rest on his shoulders and offers his hand to the kid, "Deal."

He shakes, and for a moment the seriousness breaks and a grin overcomes his face. "Great," he chirps, "Catch."

He blinks, "Catch?"

The boy's eyes roll to the back of his head and he slumps like a ragdoll. Zabuza reaches out and grabs the boy around the waist, holding him against his chest to keep him from falling.

The Uchiha darts over, "Natsu!" He pulls the boy's hair away from his face and checks his pulse. His shoulder's slump in relief when he finds it steady. "She's okay," he assures them, as if they'd been worried.

Zabuza looks to the passed out ninja in his arms, to the two gaping genin over by the bridge builder, to the passed out Copy Nin, then to Haku. "What the fuck," he sighs.

He's been part of some strange shit, but he thinks this might just be the top of the list.

---

Kiba takes the stairs two at a time, going over where everyone is in his head. Haku and Zabuza are currently in the kitchen being fed by Tsunami, Inari's mom, who seems to be reacting to this traumatic and weird situation by baking. Hilariously, Zabuza and Haku are perfectly polite when they aren't trying to kill you. Zabuza had made a joke, pointing to his sword and offering to chop up the carrots for the cake. Haku had changed from his battle clothes into a pink kimono, and is actually helping in the kitchen. It's so weird.

Speaking of, the rest of his team is upstairs with Sakura tending to Natsu unconscious in one bed, and also Kakashi unconscious in the other. Natsu is currently a boy, and Kiba isn't stupid. He doesn't know when the fuck Natsu became the container for the kitsune, but he's certain that's the Natsu he's known all his life. He has the same base scent as Natsu, so they're definitely the same person. Sasuke confirmed it by saying they have the same chakra, so Kiba literally has no idea what's going on, but his friend and teacher are alive and he's not going to have to tell Hana that her teammate is dead, so he's mostly okay with how this all turned out.

He pushes into the room. Sasuke is sitting by Natsu and Sakura is checking Kakashi's pulse. "How is he?" he asks.

She shrugs, "Haku said he should he wake up soon. It was basically a nerve reaction, so once those recover he'll wake up." She gestures to the other bed, "Natsu, in spite of literally being run through with a sword, is totally fine. She's just suffering from chakra exhaustion."

"She?" he glances over, and from what he can see Natsu is still a boy.

Sakura shrugs, "Until she wakes up and tells me otherwise, she's a she."

Well, that's fair. He pulls up a chair and sits down next to Sasuke. They cut off her bloody tunic and put on one from her pack, so she's clean and sleeping peacefully. His teammate has just been sitting quietly by her side, starring, for hours. He tries to figure out something of Sasuke's thought process from his face, but it's just blank. This could be a tricky situation, because Kiba doesn't really care about what Natsu has between her legs, but he can kind of see how Sasuke might take it as another betrayal. He's sure Natsu has a good reason for not telling them, and changing her hair and eyes, but there's also the whole demon container thing, and – the point is, there's a lot that Sasuke could be taking the wrong way or internalizing here, and as Kiba's recently discovered, Sasuke has the potential to absolutely be the scariest shinobi he knows. Excluding his sister.

So this is delicate and important, and he's the last person who should be having this conversation.

"Hey Sasuke," he says, trying to think of a way to approach this topic that's not either offensive or super awkward, then gives up. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm trying to figure it out if I think Natsu's just as cute now as before," he admits easily, "you know, considering," he gestures to her body, and Kiba assumes he's talking about her physical changes.

"Ah," well, that's a lot more positive than he'd been expecting, but now he really has no idea where to go with this. "How's that going?"

His teammate reaches out and delicately traces a single whisker mark on Natsu's face, and he half smiles, "I think I do."

"Awesome," he chokes out, and he has to get out of here right now immediately before he bursts out laughing in Sasuke's face. What a fanboy. It'd be creepy if he wasn't pretty sure Natsu felt the same way.

---

Naruto wakes up slowly, and he's got to say, for all the drawbacks of being jinchuuriki the healing is amazing. He feels refreshed and his chakra reserves are strong – this is awesome.

That feeling continues until he opens his eyes and sees Sasuke looking down at him. There's a split second of happiness before he remembers that he's not in his Oiroke, and shit. "Sasuke, I can explain," he bolts up right, "I can – I swear. I know I lied to you, and I'm sorry, I'm really sorry." Sasuke's face is stone, and oh god, Naruto's going to start crying, and he's ugly crier as a boy, that's the last thing he wants. "I guess you noticed the whole fox demon thing right? Well there was – wait no, before that, my name isn't Natsu. I mean, my name is Natsu, but I was born with another name. Naruto Uzumaki. But then, there was this man, and-"

Sasuke reaches over, and Naruto falls silent. He grabs a lock of Naruto's long hair and gently winds it around his fingers. Sasuke finally looks up at him, and smiles. "Hello," he says, "It's nice to meet you. You're very pretty."

Oh god, it's the same thing he said when they were kids that first time they met. Naruto throws himself at Sasuke, and the other boy wraps him in his arms, strong and there and not hating him. "Thank you," he whispers.

"I'm still pissed at you for dying on me," Sasuke scolds, but he runs his hands through Naruto's hair while he buries his face into Sasuke's shoulder, so Naruto doesn't think he's that mad.

---

Haku and Zabuza both look up at the same time.

"Which one's awake?" Sakura asks.

"The blonde," Zabuza answers.

She and Kiba share a look. "We'll give her and Sasuke a few minutes," she decides.

"Really?" Zabuza says mildly, "The Uchiha seems a little young for that, buy hey, whatever floats your boat." He waggles his eyebrows in a way that Sakura never ever wanted to see an S ranked missing-nin do, and she buries her face in her hands. People had warned her about the pain, the blood, the long missions, but no one had said anything about the weirdness of ninja life.

Haku bites back a smile. Kiba looks at Zabuza in horror and says, "Oh my god, you're just like Kakashi-sensei."

"I'm sure we'll get along now that we're not trying to kill each other," he says mildly. Tsunami places a slice of carrot cake in front of him, and he grins at her in a way that isn't even bloodthirsty. "Thanks. Smells good."

"You're welcome," she says evenly, slightly more at ease than when they'd all burst into her house.

Inari peeks around his mother's legs, "Can I touch your sword? It's really big."

Sakura and Kiba are horrified, but both Haku and Tsunami turn away to keep from laughing.

Zabuza chuckles, "I'm used to people who are a little older asking me that." He pulls his sword from his back, "Careful, it's sharp."

Inari cautiously runs his fingers over the flat part and whispers, "So cool."

---

Kakashi hasn't woken up yet, but their mission is still in progress. Naruto stays a boy, and shyly tells Sakura that its 'he' when he as a penis, and 'she' when she has a vagina.

"You know it doesn't have to work like that, right?" Sakura asks intently, "You can be a girl with a penis or a boy with a vagina."

"I know," Naruto says happily, and he has the best friends ever, "but I like it that way."

"Okay," Sakura nods, "as long as you know."

The bridge is still in the process of being built, and just in case Gato's little gang comes back Naruto sends the genin along with Zabuza and Haku to guard them, the latter who's happy to kick around for now considering they've seized all the money Gato had on him, which was a lot, and Naruto had helpfully sealed it for them. He's staying behind at Tazuna's house so he'll be there when Kakashi wakes up.

He's considered not telling him. He's sure he could come up with an explanation for not dying that doesn't involve Kurama, but the thing is that for ninja the entirety of Team Seven are pretty horrible liars.

It's night, so currently he's holed up in a corner with Zabuza, at least theoretically away from prying eyes and ears. He'd bet money that Haku and Kiba have found a way to listen in.

"So what's your plan?" the older shinobi asks, arms crossed. "You do have a plan, right? You didn't make a deal with me based on nothing?"

There's definitely a threat in there. Naruto ignores it. "You're the strongest ninja in Kiri, right?"

Zabuza raises an eyebrow, "Yes. More or less."

Naruto nods, and he's been thinking this since he last went on that intelligence gathering mission in Kiri, "How do you feel about being Mizukage?"

He stares. "You're not serious?"

"I am!" he says intently, "Look, Kiri is a fucking mess. And – okay, so the Daiymo is awful. Literally the worst. But he has a sister, Masuyo."

Zabuza sneers, "That girl is a pathetic coward."

"Maybe," Naruto agrees, "but she's also a good person, from what I hear. She spend her time at orphanages. She's scared of her family, which is fair, because they're terrifying. But if we kill them, and put her on the throne-"

"You think we should kill the royal family and put a seventeen year old girl in power," Zabuza repeats numbly.

"Listen," he continues like the other ninja isn't looking at him like he's nuts, "she'd be a good leader. People will go after her because they think she's weak, fine – that's why daimyo fund shinobi villages in the first place." Naruto leans forward, eyes bright, "Take over Kiri, become the new Mizukage, then march to the daiymo's palace and place Masuyo on the throne. Work with her to bring Kiri and the Land of Water up from the ashes."

Zabuza's still looking at him like he's crazy, but he's also thinking about it too. "I'd need an army for that," he says. "And you can't promise that. You can't even be officially aiding me as a shinobi of Konoha."

Naruto smirks, "Do you know what I am?"

"Insane?" he says immediately.

"Probably," he concedes, "but I'm also the container for the nine tailed fox demon. I am an army." The missing-nin is staring at him opened mouthed, and he continues, "And as far as Konoha is concerned, officially the container for the nine tailed demon died eight years ago. Also – I'm very good friends with the container of the one tailed raccoon demon. He would absolutely be willing to aid in a revolution in exchange with some aid in the future."

"What kind of aid?" Zabuza asks suspiciously.

Naruto grins, "Let's just say he's going to be right in the middle of a coup of his own. Not as bloody as ours is going to be, probably, but once the new kage is in power they need to be recognized. If you swear to recognize this kage when they ascend, my friend will come."

Zabuza leans back in his chair. "Haku," he says at a completely normal volume, "what do you think?"

Haku body flickers to his side, and Naruto knew the boy was listening somehow. He places a delicate hand on Zabuza's shoulder, but his smile is vicious when he says, "Yes. We can do this – we should do this. They are our people. We can protect them, so we must."

Zabuza raises his eyebrows, but turns back to Naruto and says, "Fuck, okay. Let's do this."

Kakashi wakes up slowly, at first becoming aware of the ache throughout his body, then that he's lying in some sort of soft bed so things couldn't have gone too horribly.

Then he remembers, and a wave of grief washes over him with such intensity that for a moment he wishes he'd never woken up at all. Natsu is dead. He has other responsibilities, he has to find his genin and make sure they're all right, and demand how the hell they got him out of there alive. He needs to do these things, but all he can focus on is the misery sitting heavy in his chest when he thinks of the little girl he's known for so long and who's now dead –

"Niichan?" His eyes pop open, because they voice is off, but only one person calls him Niichan. He shoves himself up, and for an extremely disorienting moment he thinks he's seeing Minato if he'd had hair down to his waist. Then his eyes focus on the whisker marks on the boy's cheeks.

"Oh god," he chokes out, "I am dead."

Naruto rolls his eyes smacks him in the chest, "Kakashi-niichan! You're not dead, don't be stupid. You've been out for a while though, you missed some stuff." He grins guiltily.

Kakashi reaches out a shaking hand and cups the boy's face, "Naruto?"

"How do you know my name?" he frowns, "Did you wake up earlier and someone told you? I told everyone to tell me if you woke up! Was it Zabuza? It was, wasn't it."

Kakashi can't even begin to make sense of the last bit, but he has more important things on his mind, "How did you get here? How are you alive? Have you been in the Land of Water this whole time?" This is too much, Natsu is dead and Naruto is alive in front of him, it's all too much and he has no idea what to feel.

Naruto frowns, "What? I – Kurama healed me, the fox. But we haven't been in the Land of Water that long, you've only been out for about two days."

"What?" Kakashi repeats, and he wants to understand, but he also lets out brokenly, "God, Naruto, you look just like your father."

His mouth falls open, "What? You know who my father is?"

"I," he blinks, and pulls back enough to grab Naruto's hand and pull it up to his face. His nails are perfectly painted with purple nin-polish. He looks from the nail polish, to his hair, and Naruto had called him Niichan when he'd woken up. "…Natsu?"

"Yes?" he frowns, "Oh! Are you asking to see?" There's a ripple in the air, and now it's Natsu sitting in front of him, pale hair and dark eyes. "It's a ninjutsu, I think. That's what Haku says. I made it when I was five. Neat, huh?" Natsu shifts back to Naruto, and bites his bottom lip. "I didn't mean to lie to you about who I was. But I had a good reason! I, uh, well you remember the Kyuubi attack, right? I mean of course you do. Well, I-"

"Have the fox sealed inside you," Kakashi says numbly.

Naruto blinks. "Right. So, when I was five-"

"- a civilian killed you. He slit you open with a glass bottle. There was so much blood," he remembers it, that room bathed in blood where his sensei's son had died. But Naruto is sitting in front of him, alive and whole.

He crosses his arms, "Okay, who have you been talking to?"

"You are Natsu? And Naruto?" he confirms, because it's not possible, but the evidence is in front of him now, and he wants it to be true so badly, he wants to have not lost two of the most important people he's had.

"Yes?" Naruto blinks, "Seriously Niichan, what's going on here?"

"Naruto, I knew your parents," he grabs the boy's shoulders, afraid if he's not holding on to him he'll disappear from his sight. "I knew them, and we weren't allowed to talk to you, hokage's orders, and we watched you, I watched you the most, and you always had a guard, but that night – that one night," he doesn't know when he started crying but he is now. His chest is tight and he can't get enough air in his lungs.

Naruto throws his arms around his neck, "Kakashi-niichan, it's okay! I promise!"

Kakashi holds Naruto tightly, "I – I'm so sorry, Naruto. I searched for you for so long, I didn't want you to be gone, but we couldn't find you. There was so much blood, we didn't think you could be alive."

"You looked for me?" Naruto asks quietly, "Me, Naruto? Not Natsu?"

"I looked for you," he whispers fiercely, "I was devastated. I'm so sorry, Naruto. I failed you. I wanted to be there for you. I could never replace your parents, but I wanted – I wanted to be something to you, I never should have listened to the hokage. I wanted to be there for you. I'm sorry, Naruto, I'm so sorry," he nearly sobbing again, chest hitching, because the boy he'd thought was gone is in his arms, and Natsu's body isn't rotting somewhere.

Naruto leans back enough to look Kakashi in the eye, "But you were."

"I – what?" Naruto has Minato's eyes, and god, he should have known, because Natsu had acted just like Kushina. He's such an idiot.

Naruto places a hand on Kakashi's chest, right above his heart. "You were there for me. You helped me pass my genin exam, and trained with me, and you bought me my first tunic, and you've cared about me and cared for me since I was a kid. You're my Niichan! So – you didn't know, but I'm Natsu and Naruto. So you did just what you intended. You don't have to be sorry."

Kakashi blinks, and the idea that he's actually managed to fulfill one of his promises is – astounding. "That first day," he croaks, "your genin exam – I was going to hand you over to Inoichi and be done with it. But, but you reminded me of Naruto, of, well, yourself, and I couldn't do it."

Naruto beams and hugs him again, "That's – that's amazing! I'm so happy Kakashi-niichan!"

He hugs Naruto back, and they stay like that for a long time.

The moment, however, is eventually broken when Naruto says, "Oh, by the way, I made a deal with Zabuza and Haku. I'm going to help them take over Kiri!"

Kakashi pulls back. "What?"